technology roadmapping thesis

How to Create Thesis Technology Roadmap: Tips & Free Templates

Nathan Brooks

Published on May 24, 2024, updated on Jul 19, 2024

When writing a thesis, a technology roadmap is an essential component that provides clear guidance and a blueprint for the entire research process. An appropriate technology roadmap helps you systematically plan your research steps, ensures the smooth execution of experiments, and ultimately achieves the goals. This article will provide you with some essential technology roadmap templates to make your thesis writing process more efficient and smooth.

What is a Technology Roadmap?

Definition of Technology Roadmap

A technology roadmap is a visual tool used for planning and managing technological development. It typically includes technology goals, key technology milestones, and timelines. A technology roadmap helps organizations or teams clarify the direction and priorities of technological development and guides decision-making and resource allocation throughout the project lifecycle.

Applications of Technology Roadmap

technology roadmaps are widely used in various fields such as strategic planning, project management, and risk management:

-Strategic Planning : A technology roadmap can be part of strategic planning, helping organizations identify future technological directions and priorities.

-Project Management : In project management, a technology roadmap helps teams track progress, plan tasks and resources, and ensure timely project delivery.

-Communication and Coordination : technology roadmaps are crucial for communicating and coordinating among team members and stakeholders, ensuring everyone has a clear understanding of the technological development direction and plan.

-Risk Management : With a technology roadmap, teams can identify potential technology risks and challenges and take appropriate measures to mitigate them.

-Resource Allocation : technology roadmaps help organizations or teams allocate resources effectively, ensuring that the needs of technological development are fully met.

Technology Roadmap Templates for Thesis Writing

A technology roadmap is a planning tool that aligns your organization's technological strategies with its business objectives. It outlines the steps needed to achieve these goals and identifies key milestones along the way.  When writing a thesis, having a well-structured technology roadmap is crucial. Below are some templates to guide you:

The Role of a Technology Roadmap in Thesis Writing

Guiding Research Direction and Goals

A technology roadmap helps determine the research direction and sets clear goals and milestones. By creating a technology roadmap, you can outline the methods and steps you plan to take, providing a clear framework to achieve the objectives stated in your thesis.

Illustrating Methodology and Research Methods

A technology roadmap can describe the methods, tools, and techniques you will use. This helps reviewers and readers understand your research process, ensuring that your methods are feasible and reasonable.

Reducing Confusion and Deviations

During the thesis writing process, it is easy to stray from the initial research direction. A technology roadmap acts as a guide, helping you organize your research content and methods in chronological or logical order, ensuring coherence and completeness, and keeping you on track.

Enhancing Credibility and Reproducibility

A technology roadmap enhances the credibility and reproducibility of your research. By clearly outlining your research design and methods, other researchers can more easily understand and replicate your study, validating your results.

Displaying Time Management and Resource Allocation

A technology roadmap helps you plan your research timeline and resource allocation, ensuring you complete your research within the specified timeframe and utilize your resources effectively.

In summary, the importance of a technology roadmap in a thesis lies in its ability to guide research direction, illustrate methodology and research methods, reduce confusion and deviations, enhance credibility and reproducibility, and display time management and resource allocation.

Creating a Technology Roadmap with an Online Tool

Boardmix is an excellent tool for creating technology roadmaps, offering numerous features and characteristics that make it an ideal choice for team collaboration and project planning. Here are some reasons to recommend Boardmix:

Visualization

Boardmix provides a rich set of graphic and annotation tools to help you create clear and understandable technology roadmaps. You can use various shapes, symbols, and colors to represent different tasks, stages, and key milestones, making the entire roadmap more attractive and readable.

Collaboration and Real-Time Editing

Boardmix is a cloud-based platform that allows team members to collaborate in real-time, editing the technology roadmap together. This means teams can work together effectively, even when geographically dispersed.

Templates and Presets

Boardmix offers numerous preset templates and layouts, including technology roadmap templates. These templates help you quickly start your project while ensuring your roadmap follows best practices and industry standards.

Export and Sharing

Boardmix allows you to export your technology roadmap to common file formats such as PDF, PNG, JPG, etc. This makes it easy to share your roadmap with team members, stakeholders, or others to get feedback or showcase project progress.

By using Boardmix, you can efficiently create and manage technology roadmaps , ensuring your thesis writing process is well-organized and successful.

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• Guide to Technology Roadmaps

A Guide to Technology Roadmaps

Technology roadmaps have been developed in the last few decades to drive the technology industry in new ways. Technology is constantly changing and expanding in development and application. Leaders in technology industries need a tool to both learn about development and consider directions for future innovation. That’s where technology roadmaps come in.

Technology roadmaps are comprehensive documents. They help industry researchers and developers engage in unified exploration of past, present, and future technologies with the goal of solving problems and creating better technologies for future generations.

What Are Technology Roadmaps?

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a leader in the creation of technology roadmaps. IEEE defines technology roadmaps as documents that “stimulate an industry-wide dialogue to address the many facets and challenges of the development and implementation of an emerging technology.”

Technology roadmaps provide direction for companies looking to expand their own technological processes through advancements in their industries. These roadmaps provide a basis for industry leaders and company-based developers to work together as they develop new products in their fields.

The Elements of Technology Roadmaps

A roadmap is a peer-reviewed and published report usually available in digital and printable formats. The architecture of a technology roadmap varies by subject.

In general, roadmaps are forward looking documents that provide guidance for companies interested in the future of a particular area of technology or industry. Roadmaps can be product-specific, application-specific, or industry-wide.

Technology roadmaps are revised regularly. IEEE refreshes its roadmaps yearly, performing more serious updates and revisions every two years. In this manner, technology roadmaps remain relevant as industries establish and implement technological advancements.

The Development of Technology Roadmaps

Technology roadmaps are a relatively new phenomenon. According to Rakesh Kumar, a semiconductor veteran and chair of the IEEE Technology Roadmaps Committee, the first technology roadmap was created for the semiconductor industry in the 1990s.

This initial process of technology roadmapping brought together scientists and engineers from universities, industry, and government to define and develop the direction of semiconductor technology. These stakeholders used roadmapping to anticipate and prevent potential problems in maintaining development and to define the future needs within the semiconductor industry.

In 2015, IEEE adopted this semiconductor-based roadmap and used it as a roadmap template to develop additional technology roadmaps .

Today, IEEE has roadmap activities under development in a number of areas to address the needs and guide the work of scientists, engineers, and academics researching future technologies. IEEE is dedicated to continually expanding its roadmapping practices to provide industry experts with an overview of the course that their respective technologies are taking.

How Are Technology Roadmaps Used?

Technology roadmaps have a specific audience, though members of that audience use them in unique ways. Overall, stakeholders, such as company executives and research and development teams, use technology roadmaps to understand their industry, expand their companies, and guide their decision-making.

As technology advances, industries continue to refer to technology roadmaps to remain current on developments, design and implement new tools, and sustain their research for generations.

The Industries That Use Technology Roadmaps

The first technology roadmaps were designed for the semiconductor industry, but the creation of the first roadmap set a foundation for future technology roadmaps in many industries. Further roadmaps have been designed to benefit IT, medical, computer science, and electronics industries.

In each of these areas of technology, key stakeholders use roadmapping to stimulate and guide innovation within their field. Company representatives, equipment manufacturers, service providers, and government and research agencies all collaborate. They update one another on research, strategy, technology planning, and developments. They then consider the guidelines in the roadmaps to generate ideas and create plans for future technology solutions.

Technology Roadmaps vs. Product Roadmaps

It’s important not to confuse technology roadmaps with product roadmaps. A key distinction is in their application.

Technology roadmaps provide industry-wide guidelines and perspectives for future developments. In contrast, a product roadmap outlines company-specific guidelines and is usually viewed as a proprietary and competitive resource that explains a single company’s internal processes and designs.

For example, IEEE is the creator of a technology roadmap called “ International Roadmap for Devices and Systems ” (IRDS) which details the history of semiconductor devices and systems and aims to stimulate innovation for all participants in semiconductor devices and systems. It has been made widely available to individuals and organizations working in the semiconductor sector. However, an individual company within the semiconductor device sector may create a product roadmap that outlines the company’s best practices and intentions for product expansion, but this document would be proprietary and would not typically be shared with other sector participants. As companies develop product roadmaps, key stakeholders and research and development teams rely on technology roadmaps to guide their product development plans.

Initially, companies may review a technology roadmap to determine what technology is available and will be available in the near future. They then use that knowledge to develop their product roadmaps and, ultimately, new products to expand their business.

Who Uses Technology Roadmaps?

Technology roadmaps are designed for specific users within specific industries. Those who use them are typically involved in the design and implementation of new products or scientific research. Some examples are provided below.

Development Teams

For most roadmap users, the purpose of technology roadmapping is development. Most companies work in a repetitive chain-like process, moving through the stages of research, development, and manufacturing for each new product. Developing new products, equipment, and processes benefits greatly from the regular use of roadmaps.

Funding Agencies

Government or private funding agencies often refer to technology roadmaps to determine how to allocate funding for research and other initiatives.

Product Managers

Within individual companies, product managers rely on the predictions and statistics found in technology roadmaps to determine how to best allocate resources to allow them to meet their long-term goals.

Academics use technology roadmaps to identify long-term problems and technology gaps in a given industry. Technology roadmaps can guide the focus of academic research toward finding technology solutions and technology alternatives to address those problems that lack solutions.

What is IEEE’s Role with Technology Roadmaps?

Technology roadmaps are more important than ever, and IEEE is a prominent voice in their development and use. As the world’s largest technical professional organization, IEEE is dedicated to advancing technological innovation to benefit humanity. Since its founding in 1884, IEEE has been a key player in the development of technological excellence around the world.

How IEEE Uses Technology Roadmaps

Researchers and developers in the IEEE community have long been stakeholders in creating roadmaps designed to support advancement in electronics, internet technology, neurotechnology, semiconductor devices, and other areas of technological innovation. IEEE has designed roadmaps to encourage the advancement of emerging technologies.

Science and technology roadmaps designed by IEEE are intended to portray the structural relationships among science, technology, and applications. They function as technical roadmaps that provide a practical and applicable business plan for stakeholders from companies in science and technology fields.

For example, IEEE’s “ International Technology Roadmap for Wide Bandgap Power Conductors ” (ITRW) provides guidance for developers and researchers seeking to transition from silicon devices to wide bandgap devices. Meanwhile, IEEE’s “ Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap ” (HIR) is devoted to developing the components that make up technologies such as smartphones, Internet of Things devices (IoT), intelligent automobiles, and many other products. IEEE’s “International Network Generations Roadmap” (INGR) focuses on the future of communications, including applications and services, deployment, energy efficiency, Massive MIMO (developers in the 5G and beyond wireless ecosystem), security, and systems optimization.

Using technology roadmaps from IEEE, industry leaders are closing the gap between potential and attainable solutions to development challenges in the semiconductor and electronic manufacturing fields. IEEE’s roadmaps unite experts to engage in strategic planning to reach

a unified consensus on advancing technology in their fields and setting unified goals.

IEEE is constantly exploring new areas for roadmaps. Currently, it is developing roadmaps in areas such as robotics , power electronics for distributed energy , and neural therapeutics .

Who Is Involved in Building Technology Roadmaps?

Technology roadmaps are never developed in a vacuum. Developing a successful roadmap requires input from stakeholders and specialists. It is essential that each roadmap team contain experts with diverse skills in areas such as management, product development, research, and product implementation. Key roles are the roadmap manager, Product Developers, Project Managers, Program Directors and other industry experts. Senior management may also be involved.

Roadmap Manager

A roadmap manager should be identified to guide the development process. This manager should be an expert product manager who can guide participants to create a technically realistic and innovative roadmap useful for future product development. The manager should be devoted to creating a roadmap that meets the needs of the industry while allowing room for improvement and growth in the field.

The experts working on a roadmap typically come from a variety of backgrounds. Within a company, this could include Product Developers, Project Managers, and Program Directors. More broadly, Scientists, engineers, researchers, development teams, and even academic or government leaders may work together to create an effective roadmap.

Experts who understand marketing needs and the mission of new products should also be involved in roadmap development. These experts ensure that roadmaps don’t just benefit the scientific community but also aid companies in designing product roadmaps based on technology roadmaps.

Senior Management

The senior management of industry-leading companies can also be involved in roadmaps, although sometimes only in a review capacity. Their focus is often on the business implications and outlook of the roadmap. Senior management can also provide guidelines and incentives to workers to encourage the roadmap development process. Support and oversight from senior management can drive the speed and accuracy of development to ensure that each roadmap meets the needs of the industry.

As one example, IEEE’s “International Network Generations Roadmap” (INGR) is run by a series of teams. These teams cover applications and services, deployment, energy efficiency, Massive MIMO (developers in the 5G and beyond wireless ecosystem), security, and systems optimization.

Each team is headed by two or three chair members who act as managers. All roadmap development teams at IEEE work under the IEEE Technology Roadmaps Committee members (senior management), who set the standards, guidelines, and checklists for developing roadmaps.

How Do Technology Roadmaps Relate to Industry Standards?

Technology roadmaps are beneficial in determining industry standards. Each industry has different needs for the development and implementation of technology solutions and products. Technology roadmaps define these standards in a few key ways.

First, technology roadmaps unite industry leaders and development teams in one space. Together, these two groups define the unifying standards and principles necessary to create effective products.

Second, as time goes on and things change within industries, technology roadmaps provide a succinct history of industry standards. When industries need to add new standards or improve upon old ones, roadmaps are easily updated with new information.

Third, as companies develop new strategies and business goals to meet the growing needs of their stakeholders and customers, they can use technology roadmapping to determine what is possible in product development. Then they can implement these standards into their own product roadmaps.

The development process of IEEE’s “ International Roadmap for Devices and Systems ” (IRDS) is a great example of how this works. The initial “International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors” (ITRS) was a precursor to the IRDS that outlined a vision for the semiconductor industry intended to expand the vision of Gordon Moore , a widely acknowledged visionary in the semiconductor industry.

Over time, the semiconductor industry targeted by the ITRS developed new areas of research and new standards for integrating related but tangential devices and systems within the industry. The IRDS was created to broaden the scope of research into developments in communication, the use of fiber optics, and other changes that go beyond the industry’s initial work in semiconductors.

Technology Roadmaps at IEEE

Throughout their history, technology roadmaps have become increasingly useful for development in the fields of science and technology. With IEEE’s comprehensive and ever-evolving technology roadmaps, researchers, development teams, and key stakeholders are unifying around comprehensive documents designed to address past, present, and future processes and needs in their industries.

IEEE is dedicated to helping stakeholders from many industries engage with one another in the development of useful and actionable technology roadmaps.

Interested in learning more about technology roadmaps ? IEEE Roadmaps provides guidance and structure to support technical roadmap development and activities. Joining this initiative will provide you the opportunity to discuss common challenges and objectives while continuing progress towards your roadmap goals. Connect with other industry, academia, and governmental experts providing this critical resource for the advancement of technology.

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Welcome to MIT Technology Roadmapping and Development. We have developed a method for planning and developing new and improved technologies called ATRA (Advanced Technology Roadmap Architecture). On this website we share the method, the underlying textbook (Springer 2022 1st edition), courses, a library of technology roadmaps developed at MIT, as well as ongoing research. Your browser does not support the video tag. This short video summarizes what is Technology Roadmapping and Development and why it is useful.

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Technology Roadmapping

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• Olivier L. de Weck 2  

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This chapter begins by explaining what a technology roadmap is and why it is important in helping organizations plan for the future. We also discuss briefly the history of technology roadmapping (Kerr and Phaal, Technol Forecast Soc Chang 155:119967, 2020) as well as provide an example of a reference technology roadmap. This roadmap is designated as “2SEA” and concerns the development and deployment of solar electric aircraft . We give examples of organizations, such as NASA, that rely extensively on technology roadmapping and provide a normative approach to roadmapping called the advanced technology roadmap architecture (ATRA). Finally, we provide a scale for technology roadmapping that organizations can use to assess their own capabilities and maturity level in terms of technology roadmapping. This approach was implemented at a major aerospace company, with significant impact on the composition and direction of their R&D portfolio, and has since been adopted by others in industry, government, and academia.

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I served as Senior Vice President (SVP) of Technology Planning and Roadmapping at Airbus for 2 years (2017 and 2018) while on leave from MIT and reported to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The CTO at Airbus is at the Executive Vice President (EVP) level and is a member of the company’s senior executive management team (the so-called “C-Suite”).

We estimate that it takes about $250 K per year (2019 figures) to create and properly maintain a quality technology roadmap. This means that an organization that has about 20 technology roadmaps should plan to spend about $5 million per year on technology roadmapping.

These 12 elements are a general recommendation for the outline and content of a technology roadmap. In our technology roadmapping and development class at MIT, we follow this outline and add between 15 and 20 technology roadmaps per year, see http://roadmaps.mit.edu

CFRP = carbon fiber reinforced polymers.

OPD and OPL are based on ISO Standard 19,450 (2015) for object-process methodology (OPM).

In general, physics-based models are preferred since empirically derived models are only valid over the interval of training data that were used on the input side. As technology progresses, the correlations derived for the empirical models may no longer be valid.

Disclaimer: While we have used the Zephyr as a motivating example at the beginning of this section, the strategic drivers in this section should not be taken as a direct reflection of the Airbus Defense and Space business strategy in the area of solar electric aircraft.

Not all targets or ambitions stated in a technology roadmap may initially be funded or fundable by the R&D budget. That is fundamentally okay, since the technology roadmap is a statement of ambitions, translated to quantified targets. However, once converged, the technology roadmap targets should be achievable both fiscally and in terms of their feasibility within physical limits.

This project was partially funded by the DARPA Vulture program whose aim it was to develop a solar-powered UAV that could fly for 5 years without landing. The project was canceled in 2012.

In many organizations, R&D projects are selected based mainly on “intuition” alone and the voices of a few – usually senior and very experienced – individuals. This is potentially a dangerous way to go as Christensen shows (Chap. 7 ) due to the innovator’s dilemma . Usually this intuition-based process by entrenched senior engineers and executives will favor sustaining incremental technology investments, instead of sustaining radical or even disruptive ones. The dynamics and pitfalls of R&D project selection and R&D portfolio management are discussed further in Chap. 16 .

NASA has recently selected the ATRA framework for researching improved ways of managing its technology portfolio, see: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/strg/early-stage-innovations-esi/esi2020/astra/

Bernal, Luis, et al. "Technology roadmapping handbook." International SEPT Program, University of Leipzig (2009)

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Kerr C, Phaal R. Technology roadmapping: Industrial roots, forgotten history and unknown origins. Technological Forecasting and Social Change . 2020 Jun 1;155:119967.

Knoll, Dominik, Alessandro Golkar, and Olivier de Weck. "A concurrent design approach for model-based technology roadmapping." In 2018 Annual IEEE International Systems Conference (SysCon) , pp. 1-6. IEEE, 2018.

NASA Technology Roadmaps, Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT): https://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/home/roadmaps/index.html

Phaal, Robert, and Muller, Gerrit, “An architectural framework for roadmapping: Towards visual strategy,” Technological Forecasting and Social Change , Volume 76, Issue 1, 2009,Pages 39-49, ISSN 0040-1625

Schimpf, Sven, and Thomas Abele. "How German Companies apply Roadmapping: Evidence from an Empirical Study." Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 52 (2019): 74-88.

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de Weck, O.L. (2022). Technology Roadmapping. In: Technology Roadmapping and Development . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88346-1_8

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The first paragraph or two of any paper should be constructed with care, creating a path for both the writer and reader to follow. However, it is very common to adjust the introduction more than once over the course of drafting and revising your document. In fact, it is normal (and often very useful, or even essential!) to heavily revise your introduction after you've finished composing the paper, since that is most likely when you have the best grasp on what you've been aiming to say.

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Tesla's AI roadmap gives a glimpse into the company's future

It reaffirms tesla's goal to launch the company’s self-driving technology in two new markets early next year.

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Tesla’s artificial intelligence team on Thursday released its roadmap for the next several months, reaffirming its goal to launch the company’s self-driving technology in two new markets early next year.

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Tesla’s driver assistance software, Full Self-Driving (FSD) originally launched in the U.S. in October 2020 as a beta feature. Since then, the technology has become more and more advanced, with it being upgraded from “Beta” to “Supervised” in April. The primarily cosmetic change came with the removal of some of Tesla’s cautionary language, including a statement warning drivers that FSD “may do the wrong thing at the worst time” and reminding them to “always keep your hands on the wheel.”

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Tesla will need to secure regulatory approval for its technology from local regulators before it can start selling its packages. In the U.K., only Ford Motor Co.’s self-driving tech is currently allowed on the road , while the European Union has approved both Ford’s and BMW’s systems. Tesla CEO Elon Musk visited Beijing earlier this year as the company prepared to register its software with authorities.

“Pretty soon, we will ask for regulatory approval of the Tesla supervised FSD in Europe, China and other countries,” Musk said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call in July. “And I think we’re likely to receive that before the end of the year, which will be a helpful demand driver in those regions obviously.”

Musk on Thursday wrote on X that right-hand driving markets should “hopefully” get FSD later in the first quarter of 2025 or early in the second quarter, pending regulatory approval.

The CEO has made expanding FSD adoption a key point of Tesla’s long-term push toward fully driverless vehicles and a fleet of self-driving robotaxis . In order to make progress in developing the software — and win over regulators — Tesla needs to keep collecting data. As of its second quarter, Tesla customers have driven some 1.6 billion miles with FSD enabled.

After a lack of success in boosting adoption, Musk in March mandated that all new customers were required to be given a test ride using FSD, with the company later offering customers a free one-month trial that had extremely limited success . Tesla has also repeatedly slashed the price of FSD, which now costs $99 per month for U.S. drivers. During Tesla’s second-quarter earnings call, CFO Vaibhav Taneja said he expects FSD to drive sales, mainly thanks to its lowered price.

Tesla’s AI roadmap also includes the launch of its Actually Smart Summon feature, which was released earlier this week, and finally making FSD available for Cybertruck owners. In October, Tesla said it aims to launch FSD version 13, with six times as many miles between necessary interventions — when human drivers need to take control — and allowing FSD to park, unpark, and reverse.

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Tesla announces plans to launch full self-driving technology

Tesla announced its development roadmap on Elon Musk's social media platform X.

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Tesla plans to launch full self-driving technology in China and Europe in the first quarter of next year.

The advanced driver assistance system is currently pending regulatory approvals with the Tesla X account announcing upcoming technology launches.

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Tesla made strides gaining approval for the Chinese market after passing data security assessments and reaching a mapping and navigation deal with Chinese tech giant Baidu .

Elon Musk’s company also got the nod to test fully autonomous technology in Shanghai’s streets, with the latest announcement signalling that the company is on track to gain permission from Chinese state authorities for the technology.

Chinese approval for Tesla’s full-self driving technology would help the company’s fortunes in the Chinese market.

During the first eight months of this year, Tesla’s China shipments have fallen about 6% compared with last year, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association.

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Musk said on an earnings call in July that he expected the Tesla’s full self-driving system to be approved in Europe, China and other countries by the end of the year.

He also wrote on X in April that the roll-out in China “may be possible very soon.”

Full self-driving technology has come under increased scrutiny in the US, however, after a spate of high-profile accidents involving Tesla’s autopilot functionality.

Tesla and many industry experts still recommend that drivers must keep their hands on the steering wheel and pay attention to the road while using the software.

The announcement has signaled that the company is on track to boost sales and stay ahead of Chinese rivals who are also working on similar driver assistance systems.

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