Tesla cars banned by China military on concerns over cameras

Tesla cars banned by China military on concerns over cameras

  • The order, issued by the military, advises Tesla owners to park their cars outside of military property.
  • The ban, relayed to residents of military housing and others this week, was triggered by concerns that the world’s biggest maker of electric vehicles is collecting sensitive data via the cars’ in-built cameras in a way the Chinese government can’t see or control.
  • Tesla, like many other automakers including General Motors, uses several small cameras, mainly located on the outside of the vehicle, to help guide parking, autopilot and self-driving functions. Most Tesla models also have an interior camera mounted above the rear view mirror that can be used to detect whether a driver is looking at the road, looking down at their lap, wearing sunglasses, or looking at something else entirely.
  • Elon Musk, appearing on Saturday at the China Development Forum, a conference organised by a unit of the country’s State Council, in a session titled: The Next Disruptive Innovation?, said the carmaker would be “shut down everywhere” if it used the technology in its cars for spying.

| March 22, 2021