Tesla has halted trial of its full self-driving (FSD) in China to comply with new regulatory requirements, reported Reuters.
The company, which is now awaiting regulatory approval for the trial, confirmed the decision in a comment under a post on Tesla vice-president Grace Tao’s Weibo account, following complaints from users.
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Tesla’s customer support was cited by the news agency as saying on Weibo: “All parties are actively advancing the relevant process and we will push it to you as soon as it is ready. We are also looking forward to it, please wait patiently.”
The decision follows the introduction of new rules by China’s Industry Ministry last month that require autonomous driving-related software upgrades to undergo regulatory scrutiny before being deployed.
The company is now working towards meeting these requirements to resume the FSD trial and proceed with a full rollout later this year.
Initially, the free trial of Tesla’s FSD service was scheduled to run from 17 March 2025 to 16 April 2025 for Chinese vehicles equipped with compatible assisted-driving hardware, software, and the latest navigation maps.
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By GlobalDataFSD is a suite of driving-assistance technologies and features generative artificial intelligence to navigate complex traffic conditions.
While Tesla has rolled out similar trials in the US without requiring precise or up-to-date navigation maps, China’s data laws have prevented the company from training its system using data from its two million electric vehicles in the country.
Tesla has been collaborating with Chinese technology firm Baidu to enhance the system’s capabilities.
Baidu’s engineers and Tesla’s Beijing team have partnered to integrate Baidu’s mapping data with Tesla’s FSD Version 13 software.
