According to CCTV News, on the afternoon of April 28th, upon the invitation of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, arrived in Beijing. He was met by CCPIT Chairman Ren Hongbin to discuss topics such as future cooperation.
Prior to this, as reported by Reuters, two informed sources revealed that Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, flew to Beijing on April 28th (Sunday) to embark on a surprise trip to Tesla's second-largest market.
One of the informed sources mentioned that Musk is seeking to meet with senior Chinese officials in Beijing to discuss matters related to launching Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) software in China. He also aims to secure approvals for data access to train algorithms for their autonomous driving technology.
In November 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and Ministry of Transport jointly issued a notice titled "Notice on Carrying out Pilot Work for Access and Road Test of Intelligent Connected Vehicles" (referred to as the Notice below). The notice announced that intelligent connected vehicles with production capabilities and equipped with autonomous driving functions, after obtaining access permits, can conduct road tests in designated areas. It also clarified the responsibility for accidents occurring during autonomous driving, which falls on the operating entity.
Subsequently, more than 30 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou issued licenses for autonomous driving road tests. Automakers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, BAIC, and SAIC successively obtained autonomous driving road test licenses in relevant areas.
