US lawmakers push to place robo-cars on national-security threat list

US lawmakers urge scrutiny of autonomous driving technologies imported from China for potential national security threats. Wired reports.

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Representative August Pfluger, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, sent the accompanying letter to the NHTSA. The congressman asked the regulator to answer a number of questions related to evaluating national-security threats posed by Chinese companies.

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«I remain concerned that the lack of US oversight in autonomous-vehicle technologies has opened the door for foreign state espionage on American soil,» he wrote.

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Pfluger argues that the previously granted permits to test autonomous drones in the United States and the lack of regulators’ oversight over data will lead to leaks to the PRC.

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The congressman stressed that China could use autonomous and connected vehicles to embed its systems and technologies into American infrastructure. He believes that next-generation vehicles will be able to photograph numerous critical sites across the country.

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also said that communications under the control of nondemocratic states are a dangerous instrument.

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FBI Director Christopher Wray said that China has stolen more data from the United States than all other countries combined.

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Pfluger also said that the new Congress will increase pressure on Chinese companies operating in the United States.

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«TikTok and Huawei demonstrate the CPC’s intention to use whatever means are necessary to collect American data and transmit it back to Beijing», he said.

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Democratic Senator Chris Coons also said that authorities’ attention will focus on the platform TikTok, which “drains vast amounts of data for use as a tool of state power,” he said.

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In September, Nvidia and AMD banned selling processors to Chinese firms for supercomputers and AI workloads.

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In October, the US government imposed new restrictions on the supply of AI chips to the PRC.

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In the same month, experts said that American sanctions will slow the development of robo-cars in China.

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