During Tesla‘s Annual Shareholder Meeting on Thursday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk revealed that the final approval of the Full Self Driving (Supervised) in China is a few months away.
Speaking about the upcoming launch of the software in other parts of the globe, after having successfully expanded to six countries, Musk said regulators are leaning to “fully” approve 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.”
China FSD Launch
The company has been working toward a “broader release” of the software in China, the world’s largest market for new energy vehicles.
The system was introduced in the country in March.
A month later, and 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. The software is priced at 64,000 yuan, equivalent to about $8,900.
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.
In late 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
Tesla has also been struggling with FSD approval in Europe, where it keeps reaffirming that the software is “awaiting regulatory approval.”
On Thursday, Musk once again urged owners to pressure safety regulators in the Old Continent.
“You can’t even get a super, even just normal supervised FSD is not allowed in Europe currently, which doesn’t make any sense,” the CEO stated.
He added that he has “had these crazy conversations with the regulators that seem like a Franz Kafka novel, where I’m like, well, look, we have billions of kilometers of data that shows that FSD increases safety.”
However, “they’re like, well, we have to have all these committee meetings.”
According to Tesla, US owners using FSD experience just one crash per 4.92 million miles — contrasting with one crash per 700,000 miles for the average in the country.
As of Thursday, over 10,000 European customers have signed a petition on change.org for the approval of the software in the continent. The petition was opened six days ago.
To Musk, “definitely, pressure from our customers in Europe to push the regulators to approve would be appreciated.”
Version 14
While Tesla battles with approval of the software in Europe, owners in the United States are experiencing Version 14 — which, according to Musk, is the “second biggest update ever,” only after V12.
The company has released five software updates of the V14.1 series in just four weeks.
“With version 14, we’re actually getting to the point where we almost feel comfortable allowing people to text and drive, which is kind of the killer app,” Musk said on Thursday.
While “right now, the car’s a little strict about keeping your eyes on the road,” the CEO is “confident that in the next month or two” people will be allowed to “text and drive, essentially,” after the company looks “closely at the safety statistics.”
Tesla is pushing forward into full autonomy, with Musk saying that they’re just “a few months away from solving FSD Unsupervised.”
FSD Awareness
At the same time, he admitted that “probably the single biggest thing” right now is to “get people aware of FSD.”
Tesla revealed on September that about 50 to 60% of Model S and Model X users are purchasing FSD with their vehicles, instead of subscribing or not opting for it at all.
It is worth noting that, since mid-August, customers purchasing the flagship models already have FSD included in the purchase, since the company introduced the ‘Luxe Package.’
Meanwhile, the take rate for Model Y and Model 3 owners — which represent most of the fleet — is at 12 to 18%.
In the latest earnings call, VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy stated that, as of September 21, Tesla owners had used “FSD Supervised for a total of 6 billion miles.”
