Tesla FSD (Full Self Driving) is expected to speed up its entry into China.
On April 28th, according to CCTV news, at the invitation of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing in the afternoon. Ren Hongbin, President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, met with Musk. It is reported that after nearly a year, Musk is visiting China again. One of his purposes on this trip is to promote the implementation of the FSD system in China and seek approval to transfer Tesla's collected car driving data in China to foreign countries for autonomous driving algorithm training.
On the day Musk arrived in China, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers announced that the cars of six companies, including Tesla, met four compliance requirements for data security. At the same time, it is rumored that Baidu, a Chinese Internet giant, may reach an agreement with Tesla to allow the latter to use its surveying and mapping license to collect Chinese highway data, and the above agreement clears the last regulatory barrier for the implementation of FSD system in China.
Affected by the aforementioned positive news, Tesla's US stock market opened at $188.42 on April 29th, up about $20 from the previous trading day and closing up 15.31%, marking the largest daily increase since March 2020, with a market value increase of $82.2 billion (approximately RMB 595.4 billion). According to the Guotai Junan Research Report, Tesla's authoritative standards and requirements for national vehicle data security will help comprehensively lift domestic restrictions on Tesla's intelligent vehicles.
Therefore, the Securities Daily reporter immediately sought confirmation from Tesla and Baidu Group, and the responses received were "there is no relevant content to reply to."
Regarding Tesla's compliance with safety requirements, the reporter consulted the "Notice on the Detection of Four Safety Requirements for Automotive Data Processing (First Batch)" released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. It was found that 76 models of six companies, including BYD, Ideal, Lotus, Hezhong New Energy, Tesla, and NIO, meet the four compliance requirements for automotive data security: anonymous processing of facial information outside the car, default not collecting cabin data, cabin data in car processing, and significant notification of personal information processing.
According to public information, Tesla's autonomous driving products are divided into three categories, including AP (Autopilot) standard version, EAP (Enhanced Autopilot) enhanced autonomous driving assistance, and top of the line FSD. Among them, AP is the most basic version, while EAP enhances assisted driving by adding functions such as intelligent machine summoning, automatic parking, and NOA. The main functions of the highest level FSD include navigation assisted driving (NOA), automatic lane changing, automatic parking, intelligent summoning, traffic signal recognition, and (navigation route based) automatic turning of urban roads.
In March of this year, Tesla introduced "end-to-end neural network" technology in the FSDV 12.3.1 version to North American car owners. Through deep learning of over a million driving data, Tesla uses artificial intelligence technology to influence vehicle control, such as operating steering wheel pedals, turn signals, etc., instead of hard coding every driving behavior.
It is worth mentioning that on April 20th, Musk replied to questions from netizens on social media that Tesla FSD "may soon enter China.". According to the Tesla User App, the purchase page description of Tesla China's official FSD service has been changed from "to be launched soon".
Researcher Gao Chao from the China Autonomous Driving Industry Innovation Alliance told reporters that Tesla has passed the authoritative standards and requirements for national vehicle data security, which is conducive to the comprehensive lifting of restrictions on Tesla and other intelligent vehicles (such as government agencies, airports, highways, etc.). More intelligent vehicle owners can purchase and use brands that meet relevant safety requirements with more confidence.
When it comes to the impact on the autonomous driving industry, Gao Chao believes that if FSD enters China and opens up for use by other car companies, it will greatly affect the overall pattern of the domestic autonomous driving industry, and will trigger a new round of "catfish effect" in the autonomous driving industry, following the new energy vehicle field. In addition, due to Tesla's use of pure visual solutions with greater potential in terms of cost and technology, it will inevitably accelerate the clearance of small and medium-sized autonomous driving technology companies and have a huge impact on the LiDAR industry.