Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Tesla is bracing for a potential delay in obtaining Chinese approval for its autonomous driving technology, as Elon Musk\u2019s electric-vehicle company risks getting dragged into the escalating US-China trade war.The company has been told there is no definitive timetable for regulators to approve a licence for it to begin widespread training of its \u201cfull self-driving\u201d (FSD) technology, despite an earlier indication that it would get the green light in the second quarter of 2025, people with knowledge of the matter told the Financial Times. The licence would be an important step towards Tesla being able to offer semi-autonomous functionality in its vehicles in China, a development that would boost subscription revenues and help shore up its shrinking sales in the world\u2019s largest automotive market. The system can accelerate, steer, brake and change lanes but still requires drivers to be alert with their hands on the wheel. Tesla had announced in September that it planned to roll out FSD technology in China and Europe in the first quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory approval. That ambition had already slipped and is now in greater doubt as US President Donald Trump engages in a trade war with China. Beijing imposed retaliatory tariffs on a range of American goods this month after the US put an additional 10 per cent levy on all Chinese products.Chinese authorities are contemplating using the approval of Tesla\u2019s autonomous-driving licence as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations with Trump, said two of the people with knowledge of the delay, adding that this was the main reason for the hold-up in granting the permit.The approval could still come soon, depending on how trade negotiations developed, one of the people added. But another said that some people at the company believed a speedy consent was unlikely unless there was \u201ca major breakthrough or concession\u201d in trade talks. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which regulates smart vehicles in China, Tesla US, Tesla China and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. The situation illustrates how Musk\u2019s close relationship with Trump, to whom he is a key adviser and donor, could backfire on the world\u2019s richest man and parts of his business empire, including in Tesla\u2019s most important market outside the US. Musk has personally led the EV maker\u2019s lobbying efforts in Beijing, flying in for a surprise meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang last April. In June, Shanghai allowed FSD testing by 10 Tesla vehicles as a precursor to a wider rollout across China, while Tesla also struck a deal last year to use systems from tech group Baidu, which offers navigation and mapping.However, Musk said last month that Tesla was \u201cin a bit of a bind\u201d as it tried to deploy FSD in China, stuck between Beijing and Washington\u2019s strict data security rules.FSD is based on a machine learning system that is fed billions of hours of video to train an algorithm to make driving decisions in real time.\u201cThey won\u2019t currently allow us to transfer training video outside of China. And then the US government won\u2019t let us do training in China,\u201d said Musk on Tesla\u2019s latest earnings call. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a quandary.\u201d These challenges would remain even if the FSD licence were granted by Chinese authorities. Musk\u2019s 2018 gamble to build Tesla\u2019s biggest gigafactory in Shanghai was widely seen as a catalyst for the rapid expansion of China\u2019s EV industry. But local players have since surpassed Tesla with lower prices and a faster rollout of models with more luxurious features. Tesla is counting on FSD, which costs customers $99 a month in the US, to differentiate its cars and revive earnings.Tesla had a 4.5 per cent share of new EV sales in China in January, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association, while Warren Buffett-backed BYD held 27 per cent and may strengthen its lead with the \u201cGod\u2019s Eye\u201d advanced driver-assistance system it unveiled this month. Unlike Google\u2019s Waymo, Tesla\u2019s FSD is still not approved in the US for \u201cfully autonomous\u201d operation. Musk has promised that Tesla will have unsupervised, self-driving cars on Texas roads by June. However, he has a record of missing his own deadlines and Tesla faces US regulatory investigations into accidents involving FSD and the company\u2019s public claims about its capabilities.Musk admitted in July 2024 that his \u201cpredictions about achieving full self-driving have been optimistic in the past\u201d before going on to predict that Tesla\u2019s FSD would be \u201cbetter than human by the end of this year\u201d. Additional reporting by Gloria Li in Hong Kong, Wenjie Ding and Ryan McMorrow in Beijing, Kana Inagaki in Tokyo and Joe Miller in Washington<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Tesla is bracing for a potential delay in obtaining Chinese approval for its autonomous driving technology, as Elon Musk\u2019s electric-vehicle company risks getting dragged into the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-209888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}