Tesla on Monday passed China’s data security requirements as CEO Elon Musk wrapped up his visit to Beijing, which included meetings with senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials.
Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y vehicles were among the 76 models that were listed as passing China’s data security requirements on April 28, according to the China Association of Auto Manufacturers (CAAM).
The CAAM said that these 76 vehicle models—which are produced by BYD, Ideal, Lotus, Hezhong New Energy, Tesla, and NIO—have met the “four compliance requirements for automotive data security.”
Mr. Musk concluded his visit after meeting with senior Chinese communist regime officials, including Premier Li Qiang, to discuss the rollout of his full self-driving (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas.
During their meeting, Mr. Li said that Tesla’s development in China serves as “a successful example of China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation.” He added that China will continue to welcome foreign-funded firms.
Mr. Li said he hoped that the United States would work with China “to follow the strategic guidance of the two countries’ heads of state and promote the sustained and stable development of bilateral ties.”
“China will act on its words and intensify its efforts in expanding market access and enhancing services, among other areas, to offer a more favorable business environment and stronger support for foreign enterprises,” Mr. Li said, according to a readout issued by the CCP.
For his part, Mr. Musk told the Chinese premier that his company “is willing to deepen cooperation with China to achieve more win-win results.”
Reuters reported on Monday that Tesla also has entered into an agreement with Chinese tech giant Baidu that would allow Tesla to use Baidu’s mapping license for data collection on China’s public roads.
The automaker giant in 2018 reached an agreement with Chinese authorities to build a plant in Shanghai, its first outside the United States, which later opened in 2019. Its FSD technology was introduced four years ago but has not yet been made available to the Chinese market.
In a post on his social media platform X earlier this month, Mr. Musk said that Tesla’s FSD software might be available to customers in China “very soon,” but he did not provide any extra context at the time.
Tesla has been scrambling to get its FSD systems approved for new markets. However, it has been an uphill battle. In the past, its vehicles have been banned from China’s military compounds because of the cameras used for its FSD systems.
Tesla and other automakers use the data provided by their cars to train autonomous driving systems to perform increasingly complicated tasks without supervision from a human driver. Without Beijing’s approval for data transfer, Tesla could not use data collected from its cars in China to develop autonomous cars for a global customer base.
