In surprise visit to China, Elon Musk clears key hurdle to introduce Tesla’s FSD

Tesla on Monday cleared some key regulatory hurdles that prevented the launch of its self-driving software in China, a day after its CEO Elon Musk’s surprise visit to Beijing, Reuters reported.

Musk’s surprise visit to the US automaker’s second largest market came after he postponed his trip to India.

The 52-year-old tech mogul reached the Chinese capital on Sunday where he met with the Chinese Premier Li Qiang and the organiser of the ongoing Beijing auto show, according to a Reuters report.

Additionally, another report said that Robin Zeng, the chairman of Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co, Limited (CATL) met with two Tesla China executives at the tech billionaire’s hotel in Beijing on Monday.

Reuters also said that the Texas-based electric vehicle maker has reached an agreement with Chinese tech giant Baidu to use it’s mapping licence for data collection on China’s public roads.

This is a key step for its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software to be introduced in the country.

A top Chinese auto association on Sunday said that it tested Tesla’s Model 3 and Y cars and found them to be compliant with China’s data security requirements.

Data security and compliance have been key reasons why Tesla, which rolled out the most autonomous version of its Autopilot software four years ago, has yet to make FSD available in China.

Chinese regulators had required Tesla to store all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai, since 2021, leaving the company unable to transfer any back to the United States.