WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department is expected on Monday to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on American roads due to national security concerns, two sources told Reuters.
The Biden administration has raised serious concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on U.S. drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the internet and navigation systems.
The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the decision had not been publicly disclosed.
The move is a significant escalation in the United States’ ongoing restrictions on Chinese vehicles, software and components. Last week, the Biden administration locked in steep tariff hikes on Chinese imports, including a 100% duty on electric vehicles as well as new hikes on EV batteries and key minerals.
I wish they’d propose a mandate on having the option for disconnected vehicles sold in the US, instead. Privacy-conscious people should not have to resort to finding and disconnecting antennas to reclaim privacy from sketchy data collection. I get that China is the big bad wolf in this discussion, but American companies are just as bad with the data hoarding and erosion of privacy.
What about israeli tech tho? That’s the only civilian tech that I’ve seen used in terrorist attacks.
9/11 ring a bell?
Is a commercial airliner really civilian?
What else would it be?
Commercial? Enterprise?
Did we all forget about the study from Mozilla on vehicle data collection?
The fact of the matter is that every single new connected product is collecting data on anyone who uses it. Once the data is collected, it’s sold. Once it’s on the market, that data is used by every country. China will eventually get data on US drivers regardless of what make they drive, the US government just wants first dibs.
I’m not one of those people who think that China and Russia are some kind of utopic ideal we should all be working towards. The US government is also not a shining beacon of ethics.Yeah, obviously it’s not the point, but I would love a ban on car data collection instead.
Given how much lobbying power the American automotive industry has, I don’t think that will ever happen.
It’s weird how they charge you $40k for a car, which almost every American needs just to survive, sell your data in addition to that, and still need to be bailed out by the taxpayer regularly.
I want them to write an actual KOSA bill that would introduce privacy laws and would prevent this stuff. But nah it’s more like Kill Online Safety Act and do nothing about the real problems.
They probably would if they weren’t being payed by lobby groups not to. Or at least one would hope they would.
Effectively just a ban on Chinese EV’s to protect American car companies that can’t keep up with them.
Nice to know Chinese EVs will be the choice for privacy-minded individuals in the US soon. Being cheaper than western brands is a nice big fat cherry on top.
the optimal approach would be to embrace public transport and let cars go the way of carthorses.
How about we ban software in cars in general, beyond basic engine control.
There’s plenty of useful software in cars: collision avoidance systems, automatic breaking systems, pedestrian detection systems, etc. Personally I love android auto / carplay for my audio books for my commute.
They definitely got their priorities set straight.
Nortel’s revenge?
How would that even work? There is so much open source software in cars where you have no idea where the programmer is from. Best example https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/XZ_Utils_backdoor
This probably can’t be great news for Chinese-owned Volvo.
This has a fair reason. If war were to break out the Chinese government could, hypothetically, hijack, kill, or break all their cars in the country.
