Tesla Said to Launch Self-Driving System in China after Confirmation of Vehicle Data Stored Locally

BEIJING, August 15 (TiPost)— Tesla stressed all the data about its electric vehicles (EVs) driven in China stored locally, seeking to assure the public that the U.S. EV giant is addressing one of the main public concerns regarding autonomous driving technology.

Credit：Visual China

Tesla plans to build an operation team of about 20 people initially to promote deployment of beta autonomous driving assistance system FDS (Full Self-Driving) in China, Chinese digital news media outlet 36Kr reported on Tuesday. “Tesla has sent engineers from the headquarters for training,” 36Kr cited people with knowledge of the matter in the industry. 36Kr learned Tesla was also working to establish a team for data labeling with more than 100 staff in China, which can be deemed as a preparation for training the FSD algorithm.

A day prior the report, Tesla just confirmed it stores data involving vehicles in China locally. Tesla has established a data center in China to localize data storage, and all the data generated by EVs sold in the mainland China market will be stored in China, according to a post of the company’s official account at Chinese Twitter-like social media Weibo. Tesla, as one of the first batch of companies that launched pilots, used to actively participate in relevant pilot orchestrated by authorities when China started to implement Regulations on Data Security Management of the Automotive in October 2021, the post noted.

The post came after reports spread at social media that Yueyang Sanhe Airport, an airport in central China’s Henan province, was not allowed Tesla vehicles to use its parking lot due to security concern. Staff of the airport was said that Tesla cars’ security feature that scans the car’s surrounding for suspicious activities risks compromising sensitive data. 

The Tesla post clarified the Sentry Mode is a standard intelligent vehicle security system that all mainstream smart vehicles adopt to nowadays, not the unique feature of Tesla, and drivers have to activate Sentry Mode by themselves since the mode is disabled by default. If any threat like damage or theft were detected, Sentry Mode would send an alert to vehicle owners while recording any suspicious activities outside of the vehicle through external cameras, and saving the clips to the USB flash drive. The post noted the mode has assisted the police in solving many vehicle damage and theft cases. Unlike other auto brands that enable vehicles to monitor the surroundings remotely at the sentry mode, Tesla vehicles at present can only store their data offline in the USB, the post said, underlining that neither the owner nor Tesla itself can monitor or have access to the environment around the car remotely.

Tesla completed construction of its Gigafatory data center and a research and development (R&D) and innovation center in Shanghai in October, 2021. On the sidelines of the completion of the new centers,Zhu Xiaotong, the then-president of Tesla’s greater China region, said that Tesla has been fulfilling its commitment to focusing on the Chinese market amid the global transition to sustainable energy.  

Tesla has been intensifing the price war in China this year. It lowered price by up to 13% in China on January 6, making the starting price of Model Y and Model 3 down to new low and about 43% and 30% cheaper than those on sale in U.S. Tesla China surprisingly raised prices twice in four days in May after CEO Elon Musk signaled more cuts to come at the earnings call in April. But Musk suggested last month that his company more price cuts despite the earnings in the second quarter severely dented by major price cuts.

Tesla said on Monday that it has reduced , the starting prices prices for certain Model Y long-range and performance versions by RMB14,000 (US$1,935), or down 4.5% and 3.8%, in China. Following the cuts that day, two versions now cost as low as RMB299,900 and RMB349,900, respectively. 

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