Xpeng, a prominent Chinese rival to Tesla in the autonomous driving sector, has expressed its anticipation for the potential entry of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology into China. He Xiaopeng, Xpeng’s chairman and CEO, welcomed the prospect, stating that the last decade saw the rise of new energy vehicles, while the new decade will be defined by smart cars.
“Today quite a few friends asked me what I think about FSD entering China, and I am especially welcoming Tesla FSD entering China,” He Xiaopeng said on Weibo.
He emphasized that the recent surge in large model adoption has accelerated the development of higher-level autonomous driving and self-driving technology and experience. He believes that large models will expedite the deployment of driverless technology by at least three years and that fully autonomous driving represents one of the best business scenarios for these vehicles.
“Tesla has great autonomous driving technology and brand,” Mr. He said, noting that the entry of more high-quality products and technologies into the market will improve the overall customer experience and accelerate the market’s development.
He also highlighted China’s current focus on promoting openness and new quality productive forces, stating that Tesla’s FSD, Xpeng’s NGP (Navigation Guided Pilot), and other companies’ technologies, like NOA (Navigation on Autopilot), represent these new quality productive forces and should be supported.
According to Bloomberg, Tesla is set to overcome a key hurdle to rolling out advanced assisted-driving features in China by partnering with Baidu on mapping and navigation features. This partnership would allow Tesla to deploy its autonomous driving services based on lane-level navigation and mapping provided by Baidu.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently made an unannounced visit to China to seek approval for driver-assistance software to help boost the company’s revenue. The visit and subsequent statements from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) have sparked speculation about the imminent arrival of Tesla’s FSD in China.
Tesla responded to the speculation by stating that there is currently no timeline for FSD to enter China. However, the FSD purchase page on Tesla’s mobile app in China has been updated from “coming later” to “coming soon,” indicating progress towards its introduction in the market.
