(News Bulletin 247) – Following a whirlwind visit by Elon Musk to China, Tesla has obtained regulatory obstacles removed to develop its advanced driver assistance system, according to several American media. Its stock is still soaring on Wall Street.

It will have been a quick visit but a priori fruitful. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, made a quick and unexpected visit to Beijing on Sunday, notably posting images on the X network of his meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang.

In the process, the American media reported several important advances for the American manufacturer specializing in electric vehicles. Tesla was able to obtain “a key data security and privacy requirement that would ease some of the concerns surrounding bringing FSD to market in China,” reports Bloomberg.

“After a series of meetings with senior officials in Beijing, the Chinese government has agreed for Tesla to deploy its advanced driver assistance service in the automaker’s second-largest market,” explains the company. Wall Street Journal.

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Partnership with Baidu

FSD, for “full self driving”, corresponds to advanced driver assistance technologies, software solutions that the group intends to introduce in China and more widely share with other automotive players in the form of licenses, which would generate new sources of income.

In addition, Bloomberg indicated, citing sources close to the matter, that the Chinese tech group Baidu and Tesla had formed a partnership on the mapping and navigation technologies necessary for technical support of the FSD.

Beijing’s full approval of the FSD, if confirmed, could provide significant support to Tesla, whose revenues recently declined in the first quarter, and as its sales suffer in China.

“A turning point”

On Wall Street, Tesla shares jumped another 13.5% in pre-opening trading on Monday. The stock had already gained 12% after the publication of its quarterly results. If the group’s accounts strictly speaking were poor, the market appreciated the fact that the group accelerated its timetable for launching new vehicles.

“Musk’s obtaining approval of the FSD in the key market of China constitutes in our eyes a turning point in the history of Tesla,” said Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush, on Monday.

“While Tesla’s long-term valuation story revolves around FSD and autonomous driving, a key missing piece of this puzzle is Tesla’s availability of FSD in China, which is now it’s done,” he believes.

“If Musk is able to gain approval from Beijing to transfer data collected in China overseas, this would be key to accelerating the training of his algorithms for his autonomous technology on a global scale,” adds the analyst.