SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Tesla (NASDAQ:) Chief Executive Elon Musk flew to Beijing on Sunday for a surprise trip to the electric vehicle maker’s second-largest market, according to two people familiar with the matter. Musk is seeking to meet with senior Chinese officials in Beijing to discuss the rollout of Full-Self Driving (FSD) software in China and seek permission to transfer data collected in the country abroad to train algorithms for its self-driving technologies, one of the sources said. . said.
Tesla has been storing all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai since 2021, as required by Chinese regulators, and not transferring it back to the United States.
The US electric vehicle maker released FSD, the most autonomous version of its Autopilot software, four years ago but has yet to make it available in China, despite calls from customers for it to do so.
Musk said Tesla could make FSD available to customers in China “very soon” this month, in response to a request on social network X.
Rival Chinese automakers such as Xpeng (NYSE:) are seeking to gain an advantage over Tesla by introducing similar software.
Musk’s visit to China was not publicly noted and the people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.