Agencies
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is reported to have arrived in Beijing on Sunday, marking a surprise visit shortly after he canceled an India trip, and is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of Full Self-Driving software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The U.S. electric vehicle maker rolled out Full Self-Driving, or 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 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 United States.
Musk’s visit to China, first reported by Reuters, 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.
Musk’s itinerary on Sunday afternoon includes a meeting with Ren Hongbin, a government official who heads the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the organizer of the Beijing auto show currently underway, 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.
Musk’s trip came just over a week after he scrapped a planned visit to India to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing “very heavy 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 on Friday they had opened an investigation into whether Tesla’s recall of more than 2 million vehicles in the U.S. announced in December to install new Autopilot safeguards was adequate following a series of crashes.
Landed in Beijing A Gulfstream private jet with tail number N272BG, which is registered to Falcon Landing, a company connected to SpaceX and Tesla, landed at Beijing Capital Airport on Sunday at 06:03 a.m. GMT, according to Chinese flight tracking app Flight Manager.
The other jet registered under Falcon Landing is N628TS, which is Musk’s main jet that he used to travel to China on his last trip nearly a year ago, when he met with Chinese government officials in Beijing and visited Tesla’s Shanghai factory.
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 May 4.
Tesla does not have a booth at China’s largest auto show and last attended in 2021.
GM CEO Mary Barra made an unannounced visit to the show in the world’s biggest auto market on Friday, according to two people with knowledge of her schedule. GM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
