Elon Musk travels to China in order to advance Tesla's rollout of autonomous vehicles.

 SHANGHAI/BEIJING: According to a person with knowledge of the situation, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O), made an unexpected trip to Beijing on Sunday. There, he is anticipated to meet with senior officials to discuss the release of Full Self-Driving software and authorization to send data outside.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Premier Li Qiang informed Musk that Tesla's growth in China may be considered a model of US-China economic and trade cooperation, according to Chinese state media, when they met in Beijing.

Although consumers have pushed the US electric car manufacturer to release Full Self-Driving, or FSD—the most autonomous version of its Autopilot software—in China, its second-largest market worldwide, the technology has not yet been made available in that country.

In answer to a question on the social networking site X this month, Musk stated that Tesla might make FSD available to customers in China "very soon".

Rival Chinese automakers have begun releasing comparable software in an attempt to outperform Tesla, including Xpeng (9868.HK).

PHOTO: REUTERS

The insider stated that Musk is trying to get permission to send data gathered domestically to another country in order to train algorithms for its autonomous driving capabilities.

According to Chinese officials, Tesla has been storing all data gathered by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai since 2021 and has not sent any data back to the United States.

Speaking under oath since they were not authorized to communicate with the media, the individual provided information on Musk's visit to China, which was originally made public by Reuters. A statement was requested, but Tesla did not answer right away.

Regarding Musk's discussion with Li, the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV did not specify whether or not the two had talked about data or FSD.

Li made remarks about how China's smart new energy vehicle (NEV) industry has become a market leader and that the nation needed to keep up its advantages earlier in the day, according to a different report that was broadcast on state radio. Li had visited the ongoing Beijing auto show.

Ren Hongbin, the head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, which is responsible for organizing the Beijing auto show, was another government official that Musk met with, according to state media.

It's encouraging to observe China's progress with electric automobiles. In a social media video uploaded by a user connected to state media, Musk declared that "all cars will be electric in the future."

A little more than a week prior, Musk had canceled his intended travel to India to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing his "very heavy Tesla obligations."

As it struggles with declining sales and an escalating pricing war for EVs dominated by Chinese brands, the business said this month that it would lay off 10% of its global workforce.

After a number of crashes, US auto safety officials said on Friday that they had begun looking into whether Tesla's recall of more than 2 million US cars to install additional Autopilot protections in December was sufficient.

Landed in Beijing

Sunday at 06:03 GMT, a Gulfstream private jet registered to Falcon Landing, a business associated with SpaceX and Tesla, touched down at Beijing Capital Airport. The flight monitoring app Flight Manager, which is available in China, reports that the aircraft was registered to FAL.

During his most recent journey to China, over a year ago, Musk traveled to Beijing to meet with Chinese government officials and see Tesla's Shanghai factory. The other aircraft registered under Falcon Landing is N628TS, which is Musk's primary aircraft.

With the opening of its Shanghai factory a decade ago, Tesla has sold over 1.7 million cars in China, making it the country where it has the largest factory worldwide.

Musk's trip falls during the Beijing Auto Show, which got underway last week and runs until May 4. Tesla last participated at China's biggest car show in 2021 and does not have an exhibit there.

According to two people with knowledge of her itinerary, GM (GM.N) CEO Mary Barra paid an unexpected visit to the event on Friday in the largest car market in the world. A request for comment from GM was not immediately answered.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Additionally on Friday, autonomous driving technology were argued to be the next growth engine for the electric vehicle (EV) industry by Grace Tao, vice president of Tesla and head of external relations in China, in a statement posted on People's Daily's social media account.

According to Tao's statement in the article, Tesla is at the forefront of research and development for autonomous driving thanks to its "end-to-end neural network" technology and the information gathered from millions of moving automobiles.

Industry analysts claim that China's intricate traffic patterns, which include a higher number of bikes and pedestrians than in many other markets, offer more scenarios necessary for training autonomous driving algorithms more quickly.

Using its current EV platforms and production lines, Musk stated last week that Tesla will launch new, less expensive models and offer a new "robotaxi" with self-driving capabilities. This month, he said on X that the robotaxi would be unveiled on August 8.

As worries about the EV maker's growth trajectory have intensified, Tesla shares have dropped by about a third since the year's beginning. Following a halt to manufacturing and delivery due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Tesla revealed last week that its quarterly revenue had decreased for the first time.