Tesla has finally updated its self-driving software in China, but it’s not exactly what long-waiting FSD customers were hoping for. According to Reuters, the new system, called Urban Road Autopilot Assistance, rolled out after weeks of rumors that the Full-Self Driving (FSD) supervised system would finally launch in China.
So, why not just call it FSD? Tesla’s new system is subtly different and notably less capable than its North American counterpart.
We’ll dive into the details, starting with some driver footage of the new system.
Here’s Video of the New “FSD-but-not-FSD” System
The Twitter subtitle on this video is wrong, but it’s an understandable mistake. The system is not “FSD CHINA,” the driver refers to it as “copilot,” and since Autopilot doesn’t normally work in Chinese urban roads before this update, we can be confident it’s this new Urban Road Autopilot Assistance.
Update: We’re also starting to see cases where the Urban Road Autopilot Assistance is blowing red lights and driving like a scofflaw, so YMMV!
Some more FSD CHINA footage pic.twitter.com/E7YSEFbz6v
— JacksonS (@shrmodelx) February 25, 2025
A few things to note from this Urban Road Autopilot Assistance early footage:
- The driver gets stuck behind a forklift moving much slower than the flow of traffic. He manually signals the system to pass on the left after following the forklift for a while. In North America, Tesla’s FSD handles lane changes autonomously. The whole point is that the car drives itself.
- The center console visualization has a hard time telling the difference between a safely crossable median line and a median with actual safety barricades. That’s… suboptimal.
- Traffic flickers between being seen as cars, bicycles, and scooters. Since these move at wildly different speeds and behave in different ways, that makes me wonder how well the system can understand the flow of traffic on the fly.
Why Not Just Call It FSD? It’s All About the Data
The reason for the name unique-to-China name comes down to training data, or rather, Tesla’s inability to process training data from Chinese roads.
The issue was spelled out in last month’s Tesla earnings call:
“Then China, which is a gigantic market, we do have some challenges because they weren’t — they currently don’t allow us to transfer training video outside of China. And then the US government won’t let us do training in China. So, we’re in a bit of a bind there. It’s like a quandary.”
In other words, Tesla can’t legally export Chinese driving footage for its AI training in data centers abroad. It also can’t train the AI inside China due to US government restrictions. So, Tesla cooked up a workaround by feeding its algorithm publicly available street footage from the internet.
The earnings call continues, and flags an unusually basic roadblock for FSD on China’s roadways… bus lanes:
“So, we’re resolving that by literally looking at videos of streets in China that are available on the internet to understand and then feeding that into our video training so that publicly available video of street signs and traffic rules in China can be used for training and then also putting it in a very accurate simulator. And so, it will train using sim for bus lanes in China. Like bus lanes in China are one of our biggest challenges in making FSD work in China. Their bus lanes are very complicated. And there’s like literally like hours of the day that you’re allowed to be there and not be there.”
I’m laughing over here. Sometimes, the comedy writes itself. What Elon Musk describes as a unique-to-China problem is exactly how Bus Only Lanes work in Chicago.
Some Chicago bus lanes are bus-only all the time, others, only some of the time. It’s complicated, but no more complicated than your average 16 year old with a learner’s permit can figure out. Uh, now I need to go watch some videos of FSD in the Windy City. I’m wondering how they handle this well-known road feature in the American market where FSD has been available (in beta testing) for years.
Chinese FSD Buyers are Tired of Waiting as Competitors Hit the Market
So, FSD has been available for sale in China since 2019. Reuters interviews one 2019 buyer who paid 56,000 yuan (or around $7,720 USD), and has grown frustrated by the lack of progress. Of course, BYD made it’s “God’s Eye” autonomous driving package available on most of its models for free. That’s not to mention other competitors entering the frothy Chinese autonomous driving market, like the megacorporations Xiaomi and Huawei.
Judging by how the market reacted this morning (badly), it’s safe to say that the release of “don’t-call-it-FSD” in China hasn’t reduced concern about Tesla’s long-term competitive advantage in East Asia.
Stay tuned for more updates on Tesla’s self-driving rollercoaster, both in China and around the world.
