Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation.
Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X.
Photo credit: REUTERS
"Honored to meet with Premier Li Qiang. We have known each other now for many years, since early Shanghai days," Musk posted, with a picture with the premier.
Tesla reached an accord with Chinese authorities for a plant in Shanghai, its first outside the US, in 2018.
The US electric vehicle (EV) maker rolled out FSD, the most autonomous version of its Autopilot software, four years ago but has yet to make it available in China, its second-largest market globally, despite customers urging it to do so.
Musk said this month Tesla may make FSD available to customers in China "very soon," in response to a query on social media platform X.
Rival Chinese automakers such as Xpeng Inc (小鵬) have been seeking to gain an advantage over Tesla by rolling out similar software.
Musk is looking to obtain approval to transfer data collected in the country abroad to train algorithms for its autonomous driving technologies, the person said.
Tesla has since 2021 stored all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai as required by Chinese regulators and has not transferred any back to the US.
Musk's visit to China was not flagged publicly and the person spoke on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak with media. Tesla did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, in its report about Musk's meeting with Li, did not say whether the two had discussed FSD, or data.
Musk also met with Ren Hongbin (任鴻斌), a government official who heads the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the organizer of the Beijing auto show, state media reported.
"It is good to see electric vehicles making progress in China. All cars will be electric in the future," Musk said in a video posted on social media by a user affiliated with state media.
Late yesterday, a top Chinese auto association published a list of 76 car models it said it had tested and found to be compliant with China's data security requirements, among them being Tesla's Model Y and 3 cars.
Musk's trip came just over a week after he scrapped a planned visit to India to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing "very heavy Tesla obligations."
The company said this month it would lay off 10 percent of its global workforce, as it grapples with falling sales and an intensifying price war for EVs led by Chinese brands.
Tesla has sold more than 1.7 million cars in China since it entered the market a decade ago and the Shanghai factory is its largest globally.
Musk's visit coincides with the Beijing auto show, which opened last week and ends on Saturday. Tesla does not have a booth at China's largest auto show and last attended in 2021.
Also on Friday, Grace Tao (陶琳), Tesla's vice president in charge of external relations in China, published a commentary on the social media account of state media outlet People's Daily, arguing that autonomous driving technologies would be the new growth engine for the EV industry.
Tesla was leading autonomous driving research and development with its "end-to-end neural network" technology and data collected from millions of cars on the road, Tao said.
China's complicated traffic conditions with more pedestrians and cyclists than in many other markets provide more scenarios that are key for training autonomous driving algorithms at a faster pace, industry experts said.
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