Elon Musk visits China to discuss self-driving technology

• Musk expressed a willingness to cooperate with China to achieve more win-win results.
• Tesla’s second-biggest market is China, with other carmakers like Xpeng aiming to compete with Tesla.
• Tesla has reassured Chinese authorities about the FSD rollout by establishing a data center in Shanghai.

Visiting Beijing, Elon Musk aims to discuss enabling autonomous driving mode on Tesla cars in China, according to media reports. Mr. Musk intends to enable Full Self-driving (FSD) in China and transfer data collected abroad to train its algorithms.

While FSD is available in countries such as the US, it is not yet available in China. The news emerged after a US report linked Tesla’s autonomous driving modes to at least 13 crashes, including one death.

State media quoted Mr. Musk during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang as saying Tesla was willing to engage in deep cooperation with China to “achieve more win-win results”.

According to reports, Mr. Li informed Mr. Musk that the Chinese market would “always be open to foreign-funded firms” in response.

Tesla’s second-biggest market is China. Other carmakers, such as Xpeng, headquartered in Guangzhou, have been striving to compete with Tesla by introducing similar self-driving functions in their cars.

On Sunday, Mr. Musk characterized Chinese car manufacturers as “the most competitive car companies in the world.”

Tesla has previously reassured Chinese authorities about the rollout of FSD in the country by taking steps such as establishing a data center in Shanghai to process data about Chinese consumers by local laws.

The trip occurred days after the US’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it was investigating whether a recall effectively addressed safety concerns regarding Tesla’s driver assistance system.

The NHTSA stated that despite requirements for drivers to maintain focus on the road and be prepared to take control immediately when autonomous driving was enabled, drivers involved in the crashes “were not sufficiently engaged.” The regulator conducted its analysis before Tesla’s announced recall intended to address the issue.

Tesla’s software is designed to ensure that drivers are paying attention and that the feature is only activated in appropriate conditions, such as driving on highways.

Mr. Musk has made promises that Teslas will be capable of serving as autonomous “robotaxis” for years. In 2015, he stated that Teslas would achieve “full autonomy” by 2018. Additionally, in 2019, he claimed that the company would have robotaxis operating by the following year.

Earlier this month, the Tesla chief executive announced that he would unveil the company’s robotaxi in August.

Critics consistently accuse Mr. Musk of hyping up the prospects of full autonomous driving to bolster the company’s share price, which has declined due to challenges such as falling demand for electric vehicles worldwide and competition from cheaper Chinese manufacturers. Mr. Musk denies these accusations.

To stimulate demand, Tesla has been reducing the prices of its cars in China and other markets.

“Tesla prices must change frequently to match production with demand,” Mr Musk recently said on X, the microblogging platform previously known as Twitter which the billionaire owns.

Tesla recently disclosed a 13% decline in automotive sales to $17.3 billion (£13.7 billion) for the first three months of this year.

Overall sales across Tesla decreased by 9%, while its profits sharply declined to $1.13 billion compared to $2.51 billion for the same period last year.

As of 2024, its share price has plummeted by 32%.

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