Elon Musk, the founder of Neuralink and Tesla has arrived in Beijing to push towards achieving autonomous driving for Tesla cars in China.
The billionaire entrepreneur aims to enable Full Self Driving (FSD) in China and transfer data collected in the country abroad to train its algorithms, per the report. FSD is available in countries, including the United States but not in China, despite China being Tesla’s second-biggest market.
During a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Musk expressed Tesla’s willingness to cooperate with China to “achieve more win-win results”. Qiang responded, saying the Chinese market would “always be open to foreign-funded firms”.
Other carmakers like Xpeng are attempting to compete with Tesla by rolling out similar self-driving functions in their cars. On Sunday, Musk described Chinese car manufacturers as “the most competitive car companies in the world”.
Elon Musk has promised that Tesla cars will be able to act as autonomous “robotaxis” for years, despite critics accusing him of hyping up the prospects of full autonomous driving to positively impact the company’s share price.
Tesla has also taken steps to reassure Chinese authorities about the rollout of FSD, including establishing a data centre in Shanghai.
The trip comes at the heart of scrutiny from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), investigating whether a recall addressed safety concerns relating to Tesla’s driver assistance system. Recall that a U.S. report tied Tesla’s autonomous driving modes to at least 13 crashes, involving one death.
Read Also: Elon Musk’s Neuralink Set To Test Brain Chips in Humans
Tesla reports 32% in share price
Amid these developments, Tesla reported a 13% fall in automotive sales and a 32% collapse in share price so far in 2024.
Other contributing factors to these declines include Tesla’s preparations at its Fremont factory, shutdowns at its Berlin plant, falling demand for electric vehicles and intense competition in China from local players like BYD and Xiaomi.
According to sources, the company’s vehicle deliveries in 2024 Q1 were around 386,810, a significant decline of 20.2% from the previous quarter and 8.5% from the same period last year.
Despite these challenges, Tesla managed to outsell BYD, delivering 369,783 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, as well as approximately 17,000 units of other models.
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