Employees at some Chinese government offices have been told not to park their Tesla Inc vehicles inside government compounds due to security concerns over their cameras, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The people said officials of at least two government agencies in Beijing and Shanghai have been instructed verbally by supervisors not to park their Tesla vehicles at work.
It was not clear how many vehicles were affected, the people said, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Photo: Reuters
It was not immediately clear whether all government offices in Beijing had imposed such restrictions, nor whether the measure was a formal government injunction or a step adopted by agency officials.
It was also unclear whether curbs applied to state agencies nationwide.
While sensors and cameras that can assist driving feature in many automakers’ vehicles, the people with knowledge of the matter said the restriction only applies to Tesla vehicles.
MILITARY BAN
Tesla vehicles in March were banned from entering some military complexes in China, sources told Reuters then, citing security concerns over their cameras.
Neither the Chinese State Council Information Office, which handles media requests for the Chinese government, nor Tesla officials in China immediately responded to requests for comment.
The restriction provides a fresh indication of China’s continued wariness of the US automaker amid tensions with Washington.
Facing greater scrutiny after safety and highly publicized customer service complaints in China, Tesla is boosting its engagement with regulators and beefing up its government relations team, industry sources said previously.
China, the world’s biggest auto market, is Tesla’s second-biggest market, accounting for about 30 percent of its sales. Tesla makes Model 3 sedans and Model Y sport utility vehicles at a Shanghai plant.
Automakers such as Tesla have been equipping more vehicles with cameras and sensors that capture images of the vehicle’s surroundings. Control of how those images are used, and where they are sent and stored, is a fast-emerging challenge for the industry and regulators around the world.
VALUABLE DATA
Tesla vehicles have several external cameras to assist drivers with parking, changing lanes and other features.
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has commented frequently on the value of the data that Tesla vehicles capture, which can be used to develop autonomous driving technologies.
Days after the March ban on Tesla vehicles in military complexes, Musk appeared in a video at a high-level Chinese forum, saying that if Tesla used vehicles to spy in China or anywhere, it would be shut down.
Tesla said that it is planning to open a data center in China and is developing a data platform for the owners of its vehicles in China.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
RELAXED: After talks on Ukraine and trade, the French president met with students while his wife visited pandas, after the pair parted ways with their Chinese counterparts French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his fourth state visit to China yesterday in Chengdu, striking a more relaxed note after tough discussions on Ukraine and trade with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a day earlier. Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two leaders held talks, Xi and China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛), showed Macron and his wife Brigitte around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam, a World Heritage Site set against the mountainous landscape of Sichuan Province. Macron was told through an interpreter about the ancient irrigation system, which dates back to the third century
RSS