SHANGHAI: Tesla CEO Elon Musk was on a flight to Beijing on Sunday to begin a surprise trip to the electric vehicle maker's second-largest market, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Musk is trying to meet with senior Chinese officials in Beijing to discuss the launch of Full-Self Driving (FSD) software in China and get approval to transfer data collected in the country abroad to train algorithms for its autonomous driving technologies, one of the people said.
Since 2021, Tesla has stored all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai, as required by Chinese regulators, and has not transferred it back to the United States.
The US electric vehicle maker launched FSD, the more autonomous version of its Autopilot software, four years ago but has not yet made it available in China despite customers urging it to do so.
Musk said this month that Tesla could 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 sought to gain an advantage over Tesla by releasing similar software.
Musk's visit to China was not publicly flagged and the people 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.
Since 2021, Tesla has stored all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai, as required by Chinese regulators, and has not transferred it back to the United States.
The US electric vehicle maker launched FSD, the more autonomous version of its Autopilot software, four years ago but has not yet made it available in China despite customers urging it to do so.
Musk said this month that Tesla could 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 sought to gain an advantage over Tesla by releasing similar software.
Musk's visit to China was not publicly flagged and the people 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.
