Elon Musk's big wins in China: Hurdles cleared, Baidu pact and this breakthrough

Elon Musk in China: Tesla CEO Elon Musk's surprise visit to China- the automaker's second largest market- resulted in the company clearing some key regulatory hurdles that have long hindered it from rolling out its self-driving software the country. The Tesla boss arrived in Beijing where he talked about the rollout of Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and transfer driving data overseas, news agency Reuters reported citing people in the know. 

Elon Musk in China: Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk, left, meets with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing.(AP)

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This comes after Tesla reported its first decline in quarterly revenue since 2020.

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Elon Musk wins Baidu agreement? 

Tesla may have reached an agreement with Baidu to use the Chinese tech giant's mapping license for data collection on China's public roads, Reuters reported, adding that the company's Model 3 and Y cars were among models that were tested and found to be compliant with China's data security requirements. 

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Why is this important for Elon Musk and Tesla?

Data security and compliance have been key reasons why Tesla has yet to make FSD available in China despite customer demand. Since 2021, China has asked Tesla to store all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai owing to which the company has not been able to transfer any data back to the United States.

Is this a major moment for Tesla?

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Retired newspaper commentator Hu Xijin said on his Weibo account that Tesla was the only foreign-funded automaker to meet China's data compliance requirements, adding, “This is not only a breakthrough in China, but also a significant demonstration for the entire world in solving data security issues.”

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note, “If Musk is able to obtain approval from Beijing to transfer data collected in China abroad this would be a 'game changer' around the acceleration of training its algorithms for its autonomous technology globally.”

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