(Yicai) Oct. 18 -- China’s regulatory assessment of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Supervised, a system that enables vehicles to drive themselves with minimal human intervention, is not moving as quickly as anticipated, according to a media report.

“The rollout progress is not expected to mirror the speed as the company itself planned,” one of the people familiar with the matter told China Daily. The evaluation work on the US electric car giant's semi-autonomous driving system is ongoing, it reported today, citing a number of informed sources.

The Chinese government supports Tesla in piloting certain FSD Supervised features in some cities if existing laws and regulations are followed, the person noted.

Pending regulatory approvals, Tesla plans to launch FSD Supervised in China and Europe in the first quarter of next year, according to a product roadmap released by the Texas-based company's artificial intelligence team on X on Sept. 5.

The key issue regarding the rapid deployment of FSD Supervised in China revolves around how basic geographic information and data will be collected and how this data can be securely and compliantly managed, experts pointed out. Tesla has commissioned qualified Chinese companies to carry out the mapping.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has applied to the authorities for access to some non-sensitive video data for system training, a person close to the carmaker told China Daily. He promised that the data would be subject to strict review by the appropriate departments, the source added.

Chinese law stipulates that foreign companies must entrust qualified Chinese entities to collect, store, transmit, and process geospatial data, including the coordinates and images of smart connected vehicles.

Tesla and Mobileye Global, Intel’s autonomous driving unit, said this week they strictly abide by all Chinese laws and regulations after the country’s security ministry announced that a foreign company has unlawfully conducted mapping activities.

An overseas company has been found to have illegally carried out geographic surveys and mapping activities on Chinese territory under the guise of research for smart driving in collaboration with a licensed Chinese mapping firm and has transmitted the data abroad, the Ministry of State Security announced on Oct. 16, without identifying either business.

Editor: Martin Kadiev