Elon Musk visits China as Tesla seeks self-driving technology rollout

Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on Sunday for a surprise visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas.

The US electric vehicle maker rolled out Full Self-Driving (FSD), the most autonomous version of its Autopilot software, four years ago but has yet to make it available in China, its second-largest market globally, despite customers urging it to do so.

Earlier in April Musk said Tesla may make FSD available to customers in China "very soon", in response to a query on social media platform X.

Rival Chinese automakers such as Xpeng have been seeking to gain an advantage over Tesla by rolling out similar software.

Musk is looking to obtain approval to transfer data collected in the country abroad to train algorithms for its autonomous driving technologies, the person said.

Since 2021 Tesla has stored all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai as required by Chinese regulators and has not transferred any back to the United States.

Musk's visit to China was not flagged publicly and the person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak with media. Tesla did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Musk's itinerary on Sunday afternoon includes a meeting with Ren Hongbin, a government official who heads the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the organiser of the Beijing auto show currently underway, state media reported.

"It is good to see electric vehicles making progress in China. All cars will be electric in the future," Musk said in a video posted on social media by a user affiliated with state media.

Tesla has sold more than 1.7 million cars in China since it entered the market a decade ago and the Shanghai factory is its largest globally.

Musk's visit coincides with the Beijing auto show, which opened last week and ends on May 4. Tesla does not have a booth at China's largest auto show and last attended in 2021.