Tesla CEO Elon Musk gets into a Tesla car while leaving his hotel in Beijing, China on May 31, 2023.
Tingshu Wang | Reuters
According to a person familiar with the matter, 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 deployment. deploy fully self-driving car software and allow data transfer abroad.
Chinese state media reported he met with Premier Li Qiang in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla’s development in China could be considered a successful example of economic cooperation and US-China trade.
The US electric vehicle maker launched Full Self-Driving, or FSD, the most self-driving version of its Autopilot software, four years ago but is still not available in China, the second largest market globally , even though customers urged them to do so. Therefore.
Musk said this month Tesla may offer FSD to customers in China “very soon”to answer queries on social media platform X.
Rival Chinese automakers like Xpeng are looking to gain an advantage over Tesla by rolling out similar software.
Musk is seeking approval to transfer data collected domestically abroad to train algorithms for his autonomous driving technology, the person said.
Tesla has since 2021 stored all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai at the request of Chinese regulators and has not transferred any data back to the United States.
Musk’s visit to China first report by Reuters, was not publicly flagged 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 released by state radio said Li visited the ongoing Beijing auto show and commented on China’s smart new energy vehicle (NEV) industry. How has the leading position in the market been achieved and how hard the country must work. be tough and maintain your advantage.
Musk also met with Ren Hongbin, 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’s good to see electric vehicles are making progress in China. All cars will be electric in the future,” Musk said in a video posted on social media by a user linked to state media.
Musk’s trip comes just over a week after he removed a planned visit to India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing Tesla’s “very heavy obligations.”
The company said this month it will Dismissal 10% of its global workforce is struggling with falling sales and an increasingly fierce price war over electric vehicles led by Chinese brands.
The U.S. Automobile Safety Administration said Friday it had opened one investigation examines whether the recall of more than 2 million vehicles in the US announced in December to install new Autopilot protections is appropriate after a series of crashes.
Landed in Beijing
A Gulfstream private jet with tail number N272BG, registered to Falcon Landing, a company connected to SpaceX and Tesla, landed at Beijing Capital Airport at 06:03 GMT Sunday, according to Chinese flight tracking app Flight Manager.
The other jet registered to Falcon Landing is N628TS, which is Musk’s main jet that he used to fly to China on his last trip nearly a year ago, when he met with government officials. China in Beijing and visited the Tesla factory in Shanghai.
Tesla has sold more than 1.7 million cars in China since entering the market a decade ago, and its Shanghai factory is its largest globally.
Musk’s visit coincides with the Beijing auto show opening last week and ending on May 4. Tesla does not have a booth at China’s largest auto show and last attended in 2021.
GM Chief Executive Mary Barra made an unannounced visit to the show in 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, vice president of foreign relations for Tesla in China, posted a commentary on the social media account of state-run newspaper People’s Daily, arguing that the driving technology Automation will be the new growth driver for the electric vehicle industry.
Tao said in the article that Tesla is leading the research and development of self-driving cars with “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 in many other markets provide many important scenarios for training automated driving algorithms with Faster speed.
Musk said last week Tesla would introduce new products, Cheaper models uses an existing electric vehicle platform and production line, and will offer a new “robotaxi” with self-driving technology. He said in a post on X this month that he will launch robotaxi on August 8.
Tesla shares are down nearly a third since the beginning of the year due to growing concerns about the electric vehicle maker’s growth trajectory. Last week, Tesla reported its first quarterly revenue decline since 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic slowed production and deliveries.
