Chris Miller and Caroline Nowak document a security risk linked to today’s new cars.
Packed with sensors, connected to the internet, and controlled by complex and opaque layers of software, modern cars represent a significant cybersecurity risk. Every new generation gathers more data about its passengers and the outside world. Increasingly autonomous driving requires gathering even more camera and lidar data about America’s streets.
Meanwhile, China has become the world’s largest car producer and a leader in certain automotive technologies. Chinese-made cars have surged into the European market. Chinese components have surged into US automotive supply chains.
Chinese software, connectivity systems, and critical components in autos create significant risks of espionage and—in a potential military crisis—sabotage. The US government has restricted the use of Chinese-origin components for auto connectivity systems and limited the use of Chinese code in certain types of auto software. However, some US auto companies are pushing to relax these rules to allow closer partnerships with Chinese firms—and thus greater use of Chinese technology in American cars.
Properly calibrating restrictions on Chinese components in US cars is important to the automotive and mobility industry. The race toward increasingly autonomous driving will have dramatic economic implications and raise substantial cybersecurity concerns. The US government’s posture toward Chinese components in connected cars will set the tone for future regulation—or a lack thereof—of other types of physical AI and robotics systems. As the use of autonomous driving systems rapidly increases, China’s automobile and auto component industry surges, and AI enables new types of robotics systems, we face a uniquely important moment to mitigate the risk of reliance on Chinese components in our cars.
Modern cars have dozens of sensors that collect data about the car and its environment. This represents a major change for the auto industry. Until the 1990s and early 2000s, most cars had only a handful of sensors, which generally assessed the car’s internal operations, especially the engine.
