CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on Sunday on an unannounced visit, where he was expected to discuss the rollout of Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Khodrocar - Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang in Beijing but did not say what they discussed. Musk posted a photo of himself with Li on his social media platform X, saying "Honored to meet with Premier Li Qiang."Still, the U.S. automaker won a key endorsement that coincided with his trip - from a top Chinese auto association which said Tesla's Model 3 and Y cars were among models found to be compliant with China's data security requirements.
WHAT IS FSD?
Tesla calls its driver assistant features Autopilot or FSD but says they do not make its vehicles autonomous and they require active driver supervision.
FSD is the most autonomous version of Autopilot software and was rolled out in 2020. Its features include self-parking, auto lane changes and traffic navigations.
Musk has long touted the FSD technology as a potential cash cow for the company but has failed to keep his promise of a fully autonomous driving experience, amid stiff regulatory and legal scrutiny of Tesla's safety and marketing.
U.S. auto safety regulators said last week they had opened an investigation into whether Tesla's recall in December of more than 2 million vehicles in the United States to install new Autopilot safeguards was adequate following a series of crashes.
The tech giant said Tuesday that demand for the technology will drive sales of chips and gadgets over the rest of this year.
In 2023, Musk said the price of FSD, then at $15,000, was very low, saying the value of the car would increase dramatically if it became autonomous.
Earlier this month, Tesla slashed the price of FSD to $8,000 from $12,000 in the U.S.
FSD is also available through subscriptions, on which Tesla recently cut the monthly price to $99 in the U.S. and C$99 ($72.52) in Canada to spur its adoption amid softening EV sales and intensifying price competition.
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