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Paul Triolo's avatar

The China stuff is way overwrought paranoia. Have worked with autonomous vehicle company and know exactly what kind of data they collect and do not collect and do not store. Hint, the vast majority of it is publicly available data and not sensitive infrastructure or other data and very little of it is actually retained. The cybersecurity side is also overwrought. There are a lot of efforts on this front, and securing the control systems of AVs has long been an issue and focus of companies building these systems. Data localization and other data related security measures tend to work when properly implemented. The idea that the Chinese government would want to use a Chinese EV for nefarious purposes and would choose to do target someone in an EV is frankly silly. Governments do not undermine their leading technology companies lightly in my experience. And companies are well aware of the issues are AVs and sensors and there are many ways to deal with the basic cybersecurity threats, as with any connected device. But i get it, fear sells, and fear of China, sells even more.

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Michael Dunne's avatar

Why then is China so strict about Tesla access?

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Paul Triolo's avatar

It is actually not that strict. Not allowing on military or government military installations is pretty limited measure. The sentry feature could theoretically be used to record video, but not clear how that would work, and video involves huge files that are stored on USB drives. Beijing is moving to approach FSD for Tesla in China, and Tesla has hooked up with Baidu for much more detailed mapping data, and Beijing will almost certainly approve. Chinese officials understand the risks pretty well, it would seem, and will even likely allow some of the data for training FSD in China to be sent outside China under certain conditions.

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Michael Dunne's avatar

Purpose of the article is to illuminate not what is happening today but what is possible in the future, especially given the tense relations between the U.S. and China.

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