Bloomberg reported late in March that a military order instructs Tesla drivers to park their cars outside any military property in China. Tesla vehicles have an interior camera mounted above the car’s rear-view mirror and uses several small cameras on the outside to assist with parking, autopilot, and for self-driving functions.
Earlier in March, Tesla’s co-founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company’s full self-driving (FSD) beta trial had been expanded to c. 2,000 owners and Bloomberg writes that concerns around this programme have contributed to the ban. However, Tesla says none of the in-car cameras in vehicles sold in China are turned on or are even part of the FSD trial in order for the company’s privacy policy in that country to comply with China’s laws and regulations.
At the annual China Development Forum, which is organised by a unit of the government's State Council, Musk said that his company's cars would never be used for spying in China, stating that "There's a very strong incentive for us to be very confidential with any information," and adding that "If Tesla uses cars to spy in China or anywhere, we will get shut down."
Meanwhile, The South China Morning Post reported that Musk may visit China in April. China is the world’s largest EV market and key to Tesla’s global growth ambitions. Tesla received strong support from the Chinese state to build its Gigafactory near Shanghai, the first outside of the US, and Musk’s strategy has been one of respectfulness to the Chinese government, while he has been known to have a more combative approach in the US.
According to a Wedbush Securities’ report released in March, China is critical to Tesla's global strategy, and "remains the linchpin" that justifies a higher stock price for Tesla in the coming years.
Written exclusively for Moore South Africa by Steven Benjamin from
Anchor Research.