Chinese Government Gets Real Time Location Tracking Data On Electric Vehicles
November 29th, 2018Via: East Bay Times:
When Shan Junhua bought his white Tesla Model X, he knew it was a fast, beautiful car. What he didn’t know is that Tesla constantly sends information about the precise location of his car to the Chinese government.
Tesla is not alone. China has called upon all electric vehicle manufacturers in China to make the same kind of reports — potentially adding to the rich kit of surveillance tools available to the Chinese government as President Xi Jinping steps up the use of technology to track Chinese citizens.
“I didn’t know this,” said Shan. “Tesla could have it, but why do they transmit it to the government? Because this is about privacy.”
More than 200 manufacturers, including Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Mitsubishi and U.S.-listed electric vehicle startup NIO, transmit position information and dozens of other data points to government-backed monitoring centers, The Associated Press has found. Generally, it happens without car owners’ knowledge.
The automakers say they are merely complying with local laws, which apply only to alternative energy vehicles. Chinese officials say the data is used for analytics to improve public safety, facilitate industrial development and infrastructure planning, and to prevent fraud in subsidy programs.
But other countries that are major markets for electronic vehicles — the United States, Japan, across Europe — do not collect this kind of real-time data.
Let’s make a bet : how many months will it be before we see a headline blurting out something like “Automakers Sharing Vehicle Data with Global Intelligence Agencies”…?
Cause yeah, the Chinese are bad and western governments only have our best interests at heart. (insert sarcasm emoji here) Google must surely follow their own motto, right…?
The logic is inescapable. It simply requires the suspension of disbelief, just like any good fictional tale.
The enabling technology is baked in. Of course data is being collected. Mobile phones have been trackable since initial development.
Cassandra told me so a long time ago.