Tesla shares gain on plans to launch Full Self-Driving in Europe, China

By Akash Sriram

(Reuters) -Tesla shares rose more than 6% on Thursday after the electric automaker stuck to its plans to launch the Full Self-Driving (FSD) advanced driver assistance software in China and Europe pending approval from regulators.

This comes about a month ahead of the company's unveiling of its robotaxi product, "Cybercab", underpinned by the technology that helps drivers accelerate, brake and steer in cities and highways with human supervision.

CEO Elon Musk said in July Tesla was likely to get regulatory approval for FSD in both the regions by the end of the year. The billionaire said on Thursday FSD could be launched in right-hand drive markets in late first quarter or early in the April-June period.

Wall Street remains cautious about self-driving technologies due to tough regulatory oversight. Investors, however, anticipate that a potential Trump administration could expedite the regulatory process in the U.S.

"This may be easier in China, given that it's joined forces with the Chinese search giant Baidu to use its navigation system," Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter said.

"It looks set to be a longer process for approval in Europe."

Shanghai, which houses one of Tesla's gigafactories, allowed 10 vehicles to carry out tests of FSD in June, paving the path for its roll out in China, where it faces competition from domestic automakers.

Musk's tendency to set aggressive deadlines has led to doubts among investors and analysts, especially after missing several optimistic targets for FSD, Semi and Cybertruck.

It also announced other features like Actually Smart Summon, FSD for the Cybertruck electric pick up truck this month and version 13 of the software requiring fewer interventions next month.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)