Tesla is in the news this morning about a suspected ban of its vehicles on Chinese military complexes, but that’s why it’s not really a big issue.
This morning, several news outlets are running with some versions of the headline: “Tesla banned from Chinese military bases.”
Based on the headlines, you would think that the Chinese military views Tesla vehicles as time bombs that could pose a danger, but it’s less ominous than that.
The news comes from a notice issued by The People’s Liberation Army, China’s army, on one of its bases asking Tesla owners not to park the vehicles on bases and in housing complexes:
There are concerns about Tesla vehicles being equipped with multiple cameras that record data and send it back to Tesla to improve the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving system.
The military has rules about registering its property, and the systems in Tesla vehicles can infringe on it.
That’s it.
Clearly, the US has similar concerns about consumer products from China spying on it, such as the US ban on Huawei products or DJI recently added to the US entity list.
But more specifically with respect to Tesla vehicles, when U.S. police departments began looking at Tesla vehicles as possible patrol vehicles, they had similar concerns about the implication that Tesla’s camera systems share data.
Tesla gives owners the option to share video data as part of the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving program.
Eventually, one police department even partnered with Tesla to use the cameras in Tesla vehicles for their patrol vehicles instead of using third-party cameras installed.
But we expect the issue of smart cameras that will eventually be controlled by Tesla to become a more complicated issue in the coming months and years in the case of safety. What do you think?
FTC: We use revenue to earn automatically affiliate links. More.
Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.