U.S. lawmakers and regulators understandably have a hard time allowing anything with a connection to China into the lives of American consumers, especially connected devices like smartphones and computers. Vehicles are increasingly becoming the “next big thing” when it comes to connected services, and the U.S. Commerce Secretary warned that Chinese connected cars could be next under the ban hammer.
Secretary Gina Raimondo recently said the Biden Administration could take “extreme action” to ban Chinese vehicles or enact strong restrictions on them after a review of public comments.
“We have to digest all the data and then figure out what action that we want to take. We could take extreme action, which is to say no Chinese connected vehicles in the United States or look for mitigation,” Raimondo said.
The worry is that vehicles could collect and share Americans’ data with the Chinese government. President Biden has noted that he will work to prevent vehicle imports from the country, but it’s unclear how far that could go or how a policy would be implemented.
While there are few Chinese-made vehicles on sale here now, automakers like Volvo are owned by Chinese companies, which could complicate efforts to further block their sale here. Other automakers, such as those from South Korea (Hyundai, Kia, Genesis), worry that action against China could cause problems as the global nature of their supply chains run afoul of new regulations.
[Image: Chachai Somwat/Shutterstock.com]
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