Elon Musk meets Chinese officials on FSD, data transfer as Tesla faces challenges

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made an unannounced visit to Beijing where he is expected to meet senior officials regarding the rollout of Full Self-Driving (FSD) software in China, as well as seeking permission for data transfer overseas. Chinese state media reported that during his meeting with Premier Li Qiang, Li stated that Tesla’s development in China could be seen as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk has previously said FSD may become available to customers in the country ‘very soon’, having faced demands for it from Teslas fans based there who use rivals such as Xpeng’s similar software instead.
Musk is also looking to obtain approval to transfer data collected by its Chinese fleet abroad, which he hasn’t done since 2021 due to requirements imposed by Chinese regulators that all data be stored in Shanghai. In addition to these meetings, Musk met with Ren Hongbin of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and commented on electric vehicles during a visit to Beijing’s auto show where he noted they would become ubiquitous as we move towards an entirely electrical future.
Musk’s trip comes at a time when US safety regulators have opened an investigation into whether Tesla’s recall announced in December of last year was adequate following several crashes involving its Autopilot system, and just over one week after he cancelled plans to meet India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi due to ‘very heavy Tesla obligations’. The company also recently revealed that it would be laying off 10% of staff worldwide as part of efforts to address falling sales in the face of intensifying price competition from Chinese brands.
Musk’s visit coincides with China’s largest auto show, which opened last week and ends on May 4th. Despite this event being underway since Monday, Tesla did not have a booth at the exhibition as it has done previously – in fact, its most recent appearance was during the previous edition held almost one year ago where Musk also visited their Shanghai factory. It’s worth mentioning that GM CEO Mary Barra made an unannounced visit to this same show on Friday.
In her commentary published via People’s Daily last week Grace Tao, Tesla vice president in charge of external relations for China said the company was leading autonomous driving research and development with its ‘end-to-end neural network’ technology along with data accumulated from millions of cars around the world; something which industry experts believe is particularly beneficial due to Beijing’s complex traffic conditions that offer more scenarios than other markets, allowing algorithms to be trained at a faster pace.
Tesla shares are currently trading below where they stood this year so far owing partly to fears surrounding future growth prospects for the company after reporting its first decline in quarterly revenue since 2020 during last week’s earnings announcement which cited slow production and deliveries due largely to pandemic-related issues.