Tesla‘s CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday that the company was targeting approval of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software in China “hopefully next month.”
However, sources have told state-owned outlet China Daily on Friday that the information “is not true.”
The source did not provide any additional information on whether Chinese regulators are currently reviewing the FSD system, nor on a possible timeline for such a review.
In an interview with the BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on Thursday, Musk talked briefly about the company’s targets regarding self-driving and Robotaxi deployment.
Beyond the anticipated nationwide rollout of its FSD-powered autonomous ride-hailing service in the US, Tesla plans to expand the software overseas, targeting regions such as Europe and China, where regulatory hurdles have slowed approval.
“We hope to get Supervised Full Self-Driving approval in Europe, hopefully next month, and then maybe a similar timing for China, hopefully” he said.
The information tracked with a timeline provided by Musk last November, during the company’s Annual Shareholder Meeting.
Speaking about the upcoming launch of the software in other parts of the globe, after having successfully expanded to six countries, Musk said regulators were leaning to “fully” approving it in China in the first quarter of 2026.
“We have partial approval,” he noted, adding that “hopefully, we’ll have full approval in China around February or March or so. That’s what they’ve told us.”
First Launch
The system was first introduced in the country nearly a year ago, with customers unexpectedly receiving it through an over-the-air software update.
In China, the software currently costs 64,000 yuan (about $9,200) and is only available as a one-time purchase, with no subscription option.
Tesla is expected to introduce a monthly plan soon, as it shifts to a subscription-only model starting February 14.
One of the company’s known struggles with FSD in China was the lack of local training data, which according to Musk was solved by using public videos available online to train with simulation.
The CEO wrote on X that, to train the model, Tesla “just used publicly available video on the Internet of roads and signs in China and used that to train in sim[ulation].”
“Due to laws against data export, Tesla achieved the top results in China despite having no local training data. Tesla is adding training data from our world simulator and test tracks to achieve 6/6,” he reiterated months later.
A few weeks after the launch, Tesla announced that owners would be able to access a one-month free trial of the software, available between March 17 and April 16.
However, the trial was then temporarily halted, with the company announcing it was reworking the software in China to comply with updated regulatory requirements.
False Advertising
After concerns regarding false advertising of software capabilities in China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) banned terms like ‘autonomous driving’ or ‘full self-driving.’
By then, Tesla changed FSD’s denomination to ‘Intelligent Assisted Driving’ (“智能辅助驾驶”) in the country.
Over the past few months, Tesla has been offering free FSD transfers to customers who trade in their current vehicles for newer models, coinciding with the rollout of the new Model Y L and the longer-range Model 3 in China.
Last September, The Beijing News reported that seven Tesla owners in China have sued the company over FSD capabilities.
The users claimed that the vehicles they bought with its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software cannot deliver the advertised features because of hardware limitations.
Europe
Chinese authorities become the second to deny public claims of FSD approval by Musk.
Late last year, Tesla stated on X that it would receive approval of the software by February 2026 in the Netherlands.
“RDW has committed to granting Netherlands National approval in February 2026,” the company stated, referring to the Dutch authority.
However, according to RWD, approval is not granted.
The two entities have agreed to meet in February so Tesla can demonstrate if the system’s capabilities meet the requirements, which did not indicate that approval is imminent.
