When it comes to validating Tesla’s ambitious FSD capabilities, Elon Musk isn’t messing around, reportedly pitched testing FSD in the ultimate pressure cooker during his recent China visit, (Elon Musk Touches Down in Beijing) – the country’s taxi fleets.
According to insider rumblings from the China Daily, Elon audacious ask went beyond just greenlighting Tesla FSD’s long-awaited China launch. He also advocated for implementing the autonomous driving features in China’s robotaxi services to put the tech through its paces.
The response from Chinese officials? A cautious openness. Sources claim they welcomed some robotaxi tests from Tesla as a potential trailblazer, but stopped short of approving unfettered FSD access right away.
The implied end goal, of course, is for Tesla to roll out its hotly anticipated “robotaxi” service in the world’s largest auto market. With local EV upstarts like BYD and Huawei gaining ground, giving Chinese consumers a taste of Tesla’s vaunted self-driving FSD prowess could be the lifeline it needs to recapture momentum.
But regulatory hurdles remain. Beyond securing the FSD greenlight itself, Tesla still needs Beijing’s blessing to collect and transmit the driving data required to train its AI assistant features according to sources. That thorny issue was seemingly punted during Musk’s visit.
In the meantime, Tesla has taken smaller steps to grease the regulatory wheels, partnered with Chinese tech titan Baidu on advanced navigation mapping – though sources claim the collab is fairly limited in scope so far when it comes to autonomous driving. Every little bit helps as Tesla eyes its biggest regulatory prize yet: full FSD deployment.
Make no mistake, putting unproven self-driving software into the deep end of China’s helter-skelter taxi landscape would be an enormously bold move. If anyone’s brazen enough to propose such an acid test for their “robotaxi” ambitions, it’s definitely Elon Musk.