Tesla has reportedly been given approval to test its advanced driver assistance systems on select streets in Shanghai as the company moves closer to enabling its Full Self-Driving suite in a highly-competitive auto market.
Tesla has gained the approval on some streets in Shanghai, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. The automaker has tried on several occasions to expand its self-driving efforts throughout the world outside of the United States, and China is the first to take a jump.
According to the report, Tesla also has the potential to gain approval in Hangzhou, which is located in the Zhejiang province. The local officials in Hangzhou are considering approval for Tesla to test there as well, but it has not been given.
Early testing will be handled by Tesla, and staff will operate the vehicles on public roads.
The report follows news that broke late last week regarding Tesla’s plans to test its Full Self-Driving system in China. Tesla plans to test 10 vehicles in Shanghai initially, and now it seems more vehicles and more cities could come into play with the early phases of testing.
Tesla is still working through the early phases of getting vehicles out on the road in China.
In May, it gained tentative approval to operate FSD in China after clearing early regulatory hurdles that included mapping and navigation functions.
Tesla has reportedly collaborated with China’s Baidu to resolve those two shortcomings, which also eliminated any data-security risks that government officials have expressed against the automaker in the past.
The approval and subsequent use of FSD in China is a huge win for Tesla for a variety of reasons. From Tesla’s perspective, the automaker will gain millions of miles of data from the initial testing of the driver assistance package in China, making its operation more accurate and robust, adding more miles to the automaker’s neural network.
Additionally, Tesla FSD in China will only incentivize consumers to choose the company’s vehicles over others. China has the most robust EV competition in the world, as there are many car companies and many models that undercut Tesla on price by a substantial margin.
Tesla could begin testing of FSD in China within the coming days with this new approval.
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