Elon Musk’s China trip pays off with key self-driving hurdles cleared

Musk met April 28 with Premier Li Qiang, who as the Chinese Communist Party secretary for Shanghai helped the company set up what is now its top plant globally. — AFP

Elon Musk’s lightning visit to China appears to have paid immediate dividends, with Tesla Inc clearing two key hurdles to introduce its driver-assistance system to the world’s biggest auto market.

The US electric car maker will partner with Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc for mapping and navigation functions to deploy what it calls Full-Self Driving, according to people familiar with the matter. Tesla has also passed a key data security and privacy requirement in China, which would help ease some of the concerns over its data security issues.