Nobody is suggesting President Biden’s move was politically motivated although it can only help Kamala Harris’s cause.
In fact, no one with a brain would think this wasn’t politically motivated. It’s being done by a politician. It’s politically motivated:
On the face of it, Joe Biden’s effective ban on Chinese technology in new vehicles appeared to be a devastating blow to Beijing’s burgeoning electric car industry.
In reality, it poses the greatest threat to Tesla, the US car giant owned by Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s cheerleader-in-chief.
On Monday, Gina Raimondo, the US commerce secretary, raised the terrifying scenario of a rogue state controlling America’s cars remotely.
It may sound like science fiction but it’s a real and present danger.
“In an extreme situation, foreign adversaries could shut down or take control of all their vehicles operating in the United States at the same time,” said Ms Raimondo.
Of course that’s political.
I suspect Mr Musk will gain considerable solace from the fact that the largest and most aggressive manufacturing nation in history will effectively be prevented from muscling in on his dominant US market share.
So the USA is worried about “rogue” Chinese cars being imported from China to the USA. Concerns that the cars can be remotely turned off, maybe spy on the drivers.They don’t seem to be worried by the over $50 billion worth of computers they import from China every year. Not to mention the 173,000,000 smart phones or so
@Jimintheantipodes
They do worry about those too because it’s hard to fight a war against a country you depend on. That’s why the “Chips and Science Act” was passed. So far that’s not looking rosy for the US. Intel are currently having big problems all round and TMSC is finding it very difficult to operate a chip fab on US soil where US rather than Taiwanese working practices are required.
Considering that most of the US’ electricity and water infrastructure is connected to the internet by hardware and software that hasn’t been upgraded in years and is vulnerable to hackers anywhere in the world, fussing about Chinese EVs is mere security theatre.
It’s nothing to do with the Chinese. It’s the start of lawfare on Musk, who the left are scared to death of.
Relocating the HQ’s of Spacex, Tesla and X away from California is looking wiser every day.
“In fact, no one with a brain would think . . . .”
Repetition. The headline already makes it clear that we’re talking about Joe Biden.
The story also.misses the basic point, for US politics at least – Tesla is non-union, the company and the workers like it that way, and the Democrats are completely beholden to the UAW for votes and cash.
Personally, as a US driver, I’m at least as worried about the US government taking control of my car as I am about the Chinese – probably more so. All this talk about protecting us from the wicked Chinee is mere handwaving to distract from the real issues being worked.
llater,
llamas
@Jimintheantipodes
No doubt they’re still looking for the Chinese Spy Hardware on Apple mainboards..
Or the Chinese Spy Hardware in ….. well… just about anything when Chinese equipment gets a major market share..
By now half the internet traffic must not be of cats, but of secretly coded data about our pr0n-surfing habits towards Beijing if the panicmongers are right..
Grikath,
This is just part of the fantasy of things like China controlling cars.
There is an army of bored nerds out there packet sniffing what is coming out of their PCs. If China had planted anything on people’s main boards, it would have been found by now.
And then what? How many people are going to want a Chinese PC, phone or router? That’s Lenovo dead, all the jobs at Foxconn and Asus in Shenzen gone. All the companies that supply them with memory chips or gorilla glass? Gone. The exports of BYD? Gone. Unless the Chinese want to go back to growing rice, it would be stupid.
@Western Bloke
Unfortunately that’s just what’s happening with Chinese software. All the current ruckus is about TikTok phoning home to its Chinese owners even though the parent company ByteDance swears that the US part is completely separate. Also, TikTok is not allowed in China. Move along, nothing to see here.
Mohave,
“Unfortunately that’s just what’s happening with Chinese software. All the current ruckus is about TikTok phoning home to its Chinese owners even though the parent company ByteDance swears that the US part is completely separate. Also, TikTok is not allowed in China. Move along, nothing to see here.”
The sandboxed architecture of Android and iOS means that the TikTok app can phone home based on privileges (e.g. camera) that you give it, and the data inside the app. There’s no secret stuff going on here. They can’t send home your banking stuff or porn stuff. And I couldn’t give a toss if TikTok are sending home to China that I like some video about woodworking or someone’s Rube Goldberg machine. They’re welcome to it.
“… foreign adversaries could shut down or take control…”
That word “could”.