A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers raised alarm about Chinese language firms gathering and dealing with delicate information whereas testing autonomous automobiles in america, based on letters seen by Reuters on Thursday.
The lawmakers, together with Home of Representatives Vitality and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers and China choose committee Chair Mike Gallagher, requested 10 Chinese language-related firms to reply questions by Nov. 29 on information assortment practices from ongoing autonomous car testing in California and elsewhere.
The businesses – together with Baidu, Nio, WeRide, Didi Chuxing, Xpeng, Inceptio, Pony.ai, AutoX, Deeproute.ai and Qcraft – didn’t reply to requests for remark or couldn’t instantly be reached.
The beforehand unreported letters, additionally signed by Democrats Frank Pallone and Raja Krishnamoorti and 10 different lawmakers, mentioned the businesses “acquire delicate details about our residents and their every day routines, the nation’s infrastructure, and linked applied sciences.”
“There must be higher transparency round what info you acquire whereas testing on American roads, and whether or not you’re financially tied to the Chinese language Communist Get together,” based on the beforehand unreported letters.
The lawmakers requested what information is collected in america, whether or not it’s saved in China, and whether it is shared with the Chinese language authorities or others. Additionally they requested if the automobiles acquire information on U.S. infrastructure throughout testing.
The letters mentioned within the 12 months ended November 2022 that Chinese language AV firms check drove greater than 450,000 miles in California.
In July, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned his company had nationwide safety considerations about Chinese language autonomous car firms in america.
“Whether or not we’re speaking about {hardware} or software program, in the identical approach there are considerations round telecom or TikTok, there are considerations round transportation applied sciences,” Buttigieg advised Reuters.
