Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of the social networking site
Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
BEIJING – Local Chinese authorities have removed restrictions imposed on… Tesla The automaker said on Sunday that the company's Chinese-made vehicles have passed the country's data security requirements.
This breakthrough came with the arrival of Tesla CEO Elon Musk in Beijing to hold an unexpected meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, amid the first major car exhibition in the city in four years.
Although Tesla electric cars are some of the most popular cars in China, they have been banned from some government-related properties due to concerns about the data the US-based automaker can collect.
Tesla's press release did not specify which local authorities had removed the restrictions on cars. The Biden administration earlier this year announced an investigation into whether cars imported from China pose national security risks because of their ability to collect data about the United States and send it back to China.
Tesla vehicles weren't the only ones that passed data security rules.
In addition to Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y, there are several new energy vehicles from BYD, Lotuspicnic, Lee Otto And New The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/China Coordination Center said on Sunday that the company has passed China's data security requirements.
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 on X that 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 FSD rollouts domestically when there are many high-quality domestic alternatives, such as ExpingDriver assistance program.
Premier Li visited Xpeng and other companies at the Beijing auto show on Sunday and called for innovation and demand to drive production, according to state media.
Tesla will not participate in the auto show this year, as has happened since a demonstrator stood on one of its cars during the auto show in Shanghai 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.
