Tesla CEO final month made an unannounced go to to Beijing for talks with Chinese language Premier Li Qiang.
Elon Musk urged testing Tesla’s full self-driving characteristic in China by deploying it in robotaxis, Chinese language state media has reported.
Throughout Musk’s go to to China final month, officers advised the Tesla CEO that Beijing “welcomes Tesla to do some robotaxi assessments within the nation” and hopes it could actually “set a superb instance”, the state-backed China Each day reported on Wednesday, citing sources accustomed to the matter.
Chinese language authorities, nevertheless, didn’t instantly approve Tesla’s widespread use of the Full Self-Driving (FSD) characteristic, the newspaper mentioned.
Tesla didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The China Each day report follows an unannounced go to by Musk to Beijing late final month, throughout which he held talks with Chinese language Premier Li Qiang.
Throughout his go to, Musk acquired an endorsement of Tesla’s data-security procedures from a prime Chinese language auto affiliation and sealed an settlement with Chinese language tech big Baidu to make use of its mapping licence for information assortment on China’s public roads.
Tesla nonetheless must get approval from Chinese language regulators to gather and switch information used to coach its software program earlier than it could actually absolutely roll out FSD, which the China Each day mentioned was not mentioned on Musk’s go to.
Tesla operates its largest manufacturing plant outdoors the US in Shanghai, the place about half of its autos are produced.
Musk has shifted Tesla’s focus away from making reasonably priced electrical vehicles in direction of burgeoning expertise, comparable to autonomous driving software program, robotaxis and humanoid robots.
The electrical automobile maker is battling falling automobile gross sales amid fierce competitors from Chinese language manufacturers comparable to BYD.
Tesla’s automobile deliveries fell by 8.5 p.c within the first quarter, contributing to a 40 p.c slide in its inventory worth since July. The corporate final month reported income of $1.1bn within the first quarter, down from $2.51bn a 12 months in the past.
Chinese language auto big BYD dethroned Tesla because the world’s largest electrical automobile maker within the final quarter of 2023, though the Austin, Texas-based firm reclaimed the title within the first three months of this 12 months.
Musk has made a number of journeys to China in recent times, together with a go to in June final 12 months.