Elon Musk visits China as Tesla seeks to launch self-driving technology By Reuters

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on Sunday for a surprise visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials and discuss the rollout of fully self-driving software and permission to transfer data overseas. of the problem.

The U.S. electric car maker launched Full Self-Driving (FSD), the most autonomous version of its Autopilot software, four years ago, but has yet to launch it in China, the world’s second-largest market, despite urging from customers. so.

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Rival Chinese automakers such as Xpeng (NYSE:) have been trying to gain an advantage over Tesla by releasing similar software.

Musk is working to get approval to transfer data collected domestically overseas to train algorithms for self-driving technology, the people said.

Starting in 2021, Tesla has stored all data collected from Chinese vehicles in Shanghai and has not transferred any data back to the United States, as required by Chinese regulators.

Musk’s visit to China, first reported by Reuters, was not publicly known and the person 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.

Musk’s Sunday afternoon schedule includes a meeting with government officials Ren Hongbin, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and host of the ongoing Beijing auto show, state media reported.

“It’s good to see electric vehicles developing in China. In the future, all cars will be electric,” Musk said in a video posted on social media by state media officials.

Musk’s trip comes just over a week after he canceled a planned visit to India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing “very heavy Tesla obligations.”

The company said this month it would lay off 10% of its global workforce due to declining sales and a deepening electric vehicle price war led by Chinese brands.

U.S. auto safety regulators said Friday they have 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 protection devices after a series of crashes, was appropriate. Yes.

land in beijing

The Gulfstream private jet with tail number N272BG registered to Falcon Landing, a company linked to SpaceX and Tesla, landed at Beijing Capital Airport at 6am (GMT) on Sunday, according to Chinese flight tracking app Flight Manager.

Another jet registered at Falcon Landing is the N628TS, the main jet used by Musk during his last trip nearly a year ago, when he met Chinese government officials in Beijing and visited Tesla’s Shanghai factory.

Tesla has sold more than 1.7 million cars in China since entering the market a decade ago, and its Shanghai factory is the largest in the world.

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 its last attendance was in 2021.

GM CEO Mary Barra made an unannounced visit to a trade 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 external relations at Tesla China, posted a comment on the social media account of state-run media People’s Daily, asserting that autonomous driving technology will become a new growth engine for the electric vehicle industry.

Tao said in the article that Tesla is leading autonomous driving research and development based on ‘end-to-end neural network’ technology and data collected from millions of vehicles on the road.

China’s complex traffic conditions, with more pedestrians and cyclists than many other markets, provide more scenarios that are key to training self-driving algorithms at faster speeds, according to industry experts.

Musk said last week that Tesla would launch new, cheaper models using its current EV platform and production lines and would offer new “robotaxi” with self-driving technology. In an article posted on X this month, he announced that he would unveil the robotaxi on August 8.

Tesla shares have fallen by nearly a third since the beginning of the year as concerns grow about the electric car maker’s growth trajectory. Last week, Tesla reported its first quarterly sales decline since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic slowed production and deliveries.