Tesla CEO Elon Musk made an unannounced visit Sunday to Beijing, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of Full Self-Driving software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to Reuters, based on information the wire service says came from a person with knowledge of the matter.
Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla’s development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation.
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.
Musk is looking to obtain approval to transfer data collected in the country abroad to train algorithms for its autonomous driving technologies, the source also told Reuters.
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.
Read the full story at Reuters.com.
