Tesla has moved closer to introducing its self-driving system to China after a government-backed body approved its handling of personal data. Elon Musk’s company has also agreed a deal with China’s Baidu for the mapping and navigation technology self-driving vehicles need, according to media reports.
The moves followed a surprise, 24-hour visit to Beijing on Sunday during which Mr Musk met Chinese premier Li Qiang. And it came after disappointing first quarter results for Tesla, which has seen its share of the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) market shrink in the face of competition from indigenous rivals led by BYD.
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), a car industry body backed by the Chinese government, said that Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y vehicles complied with its standards for handling personal data. This covers facial recognition and the collection and processing data on drivers and passengers.
Tesla’s cars have until now been banned from entering some Chinese government and military locations, airports and railway stations because of national security concerns. The CAAM decision could open the way for local authorities to lift such restrictions, which may have been a disincentive for some Chinese drivers to buy Tesla cars.
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Tesla’s co-operation with Baidu, which is often described as China’s equivalent to Google, began in 2020 and Baidu’s navigation maps are already integrated into its vehicles. Tesla has now agreed a deal to use Baidu’s mapping service for data collection and to store and process data together locally, according to a number of media outlets.
Mr Musk has long sought permission to transfer data collected in China to the United States to help to train algorithms for Tesla’s autonomous driving technology. But Beijing has insisted that all data collected from vehicles in China should be stored locally and remain in China.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD), the company’s most advanced software for driver-assisted vehicles, is available in the US but not in China. Although it enables automatic lane-changing, traffic navigation and self-parking, it does not make cars fully autonomous and still requires active driver participation.
Tesla, which is engaged in a price war with Chinese EV competitors, has long viewed FSD as an important potential revenue source. The company currently charges drivers in the US $8,000 for the software, which is also available on subscription at $99 a month.
It is hoped that the US will work more with China to follow the strategic guidance of the two countries’ heads of state and promote the sustained and stable development of bilateral ties
— Li Qiang - Chinese premier
Mr Li, who was the Communist Party secretary in Shanghai when Mr Musk set up his Tesla Gigafactory there, described the company’s development in China as a good example of economic and trade co-operation with the US.
“It is hoped that the US will work more with China to follow the strategic guidance of the two countries’ heads of state and promote the sustained and stable development of bilateral ties, so as to bring more benefits to the people of both countries and the world,” he said.
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