Tesla has scored a major victory, and in China of all places! The US carmaker outformed popular Chinese rivals like BYD, Xiaomi, and Huawei in a recent test of advanced assisted driving technologies.
The cars tested all had Level 2 autonomous driving systems, meaning the vehicle can steer, brake, and accelerate on its own, but the driver must be fully alert and ready to retake control at all times besides.
Tesla, BYD and Huawei, 20 other EV maker systems were evaluated. The test was conducted because of growing safety concerns in China after 3 people were killed in a collision in March. The vehicle, a Xiaomi SU-7, was in intelligent driving assistant mode at the time.
Tesla boss Elon Musk was quick to boast about the test results. He wrote on the platform X, due to laws against the data export, Tesla achieved the top results in China despite Having no local training data this time, Tesla's approach of relying solely on cameras and AI for self-driving was enough to outperform Chinese competitors, many of whom also use liar, light detection and ranging sensors.
Chinese carmakers have been taking note even weeks before this test took place. An industry representative said that they will continue to learn from the US automaker when it comes. To autonomous driving in 2024, Tesla sold over 657,000 vehicles in China, 36.7% of the company's global deliveries that year.
Still, Tesla is losing ground in China to domestic rivals like BYD, which dominates market share and offers significantly cheaper models. So despite Tesla winning the Level 2 driving assistance test, it faces major challenges in the Chinese EV market.
*This story was originally published on https://www.dw.com/ and is republished here with permission.*
