Chinese officials reportedly welcome Tesla's robotaxi tests

Eunice Yoon is in Beijing and she has the story for us. Eunice thanks David. Well, the state backed newspaper the China Daily cited sources today suggesting that Chinese officials spoke to Elon Musk during his trip here and recent trip here and said that China quote welcomes Tesla to do some robo taxi tests in the country and hopes that it will set a good example. Now Tesla wouldn’t comment on that report, but if it did come to fruition, of course that move could potentially help Tesla to be able to experiment with this robo taxi technology in an environment that is more conducive from a regulatory standpoint versus the United States. At the same time, what was interesting is that that state news outlet had flagged that that for the moment Tesla does not actually have the approvals for a broader roll out of its full self driving or FSD driver assistance program. So with the messaging here from Beijing is that on the one hand it sees that the benefits of having Tesla here and being able to really latch on to that that technology for its own greater technology goals. But at the same time, it’s being much more cautious about this international company at a time when it is very supportive of Chinese companies and their competing driver assistance programs. The other story here, Eunice, is that that China’s ahead on this right. Don’t, don’t a number of companies in China have permission from Beijing to test this autonomous driving and these robo taxis. I mean, we saw it in the showrooms, but companies like Baidu, haven’t they been already doing this? Yeah, actually I was just talking to Baidu and next week they are having a big event. And in Wuhan where they’re already testing fully autonomous robo taxis in a like they have 300 of them in a robo taxi fleet, that’s a 24/7 service. And they said that we could go and check things out if you want to. People could just go in, call the taxi and then use the technology. And it’s just because China is really, really trying to push its leadership in autonomous as well as AI and other advanced technologies that it’s trying to get, you know, really push the envelope when it comes to these technologies. Hey, Eunice, you know, here in the States last couple of weeks, there’s been a lot of reporting about how the Chinese consumer views some American brands. Washington Post did a piece about apple and whether or not consumers were turning their back on the fruit and favouring domestic brands. Do consumers there consider Tesla American or not because of so much of their production? Is Shanghai based? It is a foreign brand. I mean it’s not you can’t say that it’s not a Chinese brand, but it is, it is loved here. I mean when you’re talking about the push from nationalism, there might be there is some of that. But I think that what we’re seeing the the greater trend and the reason why people are are looking at a more local brands is just because they tend to be cheaper on the whole and people are much more budget conscious than they were in the past. Finally Eunice, back to full self driving. I mean I think it it bears repeating and I want your opinion when the Chinese government gets behind something, it can happen pretty quickly can’t it? Yeah, it can. And I think that’s why it was interesting to see what was discussed in the state media, a report, because that’s a way that the Chinese government signals what it intends to do. So on the one hand, they’re saying that Chinese officials would welcome this robo taxi technology, but on the other hand they’re saying, oh, but you know, you don’t have full approval. The other part that was interesting was the, the, the wording when they said that they believe that Tesla would be good to set an example. And Tesla in the past with his EVs had set a very good example because it came into the market when people didn’t really like EVs and suddenly people thought Tesla’s amazing, we love these cars, so they just gravitated towards EVs and that was really one of the reasons why you saw such a huge take up in EVs here. And I think when it says, when the government says they want to set an example, you could imagine it’s an area where they’re hoping that a Tesla comes in with its robo taxi technology and that it sets an example for the others and that the Chinese companies start to compete more and then eventually the Chinese companies come over and then potentially dominate. And that’s kind of what the the we’ve seen that the Beijing authorities hope will that they’ll be able to achieve with this. Yeah. And as Morgan Stanley said, it is interesting if there is that kind of detente between the government and and a man, an owner with a a cute clearance here in the States. What does that mean for for overall relations Eunice, we always learn so much. Thank you. Eunice Yun today in Beijing.