On April 28, Tesla CEO Elon Musk came to China, and Tesla's official Weibo spoke twice, mentioning the acceleration of autonomous driving technology.
In this regard, the first sentence that popped into the minds of the majority of netizens and media colleagues was: Catfish is coming. From the perspective of ordinary people, as a "pioneer" in the field of autonomous driving, Tesla's FSD is likely to attack Chinese car companies and autonomous driving companies, and whether it can stimulate the vitality of the domestic autonomous driving field will be put aside.
But in fact, Chinese car companies and autonomous driving companies may not feel "afraid", and even happy to see Tesla's FSD land in China. The person in charge of a well-known domestic autonomous driving company told the editor of "Caiquan Society & Daoge Talking Car" that Tesla's FSD landing in China is not exactly the same as the original electric vehicle landing in China, and in terms of autonomous driving, the advantage of FSD compared with China's autonomous driving is much smaller than that of electric vehicles back then.
It is worth mentioning that, judging from the sales data in the first quarter of this year, Tesla's sales in China have declined, and the landing of FSD in China is not so much to bring a catfish effect to China's autonomous driving, but to enhance Tesla's competitiveness in China. Zhang Xiang, a visiting professor at the Yellow River Institute of Science and Technology, told the editor of "Caiquan Society & Dao Ge Says Che" that Tesla's advantage in the Chinese market is currently being weakened, and its products have been challenged by models such as Xiaomi SU7.
Welcome! Domestic autonomous driving is not afraid of Tesla's FSD?
Prior to Musk's visit to China, he had said on April 20 that Tesla could soon offer FSD, a fully self-driving software feature to Chinese customers. Responding to a user's question on the social media platform when Tesla will launch FSD in China, Musk said: "It could happen soon." ”
With the completion of Musk's "China tour", the news that Tesla's FSD is about to land in China has become a hot spot in the automotive industry recently. "How do Chinese car companies and autonomous driving companies view Tesla's FSD landing in China" has become a concern for many people in the industry, and many people may even think that Tesla's FSD will have a huge impact on Chinese car companies and autonomous driving companies, and Chinese car companies and autonomous driving companies should be afraid.
But this may not be the case. On the afternoon of April 29, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, expressed his views on the entry of FSD into China: "Today, many friends asked me about my views on FSD's entry into China, and I especially welcome Tesla FSD to enter China. He Xiaopeng said that Tesla has very good autonomous driving technology and brand. Only when more good products and technologies enter can the entire market and customers have more good experiences, so that the market can develop more benignly and accelerate.
The person in charge of a well-known domestic autonomous driving company also has the same opinion: if Tesla FSD can land in China, it must be a good thing for China's intelligent driving industry, as an autonomous driving company, it is also very welcome to the landing of Tesla FSD, which can make the policy including user acceptance of automatic driving higher, and promote the industry and enterprises.
Of course, the welcome of domestic car companies and autonomous driving companies to Tesla's FSD is not entirely because the current autonomous driving market still needs to be cultivated. The person in charge of a well-known domestic autonomous driving company said that when Tesla's electric vehicles landed in China, the foundation for the development of China's electric vehicles was still relatively weak, and its arrival had a good catfish effect on the development of China's electric vehicles, but in terms of autonomous driving, the current advantages of Tesla's FSD were relatively small.
It is worth noting that China's autonomous driving companies have shown their advantages in business and have been recognized by international manufacturers. Taking Pony.ai as an example, at the Beijing Auto Show on April 25, the first Bozhi 4X self-driving taxi (Robotaxi) concept car jointly developed by Pony.ai and Toyota was unveiled. GAC Toyota also announced that the tripartite joint venture will soon complete the registration, and plans to launch 1,000 units of Bozhi 4X autonomous vehicles to the Chinese market in the first phase, and seamlessly connect to Pony.ai's Robotaxi operation platform after the production line to carry out large-scale fully driverless travel services in first-tier cities in China.
As for the car companies, including Xiaopeng Motors, Weilai Automobile, Xiaomi Automobile, AVATAR, etc., companies have been rolled out in a large area in terms of "urban NOA". In Zhang Xiang's view, this is also the weakness of Tesla's FSD, Tesla's FSD advantage is that as a "pioneer" algorithm may have unique features, such as high accuracy, but Tesla's FSD data collection training has been in North America, and it still needs more time to optimize and adjust after entering the Chinese market.
Tesla's trump card Chinese car companies may still be under pressure
As far as autonomous driving is concerned, Chinese car companies and autonomous driving companies will welcome the arrival of Tesla's FSD, after all, it can improve users' awareness of autonomous driving and facilitate the popularization of high-end intelligent driving. But as a trump card of Tesla, the role of Tesla's FSD may be more reflected in the market performance of Tesla itself.
As we all know, Tesla FSD has a good reputation in North America as an "autonomous driving suite", but due to data security and other reasons, Tesla FSD has never landed in the Chinese market. This also led to Tesla's trump card never playing in the Chinese market. Zhang Xiang believes that Tesla's FSD has not been opened in China, resulting in the use of Tesla users has been restricted, compared with other brands do not have an advantage, once landed in China, it may be of great help to Tesla's sales.
It is worth mentioning that at present, domestic car companies, including Xiaopeng, Weilai, AVATR and even more traditional car companies, are promoting the implementation of high-end intelligent driving in related products, and the number of open cities in the "urban NOA" has become one of the focuses of competition among car companies. Taking Xpeng Motors as an example, according to official data on November 28, 2023, Xpeng Motors has become the first brand in the industry to fully open the mapless urban navigation assisted driving function and cover more than 20 cities, and the number of urban navigation assisted driving functions has reached the first in the industry, allowing XNGP to officially enter the era of "no map".
As of February 2024, the monthly active user penetration rate of XNGP urban smart driving has reached 83%, ranking first in the industry in terms of active user scale, user experience and mileage penetration rate of urban smart driving. During the Beijing Auto Show, Xpeng Motors announced that the XNGP intelligent assisted driving system ushered in the latest mass production landing plan, the urban navigation assisted driving function in the area without high-precision maps will be opened in 20 cities in the first phase, and the AI driving function will be tested in a small area, and the coverage of urban high-end intelligent driving in all regions of the country will be completed in 2024. Obviously, high-end intelligent driving has become the signature of some car companies.
And Tesla just doesn't have an advantage in this regard. At the same time, in the context of Musk's visit to China, Tesla is facing the dilemma of declining sales, data show that in January ~ March this year, Tesla's retail sales in China totaled about 132,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 3.6%. Among them, retail sales in March were about 62,400 units, a year-on-year decrease of 18.61%. In Zhang Xiang's view, the decline in Tesla's sales may be due to the impact of Xiaomi SU7 and other related competitors.
Not long ago, Tesla has carried out a round of price reductions for its Model 3/Y, and in the eyes of the industry, "price reduction" is essentially a means of "promotion". Zhang Xiang analyzed that Tesla currently only has two main sales models in China, Model 3/Y, which is difficult to cope with the offensive of its own brand new energy models, and the supercharging station has no advantage under the attack of its own brand 800V.