US is looking to ban the use of Chinese software in autonomous vehicles

Chinese software and technology usually finds itself on the bad end of the stick when it comes to restrictions or bans on what can or cannot be imported or used within the US. This is due to a long history of proven (or the fear of any) attempts to spy on users or circumvent national security. Many of these technologies have been found to contain various backdoors hidden within them. While others simply fall victim to politics and/or power fits.

Now the US has its eyes set on autonomous vehicles coming from China with the consideration of banning any software coming from the country. This would technically prevent any vehicles coming from China from being used here since the software can’t exactly be swapped out as it is usually trained and designed for those specific models. At least, something like that can’t be done so easily without likely rebuilding parts of it or designing a new vehicle all together.

It would affect models that are considered level 3 self-driving or better and/or make use of “advanced wireless communications”. Referring to China as a “foreign entity of concern”.

This was originally reported by Reuters thanks to an unnamed source of the news agency and is currently a ruling that is being proposed. So nothing is set in stone just yet as it needs to be reviewed and approved. However, if it is approved, it will have a noticeable affect on the industry moving forward and will likely result in equal regulations being thrown about in both directions. Which could create an interesting weight between the relations of companies like Tesla and China.

Some could say that this would be a blow for global fair competitiveness. But at the same time, the concerns for national security in an age where cybersecurity is out of control, has its justifications.