- Tesla is getting ready to roll out its Full Self-Driving system to China, a report says.
- The automaker is claimed to have partnered with Chinese internet search company Baidu to obtain a mapping license.
- FSD is legal in America but still unavailable in Europe.
Tesla’s driver assistance tech is under scrutiny from U.S. regulators, but their counterparts in China are rolling out the red carpet for the firm’s top-spec Full Self Driving option. That’s according to a new report that claims Tesla has just struck a deal with a China’s biggest internet search company allowing the automaker to access the mapping data necessary to make FSD available.
Tech firm Baidu will provide a lane-level navigation system to Tesla, says the story by Reuters, which explains that all advanced navigation-based assistance systems need to acquire a mapping license in order to operate on public roads.
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Any foreign automaker looking to launch a FSD-style system has to team up with a Chinese company to get the necessary license, and since Baidu – one of around 12 currently in possession of the necessary paperwork – has already supplied its mapping info to Tesla for its Chinese-market cars since 2020, it was the logical choice.
Tesla doesn’t have an exclusive on Baidu’s mapping data. Earlier this month the firm confirmed it was working with multiple companies, including Tesla, Reuters says. The report also says that Teslas operating in FSD mode would legally be able to gather data about the driving environment, such as the road layout and traffic signs, but that it is not yet clear whether that data will belong to Tesla or Baidu.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently visited China to meet with the country’s Premier Li Quang and has been asking the government for permission to transfer data collected by his cars in China to Tesla facilities outside of the country.
FSD is not offered in Europe, but is available in the U.S. where Tesla’s autonomous systems have been implicated in multiple accidents, some of them fatal. Last week the NHTSA announced it was opening a probe into Tesla’s December Autopilot recall to check whether the extra safeguards the automaker supposedly added via over-air update went far enough.