FX168 Financial News (Asia Pacific) News Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Elon Musk) arrived in Beijing on Sunday (April 28) for an unannounced visit. Bloomberg quoted sources on Monday as saying that Tesla will remove key barriers to introducing advanced assisted driving functions in China through cooperation with Baidu on maps and navigation functions.
The report said that Tesla will then be able to deploy its autonomous driving service based on lane-level navigation and maps provided by Baidu. Baidu is one of about 20 qualified suppliers with key modules for autonomous driving functions.
(Source: Bloomberg)
Musk wants to enable fully automated driving (FSD) in China, which can also be used in other countries, and is the electric car maker's second-largest market.
Musk is visiting Beijing to discuss the launch of Tesla's autonomous driving mode in China.
(Source: Reuters)
The article mentioned that when reporting the news of Musk's visit and meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, the Chinese media did not disclose whether fully automated driving or data were discussed.
According to official media reports, Musk also met with Ren Hongbin, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the organizer of the auto show.
On Sunday evening, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers published a list of 76 models, which it said had been tested and found to meet China's data security requirements, including Tesla's Model Y and 3 cars.
Just over a week before Musk's trip, he cancelled his plans to go to India to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the grounds that “Tesla's obligations are very heavy.”
The company said this month that it will lay off 10% of its global workforce to deal with falling sales and the intensification of the electric vehicle price war led by Chinese brands.
Since entering the Chinese market ten years ago, Tesla has sold more than 1.7 million vehicles in China, and the Shanghai plant is its largest factory in the world.
A Wedbush stock analyst called the unexpected visit “an important moment for Tesla.”
In an emailed company report, they said: “Although Tesla's long-term valuation story depends on fully automated driving, one critical missing part of this conundrum is Tesla's provision of fully automated driving in China, and now it's on China's doorstep.”
Other automakers, such as Xiaopeng Motors, have been trying to compete with Tesla by introducing similar autonomous driving features in cars.
Musk described the Chinese automaker as “the most competitive car company in the world.”
Earlier, Tesla took some steps regarding the introduction of fully automated driving in China to appease the Chinese market, including setting up a data center in Shanghai to process data on Chinese consumers in accordance with local laws.
Since 2021, Tesla has stored all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai as required by Chinese regulators, and has not sent any data back to the US.
Musk is seeking approval to transfer the data collected domestically to foreign countries to train its algorithms for autonomous driving technology.
A few days ago, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was investigating whether the recall successfully addressed safety issues related to Tesla's driver assistance systems.
In response to the investigation, Tesla issued a voluntary recall at the end of 2023 and rolled out a wireless software update to add more warnings to the autopilot.
Musk promised Tesla would be able to act as an automated “robot taxi” for many years.
In 2015, he said Tesla would achieve “full autonomy” in 2018.
In 2019, he said the company would launch robot taxis the following year.
This month, Musk said he will launch the company's robot taxis in August.