AsianFin-- Local Chinese authorities have removed restrictions on Tesla cars after the company’s China-made vehicles passed the country’s data security requirements, paving the way for its self-driving cars to enter the China market.  

The breakthrough came as Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a surprise visit to China on Sunday and engaged in productive discussions with Chinese officials.

Following the meeting, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers issued a statement, confirming Tesla's compliance with relevant data security requirements. Meanwhile, restrictions will be eased across various regions. In particular, all Tesla models produced at the Shanghai Gigafactory meet these regulatory standards, making Tesla the sole foreign company to do so.

According to the announcement, during the vehicle inspection process, Tesla complied with relevant laws, regulations, standards, and testing procedures to meet the compliance requirements of relevant national regulations. Measures include anonymizing facial information outside the vehicle, not collecting cabin data by default, processing cabin data in the vehicle, and providing clear notifications when processing personal information.

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,” released last November, cover cars rolled out in 2022 and 2023 which automakers voluntarily submit for inspection, according to the center.

In accordance with the rules, cars must anonymize facial recognition data outside the vehicle, default to not collecting cockpit data, process cabin data inside the car and explicitly notify users of personal information processing. Tesla was included in the first batch of automakers that met the data compliance requirements.

Tesla said in its press release that it localized data storage in 2021 at its Shanghai data center, and passed the ISO 27001 international standard for information security after a review by third-party auditors.

Earlier, concerns over potential security risks linked to Tesla's "Sentry Mode" camera feature had prompted Chinese authorities to impose restrictions on Tesla vehicles entering certain Chinese mainland locations, including government institutions and local agencies, airports and highways.

Meanwhile, Baidu, China's major Internet search company, reached an agreement with Tesla to grant the car company access to its mapping license for data collection on China's public roads, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter said.

The deal clears a final regulatory hurdle for Tesla's driver assistance system, which Tesla calls Full Self Driving (FSD), to be offered in China, the sources said. As part of the deal, Baidu would also provide its lane-level navigation system to Tesla, they said.

Musk met Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing Sunday during the chief executive’s surprising trip.  Li highlighted Beijing’s commitment to opening up and improving economic and trade ties between China and the United States.