Chinese companies are actively developing autonomous vehicles. In August, China announced the release of 16,000 test licenses self-driving cars and has opened approximately 20,000 miles of roads across the country for self-driving car testing.
But Chinese self-driving car companies are also quietly testing their technology on U.S. streets.
Baidu, Didi Chuxing, WeRide, Pony.ai and AutoX all have offices in Northern California, alongside many U.S. self-driving car companies. The five companies combined tested more than 1.6 million miles on California roads between 2017 and 2023, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which issues test licenses to companies aiming to test autonomous vehicles in the state. . Of the five companies, Didi is the only one that no longer has a valid AV testing license, according to the DMV website.
Michael Dunne, CEO and founder of consulting firm Dunne Insights, told CNBC that China has “full authority” to test self-driving cars in California.
“They recognized that Silicon Valley was the cradle of self-driving car technology,” Dunn said, “and they hired a lot of people who had worked at Apple or Tesla or Waymo or Cruise and said, ‘Let’s recruit the best talent we have. Funding, we hope to build a world-class company, bring it back to China, apply it to our huge domestic market, and then we can start operating.
But now, concerned about the vast amounts of data these cars collect and the potential impact on national security, the U.S. government has proposed a prohibit About connected cars in China.
Missy Cummings, a former senior safety adviser at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told CNBC the ban is a good start.
“These vehicles are very much surveillance machines,” Cummings said. “They have multiple cameras looking at everything from different angles, and they can repeat the same pattern over and over again every day under the guise of testing.”
Cummings added that the vehicles collect “critical information that may not appear confidential but is certainly sensitive about lifestyles, vehicles entering and exiting certain facilities, and how we actually operate our supply chains.”
Texas Rep. Marc Veasey told CNBC he was worried, too. Last year, he and three other representatives wrote a letter The Biden administration has detailed its concerns about threats to national security and competitiveness posed by Chinese autonomous vehicles operating in the United States.
Feeling increasing scrutiny, Chinese self-driving car companies have pull back from the united states
Dunn told CNBC that at the peak of China’s self-driving car testing, more than 14 companies were testing their vehicles in California, Nevada and Utah, but today, Dunn said he believes “China’s self-driving car manufacturers are There is little evidence or intention of China launching the product.” USA. “
“It’s a recognition,” he said. “Oh, we did well in the U.S.. We learned a lot. From here, maybe we have enough knowledge to build our own innovation in China.”
watch video Learn more about how these self-driving car companies are testing their vehicles on California roads, and the impact that increased scrutiny of connected cars in China may have on the industry in the future.
