- Tesla introduced self-driving features to some of its vehicles in China on Tuesday.
- Elon Musk said the software was trained on internet videos of China’s roads and signs.
- Tesla has been facing increased competition from rivals like Chinese automaker BYD.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, said on Tuesday that the self-driving software it rolled out in China was trained on internet videos.
“We just used publicly available video on the Internet of roads and signs in China and used that to train in sim,” Musk wrote on X after he was asked how Tesla could roll out its self-driving tech in China without any local testing.
Tesla rolled out self-driving features to some of its cars in China on Tuesday, per a software update log viewed by Business Insider.
The new software does not incorporate all of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving features. It’s centered mainly on driver-assist features like guiding vehicles on making turns and lane changes.
Tesla said that the rollout of some features “may vary based on the vehicle’s model and configuration.” The company said it will gradually introduce self-driving features to more of its vehicles.
Representatives for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
Tesla’s move comes after Chinese automaker BYD said all its customers would get self-driving software for free. Tesla owners in China have to pay about $8,800 to access their vehicle’s self-driving features.
Tesla has been facing increased pressure from competitors like BYD. In January, the US EV giant said it sold 1.79 million vehicles in 2024, a 1% drop from the 1.81 million it sold in 2023 — the first time its annual sales declined in over a decade.
Tesla’s pivot toward autonomous driving is taking place amid Musk’s concerted push to redefine the EV giant as an “AI or robotics company.”
“If you value Tesla as just like an auto company, fundamentally, it’s just the wrong framework, and if you ask the wrong question, then the right answer is impossible,” Musk told investors in April.
In January, Musk said at an earnings call that while he hoped Tesla would have unsupervised full-self-driving vehicles in most countries by the end of next year, that could be “limited simply by regulatory issues.”
