- Elon Musk has reportedly visited China to promote the rollout of Tesla’s fully self-driving technology.
- Musk is scheduled to meet with senior Chinese officials.
- Tesla faces increased competition and scrutiny amid declining revenues and layoffs.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in China on Sunday on the tech billionaire’s second visit to the world’s largest electric vehicle market in less than a year.
The purpose of the trip is to expedite the rollout of the latest version of Tesla’s fully self-driving technology, Autopilot software, Reuters reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. The person said Musk will meet with senior officials to discuss the software and obtain permission to transfer data overseas.
Musk also visited China in May last year and met with China’s foreign ministers, industry and commerce ministers, and others. The details of the meeting were not disclosed, but Reuters reported at the time that Musk discussed the development of electric cars.
Earlier this month, Musk said: Post to X Tesla plans to offer fully autonomous driving (FSD) to Chinese customers “in the near future.”
“So we’re going to get regulatory approval and release it as a supervised autonomous system in every market where we can get regulatory approval, including China,” Musk said during an April 23 earnings call. I think it will be included.” . ”
Since electric car maker Xpeng last year announced plans to upgrade its advanced driver assistance software (FSD equivalent) and make its full functionality available to drivers across China by 2024, Tesla We are facing increasing competition from manufacturers.
Musk’s visit to China comes after he canceled a visit to India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Musk said he has a “very heavy obligation to Tesla.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider outside of normal business hours.
It’s been a tough month for EV manufacturers. In its earnings call last week, Tesla reported its first quarterly revenue decline since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in production and deliveries.
This month, the EV maker announced it would lay off 10% of its global workforce to deal with declining sales.
Federal safety regulators also weighed in on Friday whether Tesla’s December recall of more than 2 million U.S. vehicles to install new Autopilot safety equipment after several crashes is enough. announced that it would launch an investigation.
