Tesla, which has shifted its focus from electric cars to autonomy and robots, claims its hands-free Full Self-Driving (Supervised) driving assistance feature is now available in China. The feature, known as FSD, has been available in the United States for several years and has now finally reached China, where regulatory red tape has delayed its introduction.
The company announced in a social media post that the driver assistance feature, which still requires the driver to be fully attentive, is available in the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, China, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, the Netherlands, and Lithuania. Recently, the Netherlands became the first European country to approve Tesla's hands-free system, followed by Lithuania.
View Price on AmazonThe addition of China to the list has raised a few eyebrows, including among Tesla drivers in China, with some commenters saying that the feature is not yet available in their cars. It's also worth noting that some features included in FSD have been previously available in China under various names, including "Intelligent Assisted Driving." Tesla has not released any details on the final rollout in China and still asks for a one-time buyout of around $9,400 for its FSD package in the region.
In other markets, including the US, the company has switched to a subscription-only model. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not respond to requests for comment. Tesla's vision-only approach to autonomous driving clashes with the majority of Chinese carmakers, which typically use at least one Lidar sensor for redundancy.
Source: insideevs.com
