Musk makes his second trip to China in less than a year to hurry along self-driving tech rollout, reports say

• Elon Musk visits China to expedite Tesla's full self-driving tech rollout, say reports.

• Musk is set to meet with senior Chinese officials.

• Tesla faces increased competition and scrutiny amid declining revenue and layoffs.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk touched down in China on Sunday in the tech billionaire's second trip in less than a year to the world's biggest market for electric vehicles.

The purpose of the trip is to hurry along the rollout of Tesla's full self-driving technology, the most advanced version of its Autopilot software, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter. Musk is expected to meet with senior officials to discuss the software and gain permission to transfer data overseas, the person said.

Musk also visited China in May last year when he met with China's foreign, commerce and industry ministers. The content of the meetings was not disclosed, though Reuters reported at the time that Musk had discussed the development of electric vehicles.

Earlier this month, Musk said in a post on X that Tesla would be making Full Self-Driving (FSD) available to Chinese customers "very soon."

In an earnings call on April 23, Musk said, "So we plan on, with the approval of the regulators, releasing it as a supervised autonomy system in any market that — where we can get regulatory approval for that, which we think includes China."

Tesla has been facing increased competition from Chinese manufacturers since electric vehicle maker Xpeng said last year that it was upgrading its advanced driver assistance software (FSD equivalent) and planning to make all its functions available to drivers across China by 2024.

Musk's China trip comes after he canceled a visit to India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Musk said he had "very heavy Tesla obligations."

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular working hours.

It has been a tough month for the EV manufacturer. In its earnings call last week, Tesla reported its first decline in quarterly revenue since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays to production and deliveries.

This month, The EV manufacturer said it would lay off 10% of its global workforce as it grappled with waning sales.

US federal safety regulators also said Friday that they were launching an investigation into whether Tesla's recall of more than two million vehicles in the US, which the company announced in December to install new Autopilot safeguards, was sufficient following several crashes.

Read the original article on Business Insider