Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) has outperformed Chinese electric vehicle brands including BYD, Xiaomi, Xpeng, and Huawei in a rigorous test of highway driving scenarios, according to results jointly released by TikTok owner ByteDance’s automotive platform Dcar and China’s state broadcaster CCTV.
In a test that featured 36 vehicles sold in the Chinese market, the organizers shut down a highway to simulate real-world and high-risk conditions. These included abrupt vehicle cut-ins, dark construction zones with stationary trucks, aggressive lane merges, a charging wild boar dummy, and emergency braking situations. While most vehicles passed the emergency braking scenario, many struggled in more complex encounters.
Tesla’s vision-only ADAS system, found in the Model 3 and Model X, passed five out of six scenarios. The Model 3 failed only in the wild boar simulation, while the Model X fell short in the construction zone challenge. In contrast, other top-performing models such as the BYD Denza Z9GT, Huawei-backed Wenjie M9, Xpeng G6, and Zhijie R7 succeeded in just three of the six tests.
“Due to laws against data export, Tesla achieved the top results in China despite having no local training data,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X. “Tesla is adding training data from our world simulator and test tracks to achieve 6/6,” he added.
The tests assessed Level 2 driving assistance technologies, which require driver supervision and typically mandate hands-on steering. Test drivers reportedly maintained full control throughout, as required by regulations, and the evaluation did not extend to adverse weather conditions, where lidar may hold an advantage over Tesla’s camera-based system.
While the results bolster Tesla’s reputation in driver assistance technology, industry experts noted that the test focused strictly on ADAS performance and not full autonomous capabilities. Nonetheless, the viral release of the video footage on Chinese social media has reignited public and regulatory interest in the competitive landscape of intelligent driving technologies in China.