Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of the social networking site
Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
BEIJING — Local Chinese authorities have removed restrictions on Tesla vehicles after the Chinese manufacturer's vehicles passed the country's data security requirements, the automaker said Sunday.
The breakthrough came as Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing for an unexpected meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, amid the city's first major auto show in four years.
New data security requirements for “connected vehicles” were released in November and cover vehicles released in 2022 and 2023 that automakers voluntarily submit for inspection, the center said.
The rules test whether cars hide facial recognition data outside the car, collect cockpit data by default, process that data inside the car and prominently notify users of the processing of personal information. Tesla has been included in the first batch of automakers that have met data compliance requirements.
Tesla said in its press release that it localized data storage in 2021 at its data center in Shanghai, and passed the international standard ISO 27001 for information security after review by external auditors.
Musk's visit to China on Sunday also raised expectations that Tesla's Full Self Driving driver assistance program will soon be available in the country.
However, JL Warren Capital CEO and Head of Research Junheng Li said in X Rolling out a “supervised” version of FSD in China is “highly unlikely”.
She pointed to the challenges Tesla faces in supporting the local operation of the program as a foreign entity in China. Li said there was “no strategic value” for Beijing to support the rollout of FSD domestically when there are many high-quality domestic alternatives, such as Xpeng's driver assistance programme.
Premier Li visited Xpeng and other companies at the Beijing Auto Show on Sunday, calling for innovation and demand to drive production. According to government media.
Tesla will not participate in the auto show this year, as has been the case since a demonstrator stood on one of its cars during the Shanghai auto show in 2021. The show alternates between Beijing and Shanghai on an annual basis, and was not held. In 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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