Tesla's Elon Musk has made an unannounced trip to China, looking for approval for driver-assistance software. The visit appears to have paid off, with Tesla clearing two key hurdles to introduce its driver-assistance system to China. The U.S. electric carmaker will partner with Chinese tech giant Baidu to deploy what it calls Full-Self Driving.

Beijing

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, recently embarked on an unannounced visit to China, aiming for regulatory approval for the company's driver-assistance software. This trip has proved to be fruitful as Tesla has overcome significant challenges to introduce its driver-assistance system, dubbed Full-Self Driving, in China. In a strategic move, Tesla has partnered with Baidu, a Chinese technology giant known for its leadership in autonomous driving platforms.

During Musk's visit, he engaged in discussions with Chinese officials, including a meeting with Premier Li Chang. Li Chang had played a pivotal role in Tesla's expansion in China years ago, particularly with the establishment of Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai, a critical hub for the company's global production. The primary aim of Musk’s visit was to navigate regulatory hurdles related to technology and national security concerns that have previously impeded the approval of Tesla's semi-autonomous driving functionality within the country.

The partnership between Tesla and Baidu is seen as a crucial step in advancing Tesla’s goals in China. By collaborating with Baidu, Tesla aims to integrate its semi-autonomous driving technology into the Chinese market, addressing both technology implementation and regulatory approval challenges. This deal is expected to significantly benefit Tesla, allowing it to scale up and generate additional revenue through the deployment of its technology in China.



Musk's China visit pays off with Baidu-Tesla partnership

It's good to see electric vehicles making progress in China. All cars will be electric in the future. OK. Musk in China then. Let's bring in Bloomberg's Jill Desis in Hong Kong. Jill and Musk says it is a surprise as we say. What is he trying to accomplish exactly. Well Tom it seems like it's all about Tesla. This surprise trip. I actually found it. I'm particularly catching us off guard just because what we had been preparing for just about a week ago was a visit by Elon Musk to India where he was expected to meet potentially with Prime Minister Modi. That of course he postponed saying he actually had some very heavy Tesla obligations. Not sure how much that's related. But now here he is in Beijing. He actually met with Premier Li Chang who was working at the top Communist Party official in Shanghai when Elon Musk just a few years ago put together that deal for the Tesla Gigafactory. It's you know critical most important global production plant. Now it seems like what Elon Musk is ultimately trying to accomplish here is making some headway on getting full self-driving what Tesla calls full self-driving. It's sort of the semi-autonomous driving functionality within Tesla cars approved in China. That's obviously been a pretty weighty obstacle for it for Tesla to ultimately get over just because there's a lot of technology concerns but also national security concerns. But it certainly seems like that is what Elon Musk is in China trying to clear that that hurdle toward getting on this. This Tesla technology in cars there. And just part of this trip we hear that they're deepening their relationship Tesla with Baidu which of course it has one of the leading autonomous driving platforms in China. How significant is that. Is that partnership to pushing through and pushing past some of these hurdles. Yes exactly. Tom I mean you know presuming that partnership goes forward that seems like it's that is what would enable Tesla to ultimately accomplish its goals of getting this technology into vehicles in China. So the nature of this this deal you know obviously still I think kind of coming into focus. What exactly happens there. But yes it does seem like what Tesla would ultimately be able to accomplish is partnering with Baidu to get some of this you know sort of self-driving autonomous technology into cars. Again I must stress that when it comes to this this Tesla technology what exists already in the United States and elsewhere is something that needs to be constantly sort of self-monitored. But ultimately it does kind of fulfill some of those semi-autonomous needs. So yes it does seem like partnering with with Baidu and some of this technology this navigation structure would ultimately get Tesla to clear a pretty significant hurdle toward entering the market with some of this technology that would enable it to provide technology that allows it to scale up an incremental amount of revenue as it's displayed in these cars.

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