“On the one hand, you actually have very cheap, affordable, decent-value EVs coming from China, which we know are beneficial to decarbonizing our transportation sectors,” he says, “and from that standpoint, it’s actually an advantage”. thing of having increased competition.
“On the other hand, there is a real risk for countries that have large automotive industries. If your decarbonization policies lead to deindustrialization and job losses, you will eventually get a backlash.
“If production moves to China, it could have the equivalent of the impact of China in the heart of Europe, which could have some very negative effects.
“You can get a populist wave of climate activists, for example, if you experience widespread unemployment.”
New espionage front
About 150 miles east of Beijing, the seaside resort of Beidaihe is located on the coast of the Bohai Sea.
Known as the “summer capital” as government departments move there annually to escape the heat, today the district is where China’s communist elites vacation.
However, if you drive a Tesla, you’d better find somewhere else to relax.
Last year, the district authorities refused Teslas for at least two months, starting July 1, citing reasons related to “national issues.”
And it is not the only example of restrictions imposed on the cars of the American company in China.
Teslas have also in the past been banned from driving through parts of Chengdu where Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, was supposed to visit.
The restrictions underscore fears that the modern car, a computer on wheels that uses a battery of sensors, microphones, cameras and software, risks becoming a new front in global espionage. as much as smartphones have already done.
And while automakers have traditionally focused on locking down individual cars, in recent years they have been forced to consider a host of other vulnerabilities as well, as criminals and hackers have devised increasingly ingenious ways to copy radio signals from car keys or even seize them. control remotely.
In a well-known experiment, hackers remotely disabled the transmission of a Jeep Cherokee while a journalist was driving it on a US highway. This led to the recall of 1.4 million vehicles.
More recently, exercises by UK cybersecurity experts have resulted in vehicles being remotely compromised, with an attacker crouching behind a laptop keyboard taking control away from the driver.
The sources speaking on condition of anonymity said these tests, which revealed “huge holes” in security, were carried out at the request of skeptical automakers who refused to believe such attacks were possible until they were demonstrated in front of them.
However, the kind of security threat China is likely to pose will not necessarily come from outside actors.
Modern cars are increasingly dependent on “over the air” software updates, which they receive via a mobile phone-like SIM card that is built into the vehicle.
If a malicious actor were to gain access to these update systems, via servers known as “the backend”, they could issue software that allows them to spy on vehicles and their driver remotely.
The concern is that this is not only vulnerable to hackers, but also potentially to the manufacturers themselves, and those in China are subject to national security laws that force them to comply with government requests.
“If someone is able to attack the backend, then potentially that could also have implications for the security of the vehicle…they could update the software,” says Martin Emele of the Center for Automotive Information Analysis and Sharing.
This is the case with all new cars, wherever they are made in China, Europe or the US. A SIM card allows the car to receive updates, new features and security patches, just like a smartphone. In the event of an accident, a car will call the emergency services. To do this, you need a microphone and a link to the outside world. Cameras inside make sure you don’t fall asleep at the wheel.
All of this can be used to spy on you if security is lax, says Ken Munro, a security expert and ethical hacker at Pen Test Partners, a company that tests security holes.
“We did a lot of work on aftermarket car alarms. And we found that in many of them, you could actually remotely enable the microphones and listen to the people in the cars.”
He believes that shoddy code poses more risks than state piracy. But last week, academic Jim Saker warned The Telegraph that in the worst case, the cars could be remotely stopped, posing a security risk to Britons.
This risk is compounded by the fact that Chinese technology is proliferating in Western supply chains.
Chinese tech company Huawei may have been kicked out of the UK’s 5G network, but in December the company reportedly sold its smart car technology to Mercedes Benz, Audi, BMW and Porsche, putting Huawei products in 15 million cars one year.
Automakers have been contacted for comment.
As a mitigation measure, “the Chinese market is very, very competitive,” says AlixPartners’ Bergbaum, which offers some protection, since an automaker that didn’t protect buyer data would quickly find itself short of personalization and its market would be taken over by a rival. .
“It’s clearly something that needs to be monitored by the government.”
And with cheap Chinese cars expected to flood the UK and European markets soon, the question may soon become a much more pressing one for lawmakers.
stealth war
Meanwhile, in Westminster, the possible invasion of Chinese cars is barely on the radar.
Government experts say they are on the lookout for possible security concerns, after spies allegedly discovered a Chinese-made “geolocation device” in a car used for official business.
According to the i newspaper, the SIM card – placed inside a sealed piece that was imported – was capable of transmitting location data and was discovered during a vehicle sweep. China dismissed the claims as “baseless and pure rumours.”
However, Conservative MPs are pushing for the threat to be taken more seriously.
Dame Priti Patel, former home secretary, believes the government should delay the transition to electric vehicles if the influx of Chinese cars threatens to decimate the domestic auto industry and pose security risks.
Earlier, the government intervened to prevent Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from supplying the technology used in the UK’s 5G mobile network, amid US concerns about the company’s ties to authorities in Beijing.
Discover more from PressNewsAgency
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.