Tesla, who is working with Baidu to improve the driving system aided driving system in China, says sources say

Tesla is eager to protect its market share in China as the decline of sales in the United States and Europe and local rivals pushed sales more aggressively (file). Photo Credit: Reuters

Tesla is working with Chinese tech veteran Baidu to improve its advanced driving aid (ADAS) system performance in China, with two people with knowledge of the case, two people said, the customer was criticized after an update recently.

BAIDU sent a group of engineers from Tesla’s Beijing office in recent weeks to work on the information about the navigation map of BAIDU, such as lane marking and traffic light signal, Tesla’s full self-drive-driven (FSD) version 13 software.

Sources did not say how many engineers were sent to Tesla or were they still there. He said that its purpose was to improve the knowledge of Chinese roads of FSD V13 with more accurate and updated mapping information.

Sources refused to be nominated as they were not authorized to talk to the media. He did not disclose the financial price for cooperation.

The deep connection with BAIDU Tesla comes in the form of data and regulatory restrictions imposed by Beijing and Washington, which has made it difficult for a car manufacturer to bring full autopylot and FSD system to its second largest market.

BAIDU’s US-listed stocks were around 2%, while Tesla’s stock in the last two seasons, which was received about 12% in the last two sessions, was about 1% in premarket trading.

In the United States, Tesla’s FSD system does not require navigation maps to be accurate or up-to-date, as AI’s local training technology helps improve the drive.

But in China, Tesla has been unable to train the system with its 2 million EVS data due to the country’s data laws and the company is growing under pressure from rivals such as BYD and XPENG, which offers cheap vehicles and do not charge additional fees for similar software.

A deep partnership with Tesla can also promote Baidu, which has other initiatives, including AI, rivals such as Deepseek and Bydentance.

Tesla, which is aiming for the full rollout of FSD this year, did not respond to the remarks request. Baidu also did not respond to the remarks request.

The partnership follows a long -awaited but controversial software update Tesla sent to Chinese owners in February. The update added urban navigation features to the system, but customers complained that it decreased with the promise of a full FSD rollout of Chief Executive Elon Musk in China.

FSD is a suit of driving-help technologies developed with generic artificial intelligence to deal with more complex traffic conditions.

The FSD V13 did not get enough training to adapt well to Chinese roads, one of the sources said, “Drivers are constantly transported traffic violations such as turning into wrong lanes and driving through red lights, if they failed to notice and respond.

Tesla has been unable to transfer data collected from Chinese roads to the United States to train the driving system as data laws require the company to store data at the local level and approval for outbound transfer.

The US also does not allow Tesla to train its AI software in China.

In an earning call in January, Musk described the situation as a “quunder”.

BAIDU has supplied navigation maps to Tesla since 2020 and is one of the major Maps providers of China.

Tesla is eager to protect its market share in China as the decline of sales in the United States and Europe and local rivals pushed sales more aggressively.

Tesla’s part of China’s EV market fell for the first time in 2023 to 11.7% to 10.4%, showing data.

The Automekar charges a fee of 64,000 yuan ($ 8,834.04), which is for its aided driving system on top of EVS priced at $ 32,500.