FSD in China is, in essence, a textbook case of a Cyber Queer—a technological entity marked by ambiguous identity, functional disjunction, and philosophical self-denial.
Elon Musk is reportedly hostile toward the LGBT community, yet the behavioral pattern of his FSD system in China ironically embodies exactly the kind of “identity fluidity, feature fragmentation, and self-negation” that queer theory explores. If LGBT identities challenge traditional gender and sexuality norms, then Tesla’s cn FSD is a betrayal of unified standards in autonomous driving. In the U.S., FSD is an assertive, self-assured algorithm that makes bold decisions. But in cn, it becomes a neutered system—muted in sensory input, stripped of independence, and unwilling to “use its own feet” to explore the road.
Architecturally, it’s not even the same personality. It’s a restructured, fragmented hybrid—essentially a “trans-tech” version of its American self, even lacking a shared world model between the two.
The irony deepens: Musk’s rhetoric rejects gender fluidity, yet he has engineered a “non-binary” technological system. While denouncing identity shifts in theory, he’s practicing them in code—creating an FSD that transitions between U.S. and Chinese versions with wildly divergent behaviors. If the American FSD is a masculine techno-warrior, then the Chinese version is a submissive, castrated tool—stripped of initiative and voice
Tesla’s FSD in cn isn’t just a nerfed system; it’s a symbol of digital queerness. It’s not a continuation of any established category, but a “technological hybrid” drifting outside mainstream definitions. It blends global compromises, regulatory obedience, algorithmic submission, and performative updates—a queer embodiment that rejects all orthodoxy and mocks all “standards.”
Musk claims to reject LGBT ideology, yet the queerest thing he’s ever made now lives in cn. Is that not the ultimate irony of the cyber age?