BEIJING, June 13 (Reuters) - China on Friday published

draft guidance to regulate the export of data generated by cars

in the country, providing a potential roadmap for companies such

as Tesla that have been keen to do so.

The industry ministry detailed different scenarios where it

may or may not require security assessments for companies

seeking to transfer data abroad.

For example, it said data collected in China for training

and developing autonomous driving or advanced driving assistance

systems was categorised as 'important' data that would require

approvals for outbound transfers, according to the drafted rules

that are open to public comment until July 13.

It granted some exemptions, for instance to data processing

companies registered in the country's free trade zones, saying

that they would not require approval to transfer abroad any data

that had not been classified as restricted by the free trade

zone.

Tesla has been seeking approval from Chinese regulators to

transfer data collected from its fleet of more than 2 million

EVs in China, currently saved locally in Shanghai, back to the

United States for training its autonomous driving algorithms.

The U.S. also does not allow Tesla to train its AI software

in China, a situation chief executive Elon Musk has described as

a "quandary", which undermines the performance of its Full

Self-Driving software on Chinese roads.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters

for comment on the drafted rules.