news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

written by / liu baohua

edit / huang da road

design / zhao haoran

source / bloomberg, reuters, etc.

according to bloomberg and reuters, for national security reasons, the u.s. department of commerce proposed on september 23 to ban the use of chinese software and hardware in u.s. connected vehicles and self-driving cars.

the biden administration has expressed serious concerns about chinese companies collecting data on u.s. drivers and infrastructure, and about the potential for foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the internet and navigation systems.

the proposed regulations would ban the import and sale of vehicles with critical communications or autonomous driving system software or hardware from china, according to sources. the move is a major escalation of ongoing u.s. restrictions on chinese cars, software and parts. last week, the biden administration locked in a sharp increase in tariffs on chinese imports, including a 100% tariff on electric vehicles and a new round of tariff increases on electric vehicle batteries and key minerals.

commerce secretary gina raimondo said in may that the risk of chinese software or hardware in u.s. connected cars is significant. “theoretically, if you had millions of cars on the road and the software was disabled, you could imagine the most catastrophic outcomes,” she said.

president joe biden in february ordered an investigation into whether chinese auto imports pose a national security risk to connected car technology and whether software and hardware from china should be banned from all vehicles on u.s. roads.

the commerce department plans to propose a ban on software to take effect in 2027 and a ban on hardware in january 2029 or 2030. the bans would include vehicles with certain bluetooth, satellite and wireless networking capabilities, as well as highly automated vehicles that can operate without a driver.

a bipartisan group of u.s. lawmakers has expressed concerns about chinese auto and technology companies collecting and processing sensitive data when testing self-driving cars in the united states.

sources said the ban targets all countries defined by the biden administration as "foreign entities of concern," including china, russia and other six countries. however, only china has the ability to export cars to the united states, so the ban is essentially aimed at china.

a trade group representing major automakers including general motors, toyota, volkswagen, hyundai and others warned that changing hardware and software takes time. the automakers noted that their systems "go through an extensive pre-production engineering, testing and validation process and generally cannot be easily switched from a different supplier's system."

the commerce department declined to comment. relatively few chinese-made light vehicles are currently imported into the united states.

according to the government website, on september 19, the white house approved the final proposal for the above regulations, which are aimed at ensuring the security of the u.s. connected vehicle supply chain. the regulations will apply to all vehicles on u.s. roads, but not agricultural or mining vehicles. a 30-day public consultation platform will be opened before the final formal regulations are issued.

biden noted that most cars are connected like smartphones on wheels, to each other, to navigation systems, to critical infrastructure and to the companies that make them.

reuters commented that this move is a major escalation of the us's ongoing restrictions on chinese cars, software and parts. in february this year, biden announced that he would launch an investigation into chinese-made connected cars. on september 13, the us government just finalized the implementation details of the new 301 tariffs on chinese goods worth $18 billion, including raising the tariff on chinese electric vehicles to 100%, most of which will take effect on the 27th of this month.

on august 4, reuters cited people familiar with the matter to disclose some details of the proposed regulations for the first time. for example, the regulations will prohibit the use of chinese software in u.s. level 3 and above autonomous driving cars (the u.s. autonomous driving is divided into 5 levels from l1 to l5, and l3 is conditional autonomous driving), as well as the testing of autonomous driving cars produced by chinese companies on u.s. roads.

the legislation also plans to ban vehicles equipped with advanced wireless communication function modules developed in china from being on u.s. roads. under the proposal, automakers and suppliers will need to verify that their connected car or self-driving car software is not developed in "foreign entities of concern" such as china.

china is a major supplier of electric vehicles and smart car parts. on the other hand, although china's automobile production and sales have ranked first in the world for 14 consecutive years, the layout of china's mainstream automakers in the us market can be basically ignored. according to the china passenger car association, the total number of passenger cars exported from china to the united states in 2023 will be 74,800, accounting for only 1.4% of the total exports; new energy passenger cars will be 18,600, accounting for only 0.4%.

the development of intelligent vehicles is an industry trend. almost all newer vehicles on us roads are connected vehicles, which makes all automakers vulnerable. south korean media previously reported that the south korean auto industry is worried that most of the vehicles recently launched may fall into the restricted range if they are not careful.

a south korean automaker employee told hankyoreh: "connected cars are a big concept with many functions. if the technology and parts cannot be made from china, even small parts such as bolts cannot be made from china, and most vehicles will be restricted."

the south korean government and industry submitted a letter of opinion to the us government at the end of april. the letter stated that they understand the measures taken by the us to respond to security threats, but due to the wide scope of the investigation of the connected car supply chain, there are many potential uncertainties, and the implementation time of the control measures will put great pressure on the south korean automobile manufacturing industry.

the alliance for automotive innovation (aai) and the european automobile manufacturers association (acea) also emphasized the complexity of the automotive industry's supply chain and recommended that the us department of commerce conduct a full investigation and research on this.

the detroit news quoted a staff member of consulting firm guidance insight as saying: "if you want to stop importing chinese-made cars, then do it, don't make up excuses... this is just politics."