Tesla has taken a monumental step forward with its autonomous driving technology with the rollout of its full-self-driving (FSD) system in Ā the worldās biggest vehicle market, China, allowing hundreds of thousands of cars to access the system around city streets.
This development was first reported by Tesla and China EV industry expert Chris Zheng, who shared that the system is officially rolled out as āCity Autopilotā in the country and as of launch has similar capabilities to that seen in the US.
Tesla has officially rolled out City Autopilot in China, according to the feature description, it is consistent with FSD in North America. pic.twitter.com/XCyDHll3UT
— Chris Zheng (@ChrisZheng001) February 25, 2025
The news of this was soon followed by multiple videos of owners using the system across the country.
One livestream with over 6,000 viewers showcased how the system is performing around the city streets with navigating various different intersections and lane merges.
People are extremely enthusiastic about Chinaās FSD, with over 6,000 people watching the livestream. pic.twitter.com/hf5J93ona8
— JacksonS (@shrmodelx) February 25, 2025
Another owner showed how the system can enter and navigate through underground carparks avoiding barriers and other pedestrians.
In the video, as the Tesla enters the complex, the car waits for the boom gate to open before driving down multiple levels in low light conditions.
FSD IN CHINA drive into the underground parking garage pic.twitter.com/DuriVrIjhN
— Veo (@Veowow) February 25, 2025
Earlier today, Tesla themselves confirmed the entry in to the Chinese market by posting on X: āä½ å„½ļ¼äøå½ā which translates to āHello, Chinaā.
In this post, Tesla also shared a feedback from some owners who have used the system in China and compared it to existing local systems from other car makers: āmore human like, smooth and confident compared to other similar Chinese systems. Also capable of self correcting if missing turns or planned route where other systems may be hesitant.ā
ä½ å„½ļ¼äøå½ https://t.co/NotOLwaR58
— Tesla (@Tesla) February 25, 2025
The launch of the system in China comes only weeks after the system was launched in Mexico where users were surprised at the timing of its arrival.
The significance of this milestone into China is huge given the size of the market and that many experts said the system would not work outside of the US given the complexity of navigating around other road users and objects.
Tesla also appears to be doing all of this with a vision only system in its cars as it does not have LiDAR systems, which was another reason it was criticised that its vehicles would not be able to operate anything close to FSD in markets outside of the US.
Now that Tesla has entered the Chinese market with City Autopilot, it would be collecting data on how the system performs and improving it iteratively.
Oh just wow, so many amazing FSD China clips. People are more enthusiastic there! $TSLA šØš³šÆ pic.twitter.com/LDH9P5fLt6
— AI Dinoš¦ (@yabass13) February 25, 2025
This will improve the overall ownership experience and in time help reduce incidents across many parts of the world as it continues its global expansion.
RizĀ is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.