Musk makes surprise visit to Beijing as Tesla's China-made cars pass data security rules

cnbc.com:

BEIJING — Local Chinese authorities have removed restrictions on Tesla cars after the company's China-made vehicles passed the country's data security requirements, the automaker said Sunday.

The breakthrough came as Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing for an unexpected meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, amid the first major auto show in the city in four years.

Although Tesla's electric cars are some of the most popular vehicles in China, they have reportedly been banned from some government-related properties due to concerns about what data the U.S.-based automaker can collect.

Tesla's press release did not specify which local authorities had removed restrictions on the cars. The Biden administration earlier this year announced a probe into whether imported cars from China pose national security risks due to their ability to potentially collect data about the U.S. and send it back to China.

Tesla's vehicles were not the only ones that passed the data security rules.

In addition to Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y, several new energy vehicles from BYD, Lotus, Nezha, Li Auto and Nio passed China's data security requirements, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China said Sunday.

The new data security requirements for «connected vehicles» were released in November and cover cars released in 2022 and 2023 which automakers voluntarily submit for inspection, the center said.

The rules test for whether the cars anonymize facial recognition data outside the vehicle, default to not collecting cockpit data, process that data inside the car and prominently notify users of personal information processing. Tesla was included in