特斯拉 FSD 终于进入中国——但中国的对手，已经跑在前面

Today we'll talk about

a news story that's been very hot recently.

On May 21,

Tesla officially announced

that its "FSD Supervised Edition"

has gone live in China.

This is a piece of news

people have waited many years for.

For Chinese Tesla owners,

and for the entire Chinese car industry,

it is a big deal.

Let's first talk about

what FSD is.

FSD,

in English is "Full Self-Driving";

in Chinese it means

"完全自动驾驶."

"Self-driving"

means the car drives itself;

people don't need to drive.

It sounds amazing.

But

there is one key point.

Today's FSD

is not real autonomous driving.

Its full name

has four important characters:

"FSD Supervised Edition."

"Supervised"

means:

when the car is driving itself,

a person must sit in the driver's seat,

eyes on the road,

hands ready at any moment to take the wheel.

When the car makes a mistake,

you must immediately take over.

So

the truly accurate Chinese term

should be "assisted driving" —

helping you drive,

not replacing you.

Why is this story a big deal?

There are three reasons.

The first reason

is that it came too late.

Tesla, as early as 2024,

had already launched FSD

in many countries.

But in China,

it was stuck for several years.

One reason

is that China has very strict rules

about data.

If you want to sell autonomous driving in China,

you have to keep the data

inside China.

Tesla, in order to enter China,

specifically built a data center in Shanghai.

On top of that,

China's maps

also have to use local Chinese companies.

Tesla partnered with Baidu,

using Baidu's maps.

With all these conditions met,

in May of this year,

it finally went live.

The second reason

relates to politics.

In early May,

US President Trump visited Beijing.

Elon Musk went along with him.

A few days after the visit,

FSD went live in China.

Many people feel:

these two events

are not a coincidence.

They are China and the US,

doing some political and business exchanges.

The third reason,

and the most interesting:

when Tesla comes to China,

it isn't this market's leader.

China itself

already has many companies

doing similar features.

For example,

Xpeng Auto's "XNGP,"

Huawei's "ADS,"

Xiaomi's smart driving.

These features —

some are given away free,

some cost only a few thousand yuan.

But Tesla's FSD

costs 64,000 yuan.

That's 64,000 yuan,

not 6,400.

For many people,

that's about half the price

of a cheap car.

Another interesting point.

This past February,

Tesla, worldwide,

cancelled the "one-time payment" option.

People in other countries

can now only pay monthly.

But in China,

Tesla specifically kept

the "one-time purchase" option.

Why?

Experts feel:

the China market

is very important to Tesla.

And Chinese consumers

prefer "one-time purchase";

they don't like monthly payments.

So Tesla,

specifically for China,

made an exception.

This event

has many people debating:

when Tesla comes to China,

is this a victory,

or "making up a missed class"?

Those who call it a victory feel:

getting the China license

is a major achievement.

China regulates autonomous driving

very strictly.

Getting it

means Tesla did many things right.

Those who call it "making up a missed class" feel:

Tesla was supposed to be

the symbol of autonomous driving.

But because of various delays,

China's rivals

have run out in front.

Tesla coming in now

is catching up,

not leading.

I read this news,

and I thought of one thing.

"Self-driving"

is a

very seductive phrase.

But right now

it isn't really "self-driving."

Even when Tesla comes to China,

even when China's rivals are formidable,

the person who, in the end, sits in the car

is still responsible for their own safety.

The car's name can be called "auto,"

but your attention

cannot be put down.

Finally I'll ask you:

If you had 64,000 yuan,

would you spend it

on this feature that "helps you drive"?

Or

would you prefer

to drive yourself, slowly?

Think about it.

Okay.

That's all for today.

Talk tomorrow.