SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) – Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on Sunday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet with senior officials to discuss the rollout of full self-driving software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person familiar with the matter. Hope to meet. With information about the case.
Chinese state media reported that he met with Prime Minister Li Qiang in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla’s development in China could be considered a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation.
Musk confirmed his meeting with the Prime Minister through a post on social media platform X on Sunday.
“Honored to meet Premier Li Qiang. We have known each other for many years, since the early days in Shanghai,” Musk posted along with a photo with the prime minister.
Tesla struck a deal with Chinese authorities in 2018 for a plant in Shanghai, its first deal outside the US.
The US electric vehicle maker launched Full Self-Driving, or FSD, the most autonomous version of its autopilot software four years ago, but it has yet to be made available in China, the world’s second-largest market, despite customer requests. . so.
In response to a question on social media platform X, Musk said Tesla could make the FSD available to customers in China “very soon” this month.
Rival Chinese automakers like Xpeng are looking to gain an edge over Tesla by introducing similar software.
The person said Musk wants to get approval to transfer data collected in the country abroad to train algorithms for his autonomous driving technologies.
Tesla has stored all data collected by its Chinese fleet since 2021 in Shanghai as required by Chinese regulators and not transferred back to the United States.
Musk’s trip to China, which was first reported by Reuters, was not publicly marked and the person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, in its report on Musk’s meeting with Li, did not say whether the two discussed FSD or data.
Earlier in the day, a separate report by state radio said Li had visited the ongoing auto show in Beijing and commented on how China’s smart new energy vehicle (NEV) sector has led the market. position and the country will have to work on it. Tough and maintain its advantages.
Musk also met with government official Ren Hongbin, who heads the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, organizer of the Beijing auto show, state media reported.
“It’s good to see electric vehicles making progress in China. In the future, all cars will be electric,” Musk said in a video posted on social media by a user linked to state media.
Late Sunday night, a top Chinese auto association published a list of 76 car models it said it had tested and found to be in line with China’s data protection requirements, among them Tesla’s Model Y and 3 cars .
Musk’s visit comes just a week after he canceled a planned visit to India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi citing “too burdensome Tesla obligations.”
The company said this month it would lay off 10% of its global workforce as it grapples with falling sales and an intensifying price war for EVs led by Chinese brands.
U.S. auto safety regulators said Friday they have launched an investigation into whether Tesla announced a recall of more than 2 million vehicles in the U.S. to install new Autopilot safety measures in December following a series of crashes. It was enough.
landed in beijing
A Gulfstream private jet with tail number N272BG, which is registered with SpaceX and Tesla-linked company Falcon Landing, landed at Beijing Capital Airport at 0603 GMT on Sunday, according to Chinese flight tracking app Flight Manager.
The second jet registered under Falcon Landing is N628TS, which is Musk’s main jet that he used to visit China on his last trip about a year ago, when he met with Chinese government officials in Beijing and Tesla’s Visited the Shanghai factory.
Tesla has sold more than 1.7 million cars in China since entering the market a decade ago and the Shanghai factory is its largest globally.
Musk’s visit coincides with the Beijing auto show, which began last week and ends on May 4. Tesla does not have a booth at China’s biggest auto show and last participated in 2021.
GM CEO Mary Barra made an unannounced tour of the show at the world’s largest auto market on Friday, according to two people with knowledge of her schedule. GM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also on Friday, Grace Tao, Tesla’s vice president in charge of external relations in China, published a comment on the social media account of state media outlet People’s Daily, arguing that autonomous driving technologies will be the new growth engine for the EV industry.
Tao said in the article that Tesla is leading autonomous driving research and development with its “end-to-end neural network” technology and data collected from millions of cars on the road.
According to industry experts, China’s complex traffic conditions, with more pedestrians and cyclists than many other markets, provide more scenarios that are important for training autonomous driving algorithms at faster speeds.
Musk said last week that Tesla would introduce new, cheaper models using its existing EV platform and production lines and introduce a new “robotaxi” with self-driving technology. He said in a post on X this month that he would unveil the robotaxi on August 8.
Tesla shares have fallen by nearly a third since the beginning of the year as concerns grow about the EV maker’s growth path. Last week, Tesla reported its first decline in quarterly revenue since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic slowed production and deliveries.
(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; additional reporting by Liz Lee, Jenny Wang, Daniel Leusink, Alessandro Divigiano and Akanksha Khushi; editing by Jamie Freed and Sharon Singleton)
