SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk made a surprise arrival in Beijing on Sunday, where he met with senior officials and discussed the rollout of fully self-driving software and overseas expansion, people familiar with the matter said. The plan is to discuss permission for data transfer. of the problem.
The U.S. electric car maker rolled out Fully Self-Driving (FSD), the most autonomous version of its Autopilot software, four years ago, but despite customer requests to use it, it ranks second in the world. It is not yet available in China, which is the largest market. So.
Musk said earlier this month in response to a question on social media platform X that Tesla may offer FSD to Chinese customers “soon.”
Rival Chinese automakers such as Xpeng are trying to gain an advantage over Tesla by deploying similar software.
The person said Musk is seeking approval to transfer domestically collected data overseas to train algorithms for self-driving technology.
Since 2021, Tesla has stored all data collected by its vehicles in China in Shanghai, as required by Chinese regulators, and has not transferred any data to the United States.
Musk’s visit to China, first reported by Reuters, was not made public and Musk spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
State media said Musk’s itinerary on Sunday afternoon included a meeting with Ren Hongbin, a senior government official who heads the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the organizer of the ongoing Beijing auto show. There is.
“It’s good that electric cars are making progress in China. In the future, all cars will be electric,” Musk said in a video posted on social media by a state media official. .
Musk’s visit comes just over a week after he canceled a trip to India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing “very heavy obligations to Tesla.”
The company announced this month that it would lay off 10% of its global workforce as it deals with declining sales and increasing price competition in EVs led by Chinese brands.
U.S. auto safety regulators on Friday will investigate whether Tesla’s recall of more than 2 million U.S. vehicles equipped with a new Autopilot safety device announced in December was appropriate after a series of crashes. announced that it had started.
landing in beijing
A Gulfstream private jet with tail number N272BG, registered to Falcon Landing, a company linked to SpaceX and Tesla, landed at Beijing Capital Airport at 0603 GMT on Sunday, according to Flight Manager, a Chinese aviation tracking app.
The other jet registered at Falcon Landing is the N628TS, which is Musk’s workhorse jet and which he used on his last trip to China about a year ago, when he met with Chinese government officials in Beijing. This is the one I used when I visited the company’s Shanghai factory.
Tesla has sold more than 1.7 million cars in China since entering the market 10 years ago, making the Shanghai factory its largest in the world.
Musk’s visit coincides with the Beijing Auto Show, which opened last week and concludes on May 4. Tesla does not have a booth at China’s largest auto show, last attending in 2021.
GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra made an unannounced visit to the show at the world’s largest auto market on Friday, two people with knowledge of her schedule said. GM did not respond to requests for comment.
Also on Friday, Grace Tao, Tesla’s vice president of China external relations, published a commentary on the social media accounts of state media outlet People’s Daily, arguing that self-driving technology will become a new growth engine for the EV industry.
Tao said in the article that Tesla is leading self-driving research and development with its “end-to-end neural network” technology and data collected from millions of cars on the road.
Industry experts say China’s complex traffic conditions, with more pedestrians and cyclists than many other markets, create more scenarios that are key to training self-driving algorithms at a faster pace. It is said that they are offering it.
Musk said last week that Tesla would launch new, cheaper models using its current EV platform and production lines, and offer new “robotaxis” equipped with self-driving technology. In a post on X this month, he said he would announce robotaxi on August 8th.
Tesla shares have fallen by almost a third since the start of the year as concerns grow about the EV maker’s growth trajectory. Tesla last week reported its first quarterly sales decline since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted production and deliveries.
(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Jamie Freed)
