Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently landed in China for a visit that surprised the electric vehicle community. But while Musk’s typical visits to China usually involve Shanghai, where Teslas’s Gigafactory Shanghai is located, the CEO’s visit today was to the nation’s capital, Beijing. Videos taken of Musk also showed that he met with high-ranking officials right after he landed.
On Sunday local time, Chinese electric vehicle watchers observed that Musk’s private jet was en route to Beijing. Considering that Tesla’s manufacturing facilities were located in Shanghai, some EV watchers speculated that Musk might be meeting with government officials this time around.
Elon Musk's private plane is in Beijing. pic.twitter.com/0DKKJrpJrk— Yan Chang (@cyfoxcat) April 28, 2024
Musk’s private jet did arrive in Beijing, and Tesla watchers reported that the CEO was soon riding in a convoy of vehicles comprised of one Tesla Model S sedan and two Tesla Model X SUVs. Later posts by industry watchers suggested that Musk’s rather sudden visit to China was in response to an invitation from the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT).
$TSLA
NEWS: At the invitation of the China International Trade Promotion Committee, Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on the afternoon of the 28th.
– Chinese International Trade Promotion Council President Ren Hongbin met with Musk to discuss the next steps of cooperation. https://t.co/QwRtcoOa71 pic.twitter.com/2dzWdGdj9O— Tsla Chan (@Tslachan) April 28, 2024
Musk, who was accompanied by Tesla executives such as Tom Zhu, SVP, Automotive, and VP Grace Tao, was later seen with Ren Hongbin, the chairman of the CCPIT. Later videos from Chinese media featuring the CEO revealed that Musk also met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. Musk later shared a post about the visit on X, stating that he and the high-ranking government official had known each other since the early days of Gigafactory Shanghai.
$TSLA ??
Elon: "I'm very happy to see the development of electric vehicles.”
In addition, “all cars will be electric in China's future.” pic.twitter.com/3i3c277CTV— Tsla Chan (@Tslachan) April 28, 2024
“Honored to meet with Premier Li Qiang. We have known each other now for many years, since early Shanghai days,” Musk wrote in a post on X.
Honored to meet with Premier Li Qiang.
We have known each other now for many years, since early Shanghai days. pic.twitter.com/JCnv6MbZ6W— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2024
The reason behind Musk’s seemingly sudden visit to China remains to be seen, though expectations are high among industry watchers in China that the trip might be related to the highly-anticipated release of Full Self Driving (FSD) in the country. If any, the timing of Musk’s visit seems quite interesting as news recently emerged indicating that Tesla, together with other manufacturers such as BYD, have met all data processing requirements in China.
CCTV News Broadcast: Premier Li Qiang met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Premier Li Qiang stated: Tesla's development in China can be considered a successful example of Sino-American economic and trade cooperation. The facts have shown that equal cooperation and mutual benefit are… pic.twitter.com/C1hIxvh7N0— Yan Chang (@cyfoxcat) April 28, 2024
Tesla has a number of incentives to launch FSD in China at the soonest time possible. The country is home to the world’s largest and most competitive electric vehicle market, so having an extremely advanced driver-assist system like FSD (Supervised) should help Tesla gain an advantage over its rivals in the country. Tesla China’s fleet is also very large, with the company noting that it has served over 1.7 million customers in the last 10 years. Such a large fleet could provide a substantial amount of real-world training data for Tesla’s FSD efforts, potentially accelerating the progress of FSD even further.
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Anti-Tesla union leader ditches X, urges use of Threads instead
Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now.
Marie Nilsson, chair of Sweden’s IF Metall union and a prominent critic of Tesla, has left X and is urging audiences to follow the union on Meta’s Threads instead.
Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now.
Anti-Tesla union leader exits X
In a comment to Dagens Arbete (DA), Nilsson noted that her exit from X is not formally tied to IF Metall’s long-running labor dispute with Tesla Sweden. Still, she stated that her departure is affected by changes to the platform under Elon Musk’s leadership.
“We have stayed because many journalists pick up news there. But as more and more people have left X, we have felt that the standard has now been reached on that platform,” she said.
Jesper Pettersson, press officer at IF Metall, highlighted that the union’s departure from X is only indirectly linked to Tesla Sweden and Elon Musk. “Indirectly it does, since there is a lot of evidence that his ownership has caused the change in the platform to be so significant.
“We have nevertheless assessed that the platform had value for reaching journalists, politicians and other opinion leaders. But it is a microscopic proportion of the public and our members who are there, and now that value has decreased,” Petterson added.
IF Metall sees Threads as an X alternative
After leaving X, IF Metall has begun using Threads, Meta’s alternative to the social media platform. The union described the move as experimental, noting that it is still evaluating how effective the platform will be for outreach and visibility.
Pettersson acknowledged that Meta also does not operate under Sweden’s collective bargaining model, but said the union sees little alternative if it wants to remain visible online.
“In a perfect world, all large international companies would be supporters of the Swedish model when they come here. But unfortunately, the reality is not like that. If we are to be visible at all in this social media world, we have to play by the rules of the game. The alternative would be to become completely invisible, and that would not benefit our members,” he said.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk confirms SpaceX is not developing a phone
Despite many recent rumors and various reports, Elon Musk confirmed today that SpaceX is not developing a phone based on Starlink, not once, but twice.
Today’s report from Reuters cited people familiar with the matter and stated internal discussions have seen SpaceX executives mulling the idea of building a mobile device that would connect directly to the Starlink satellite constellation.
Musk did state in late January that SpaceX developing a phone was “not out of the question at some point.” However, He also said it would have to be a major difference from current phones, and would be optimized “purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.”
Not out of the question at some point. It would be a very different device than current phones. Optimized purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2026
While Musk said it was not out of the question “at some point,” that does not mean it is currently a project SpaceX is working on. The CEO reaffirmed this point twice on X this afternoon.
Musk said, “Reuters lies relentlessly,” in one post. In the next, he explicitly stated, “We are not developing a phone.”
Reuters lies relentlessly
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026
We are not developing a phone
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026
Musk has basically always maintained that SpaceX has too many things going on, denying that a phone would be in the realm of upcoming projects. There are too many things in the works for Musk’s space exploration company, most notably the recent merger with xAI.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
A Starlink phone would be an excellent idea, especially considering that SpaceX operates 9,500 satellites, serving over 9 million users worldwide. 650 of those satellites are dedicated to the company’s direct-to-device initiative, which provides cellular coverage on a global scale.
Nevertheless, there is the potential that the Starlink phone eventually become a project SpaceX works on. However, it is not currently in the scope of what the company needs to develop, so things are more focused on that as of right now.
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Tesla adds notable improvement to Dashcam feature
Tesla has added a notable improvement to its Dashcam feature after complaints from owners have pushed the company to make a drastic change.
Perhaps one of the biggest frustrations that Tesla owners have communicated regarding the Dashcam feature is the lack of ability to retain any more than 60 minutes of driving footage before it is overwritten.
It does not matter what size USB jump drive is plugged into the vehicle. 60 minutes is all it will hold until new footage takes over the old. This can cause some issues, especially if you were saving an impressive clip of Full Self-Driving or an incident on the road, which could be lost if new footage was recorded.
This has now been changed, as Tesla has shown in the Release Notes for an upcoming Software Update in China. It will likely expand to the U.S. market in the coming weeks, and was first noticed by NotaTeslaApp.
The release notes state:
“Dashcam Dynamic Recording Duration – The dashcam dynamically adjusts the recording duration based on the available storage capacity of the connected USB drive. For example, with a 128 GB USB drive, the maximum recording duration is approximately 3 hours; with a 1 TB or larger USB drive, it can reach up to 24 hours. This ensures that as much video as possible is retained for review before it gets overwritten.”
Tesla Adds Dynamic Recording
Instead of having a 60-minute cap, the new system will now go off the memory in the USB drive. This means with:
- 128 GB Jump Drive – Up to Three Hours of Rolling Footage
- 1TB Jump Drive – Up to 24 Hours of Rolling Footage
This is dependent on the amount of storage available on the jump drive, meaning that if there are other things saved on it, it will take away from the amount of footage that can be retained.
While the feature is just now making its way to employees in China, it will likely be at least several weeks before it makes its way to the U.S., but owners should definitely expect it in the coming months.
It will be a welcome feature, especially as there will now be more customization to the number of clips and their duration that can be stored.