Elon Musk, the Chief Executive of Tesla, has tried to convince Chinese regulators for years to make him offer self -driving capacities in one of the most important markets of the company.
After a series of false starts, Mr. Musk now closer than ever.
Tesla said on Tuesday that some drivers in China would be able to use the company's autopilot function in city streets to help with lane changes and other more advanced tasks. Cars that use the update, which is comparable to the Autopilot function of Tesla in the United States, are not fully autonomous and still require supervision of the driver. The update is available for Tesla owners who have paid $ 8,800 extra.
The news meant a breakthrough for Mr. Musk in China, where his company has had to deal with always heavy competition. It is an important step in the direction of Mr. Musk's goal to offer completely self -driving in China, something that would help Tesla to claw back part of the market share that it has lost in recent years.
Mr. Musk has identified autonomous driving technology as crucial for the future of Tesla. The company has been left in China, where supervisors have been slow to approve its latest self -driving functions. Days after emphasizing the importance of technology for investors last year, Mr. Musk traveled to Beijing to meet the no. 2 official of China, Li Qiang. Not long after, Tesla was to a group of Chinese car manufacturers who received approval for their precautions for data security on some models.
Mr. Musk has since risen to a position of power in the US government as an assistant of President Trump, who spar about trade policy with China.
Getting approval for his most advanced self-driving technology would help “Tesla give more technology leadership in the hyper-competitive electric vehicle market in China for three to five years,” said Michael Dunne, a car consultant and former director of General Motors.
Tesla was once the dominant player in China and expanded in a market where it has received benefits, but few other foreign companies are offered. Nowadays Tesla is racing to keep pace in China with local rivals. The biggest competitor, BYD, recently announced an assistant-driving system that uses artificial intelligence and other advanced technology.
Mr. Musk has worked to convince regulators to roll out full self -slip approval. But, as Mr. Musk recently described it to investors, Tesla is stuck between Chinese regulations that prevent it from getting data from the country to train driving models and American authorities that do not have his self -driving systems trained in China.
Although Tesla has a data center in Shanghai that has collected years of data from the cars that it has sold in China, that information cannot leave the country. Tesla currently uses videos of streets in China that are available on the internet to inform the training, Mr. Musk told investors about a recent win.
It is part of a matter that relates to the broader digital curtain that is drawn between the United States and China as the relations between the two economic powers deteriorate. Last year, the BIDEN administration effectively banned Chinese electric vehicles and Chinese software that is used in cars with internet connection.
For Tesla: “The key is whether the computing power training and other things can be located in China,” said Cui Dongshu, secretary -general of the China passenger Car Association. “If you do not set up a computer center in China, you cannot calculate these things and you cannot adapt to the driving capacity of Chinese roads.”
Li you Research contributed from Beijing. Claire Fu Seoul reported contributed.
