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

Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab 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 software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The U.S. electric vehicle maker rolled out Full Self-Driving, or 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.

Musk said this month 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 (9868.HK), opens new tab 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.

Tesla has since 2021 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.