A group of US congressmen, including Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House China Affairs Committee, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, asked 10 Chinese companies to respond sooner. on Nov. 29 to questions about data collection practices in autonomous vehicle testing. in California and elsewhere.
The congressmen believe that Chinese companies “collect sensitive information about American citizens and their daily lives, the country’s infrastructure and connected technologies.”
Reuters reviewed the congressmen’s letters. Among the Chinese companies they ship to are: Baidu, Nio, WeRide, Didi Chuxing, Xpeng, Inceptio, Pony.ai, AutoX, Deeproute.ai and Qcraft.
“There needs to be greater transparency about what information is collected when testing on American roads and whether you are financially affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party,” the questions from US lawmakers read.
American lawmakers are interested in knowing what data is collected in the United States, whether it is stored in China, and whether it is transferred to the Chinese government or others. Additionally, congressmen question whether self-driving cars collect data on American infrastructure during testing.
From November 2021 to November 2022, Chinese autonomous vehicle companies conducted mock tests in California, covering a distance of more than 450,000 miles (725,000 km).
In July of this year, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also expressed concern about the activities of Chinese companies producing autonomous vehicles in the United States, calling it a national security issue.
“Whether it’s hardware or software, there are concerns about transportation technology in the same way that there are concerns about telecommunications or TikTok,” Buttigieg said in an interview with Reuters.