Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, attends the Viva Technology conference on innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France on June 16, 2023.
Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
BEIJING — Local Chinese authorities have lifted restrictions on Tesla cars after the company’s vehicles made in China meet the country’s data security requirements, the automaker said on Sunday.
The breakthrough came as Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing for a surprise meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang amid the city’s first major auto show in four years.
Although Tesla electric cars are among the most popular vehicles in China, they have he was reportedly banned from visiting some government properties due to concerns about what data the US automaker may be collecting.
Tesla’s press release did not specify which local authorities lifted restrictions on the vehicles. Earlier this year, the Biden administration announced an investigation into whether vehicles imported from China pose a national security risk due to their ability to potentially collect data on the United States and send it back to China.
Tesla cars weren’t the only ones to pass data security rules.
In addition to the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, several new energy vehicles from BID, LotusNezha, Lee Auto And Nio has accepted China’s data security requirements, the China Automobile Manufacturers Association and the Technical Team/Emergency Response Coordination Center of China’s National Computer Network said on Sunday.
New data security requirements for “connected vehicles” were published in November and cover vehicles produced in 2022 and 2023 that automakers voluntarily submit for review, the center said.
The rules check whether cars anonymize facial recognition data outside the vehicle, default to collecting data from the cockpit, process that data inside the car, and prominently notify users when personal information is being processed. Tesla was among the first batch of automakers to meet data compliance requirements.
In its press release, Tesla said it localized data storage at its Shanghai data center in 2021 and adopted the international information security standard ISO 27001 after review by third-party auditors.
Musk’s visit to China on Sunday also raised expectations that Tesla’s Full Self Driving driver assistance software will soon be available in the country.
However, CEO and Head of Research at JL Warren Capital Junheng Li said in X that the introduction of a “controlled” version of FSD in China is “extremely unlikely.”
She pointed to the challenges Tesla faces in maintaining local software operations as a foreign company in China. Li said there is “no strategic value” for Beijing to support domestic FSD deployment when there are many high-quality local alternatives such as Spengdriver assistance software.
Premier Li Li visited Xpeng and other companies at the Beijing Auto Show on Sunday and called for innovation and demand to boost production. according to state media.
Tesla will not attend this year’s auto show, as it has done since a protester stood on one of its cars during the 2021 Shanghai auto show. The exhibition alternates between Beijing and Shanghai annually and has not been held. in 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.