Following the company’s China-made vehicles meeting the nation’s data security criteria, local Chinese authorities have lifted limitations on Tesla cars, the automaker announced on Sunday. The breakthrough occurred during the first significant auto show to take place in Beijing in four years, just as Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived for an unscheduled meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. Expectations were further increased by Musk’s Sunday visit to China over the imminent release of Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” driver-assist software in that nation.
Following the passing of the nation’s data security criteria by Tesla’s China-made vehicles, local Chinese authorities have lifted restrictions on the company’s automobiles, the automaker announced on Sunday.
The breakthrough occurred during Beijing’s first significant auto show in four years, just as Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived for an unscheduled meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
Despite being among the most well-liked automobiles in China, Tesla’s electric cars are allegedly not allowed on some government-affiliated facilities because of worries about the data the American automaker may obtain.
It was not stated in Tesla’s press statement which municipal governments have lifted the cars’ prohibitions. Earlier this year, the Biden administration began an investigation into whether Chinese-imported automobiles represent a concern to national security because of the possibility that they could gather information about Americans and retransmit it to China.
Not just Tesla’s cars satisfied the data security requirements. Apart from Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y, a number of new energy cars from BYD, Lotus, Nezha, Li Auto, and Nio have cleared China’s data security regulations, according to a statement released on Sunday by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China and the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. According to the center, the new data security regulations for “connected vehicles” were unveiled in November and apply to cars that were released in 2022 and 2023 and that automakers voluntarily submit for inspection.
The regulations check if the cars anonymize face recognition data when they are not in use, process that data within the car, and clearly warn users when their personal information is being processed. Among the first group of automakers to satisfy the data compliance standards was Tesla.
In a news statement, Tesla stated that it has successfully achieved the ISO 27001 international standard for information security following an assessment by independent auditors and that it will localize data storage at its Shanghai data center in 2021. Expectations were further boosted by Musk’s Sunday visit to China over the imminent release of Full Self Driving, Tesla’s driver-assist software in that nation.
Junheng Li, CEO of JL Warren Capital and Head of Research, stated on X that it is “very unlikely” that China will implement a “supervised” form of FSD.
