In recent months, much ado has been made about Chinese vehicles and the potential competitive and national security threats they may pose in the U.S. That’s precisely why the Biden Administration recently opted to significantly raise tariffs on imported Chinese vehicles and certain raw materials used in the construction of EV batteries, while additional measures may soon place limitations on software from that part of the world as well. However, it seems as if some Chinese autonomous vehicles have already racked up serious mileage in the U.S., collecting potentially significant amounts of data in the process.
According to a new report from Fortune, a number of Chinese AVs have been operating in the U.S. since 2017, racking up 1.8 million miles in California alone since then. Equipped with cameras and geospatial mapping technology, those vehicles have collected videos, audio recordings, and location data as part of the mission to develop autonomous driving algorithms. That information is also transmitted to data centers as well.
Of the 35 autonomous vehicle companies permitted to test those models in California on public roads, seven are Chinese-owned – including WeRide, Apollo, AutoX, Pony.ai, and DiDi Research America, while others are also permitted to test on roads in Texas. At least some of the data collected by those vehicles could potentially be stored in China as well. Regardless, there is currently no oversight of this data, nor is it being checked or monitored by any U.S.-based federal agency.
This revelation is particularly interesting given the recent focus on Chinese vehicles reaching American shores and collecting sensitive data, then transferring it back to that country. These concerns have been echoed by both the U.S. government and Ford CEO Jim Farley himself, in fact. Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department plans to issue new rules pertaining to connected vehicles, in general, next month, and will also reportedly impose limits on software stemming from China and other countries of concern.
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Comments
Jack: Of course. And who was the President of the United States from January 2017 until January 2021. Ah, I thought so. Thanks for pointing it out.
Autonomous vehicles should be banned from public roads in general, and foreign owned companies should be banned from collecting images or data in the US in general.
These are both common sense things that no reasonable person would disagree with, so of course our leaders won’t like them because they’re not divisive enough.