USA plans to ban Chinese software in autonomous vehicles

The U.S. government under President Joe Biden is considering a ban on Chinese software in vehicles with autonomous driving functions in the coming weeks. According to information from the Reuters news agency, a regulation for vehicles with automation levels of 3 and higher is expected to be proposed. This would also prevent the testing of autonomous vehicles from Chinese manufacturers on American roads. U.S. policy already complicates the import of Chinese electric vehicles with tariffs exceeding 100%. Additionally, Biden's law promoting clean energy restricts the use of batteries manufactured in China for automakers. Due to increasing tensions between Washington and Beijing, Chinese software solutions for autonomous vehicles are now also coming into focus. The U.S. government fears that intelligent vehicles with Chinese software could collect sensitive data about U.S. citizens and infrastructure and transmit it to China. Additionally, the U.S. government plans, according to Reuters, to ban cars that use advanced wireless communication systems from China. Automakers and their suppliers would then have to ensure that none of their connected or highly automated software components were developed by a "foreign adversary state" like China. A spokesperson for the Commerce Department expressed concerns, according to Reuters, about the national security risks associated with connected technologies in vehicles. The Chinese Embassy in Washington initially did not provide a comment.