(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. has been granted approval to test its advanced driver-assistance system on some Shanghai streets, according to a person familiar with the matter — the next step in rolling out the feature to Chinese drivers.
The city of Hangzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province may also issue approval for the US electric carmaker to test the system, according to the person, who declined to be identified because the information isn't public. The initial tests will be conducted by Tesla staff, the person said.
Tesla representatives didn't respond to a request for comment. Shanghai city government officials and Hangzhou government officials also didn't respond to requests for comment.
The approvals come about six weeks after Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk got the green light to deploy the company's advanced driver-assistance system during a lightning visit to Beijing, sending Tesla's shares surging.
Advanced driver-assistance systems are becoming increasingly common in China, with many local players including Xpeng Inc. and Xiaomi Corp. using them as a selling point for vehicles.
Tesla charges $8,000 for its full self-driving package in the US, or $99 a month for a subscription. The suite of features don't make the cars autonomous and require constant supervision.
In China, Tesla has taken orders for its FSD features via one-off payments of 64,000 yuan ($8,800), up from 56,000 yuan in 2020. However, since drivers can't actually activate FSD in China, only a small number of owners have been paying for the option.
The Shanghai road tests were reported earlier by Caixin.
--With assistance from Charlie Zhu.
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