(Adds details in paragraphs 3 onward on Full Self-Driving and

data)

       SHANGHAI, April 28 (Reuters) - Tesla TSLA.O CEO Elon

Musk was on a flight heading to Beijing on Sunday to kick off a

surprise trip in the electric vehicle maker's second-biggest

market, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

    Musk is seeking to meet senior Chinese officials in Beijing

to discuss the rollout of Full-Self Driving (FSD) software in

China and to obtain approval to transfer data collected in the

country abroad to train algorithms for its autonomous driving

technologies, one of the people said.

    Tesla has since 2021 stored all data collected by its

Chinese fleet in Shanghai as required by Chinese regulators and

has not transferred any back to the United States.  

    The U.S. EV maker rolled out FSD, the most autonomous

version of its Autopilot software, four years ago but has yet to

make it available in China despite customers urging it to do so.

    Musk said this month Tesla may make FSD available to

customers in China "very soon", in response to a query on social

media platform X.

    Rival Chinese automakers such as Xpeng 9868.HK have been

seeking to gain an advantage over Tesla by rolling out similar

software.

    Musk's visit to China was not flagged publicly and the

people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not

authorised to speak with media. Tesla did not respond

immediately to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Jamie Freed)

((Zoey.Zhang@thomsonreuters.com;))