Tesla was forced to discontinue its free trial of the Full Self-Driving feature in China following a policy shift that increased oversight on software updates for advanced driver assistance systems.
Last month, Tesla introduced the initial version of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) package in China, exclusively for owners of vehicles equipped with the latest ‘Hardware 4.0’ (HW4). The company offered a free trial of the system via an over-the-air software update this month to encourage purchases. However, Tesla discontinued the program earlier this week.
Grace Tao, Tesla’s Vice President for the Chinese market, shared on Weibo that Tesla’s intelligent assisted driving feature has attracted widespread interest. The team is working to comply with new regulatory requirements by finalizing the approval process for the 3.0 and 4.0 hardware appropriate for the software.
Grace Tao then mentioned the newly issued notice on enhancing oversight of access, recalls, and software updates for intelligent vehicles. The regulation seeks to tighten oversight of software updates in connected vehicles, with a particular focus on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), such as Tesla’s FSD.
The updated regulations mandate automakers to provide comprehensive technical details before releasing software updates over the air. From the Tesla executive’s statement, the company is currently working to meet the particular requirements. Additionally, the rules reinforce recall procedures for software updates and ADAS features while obligating automakers to report any crashes involving these systems.
Tesla is in the process of obtaining approval for both its HW3 and HW4 systems. In China, the company had exclusively rolled out the new ADAS features from its Full Self-Driving package on HW4 vehicles, which are equipped with upgraded computing power and superior cameras, added Grace Tao.
In North America, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system is accessible on HW3 vehicles with rudimentary software. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently acknowledged that HW3 vehicles cannot deliver the promised unsupervised self-driving capabilities and will require upgrades to more powerful computers.
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