After postponing Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s visit to India, he heads to China

Elon Musk. Photo courtesy: wikipedia.org

#ElonMusk, #China, #FSD, #India, #PMModi, #Tesla

IBNS-CMEDIA: Tesla CEO Elon Musk is on a surprise visit to China, the second-largest market for the electric vehicle titan, media reports said.

According to Reuters, Musk started the journey on Sunday to engage with high-ranking Chinese officials in Beijing. His visit to China comes after his trip to India was postponed a week earlier, citing ‘Tesla obligations.’

Musk was scheduled to visit India on April 22 and to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announce plans to enter the Indian market.

Discussions in China will revolve around the implementation of Full-Self Driving (FSD) software in China and the necessary approvals to transfer locally collected data overseas for training algorithms in autonomous driving technologies, reported Reuters citing sources.

In response to a query on the social media platform X, Musk said that Tesla might offer Full-Self Driving (FSD) to customers in China “very soon.”

Interestingly, Musk’s visit to China was discreet and not widely publicised.

Tesla has adhered to Chinese regulations since 2021 by storing all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai and has refrained from transferring any data back to the United States, said the report.

Despite interest in NSD in China, Tesla has not yet introduced the model, the most autonomous version of its Autopilot software, in the country. FSD was rolled out by the US electric vehicle maker four years ago.