(NewsNation) —The Biden administration is making the right move for national security by proposing a ban on connected and autonomous vehicles with Chinese-made software that could potentially put a foreign adversary in the driver’s seat, national security experts say.
The measure announced this week by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo seeks to reduce the threat a foreign adversary could shut down or take simultaneous control of multiple vehicles operating in the United States.
“Cars today have cameras, microphones, GPS tracking and other technologies connected to the internet,” Raimondo said in a statement. “It doesn’t take much imagination to understand how a foreign adversary with access to this information could pose a serious risk to both our national security and the privacy of U.S. citizens.”
The ban also includes Russian software, though Raimondo focused on threats from China.
“There’s significant reasonable concerns when it comes to foreign nation states having access to a broad swath of technology in a country they view as an adversary,” Jamil Jaffer, director of the National Security Law and Policy Program at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, told NewsNation.
“I would absolutely be concerned if China were to have access to the internals of a significant number of cars sold in America,” he said.
The proposed ban would prohibit the import and sale of vehicles with Chinese- and Russian-manufactured software and hardware that would allow the vehicle to communicate externally through Bluetooth, cellular, satellite or Wi-Fi modules or collectively allow a highly autonomous vehicle to operate without a driver behind the wheel.
Chinese tech ban is not an overreaction
The fear that Chinese-made software could be a gateway for China to collect data on Americans or worse is wholly valid because the Chinese government regularly interacts with these companies, Jaffer said.
“We know that they use their access to these companies to potentially exploit their software and their hardware for collection and potentially for more dangerous activities,” he said.
Earlier this year, the FBI said it disrupted a major Chinese government-backed effort to hack into U.S. water, communications, transportation and energy facilities in order to gain power to shut down essential services, the Washington Post reported.
The agency said it gained control of hundreds of routers that a Chinese hacker group known as Volt Typhoon had been using to get inside sensitive infrastructure.
“That obviously lends concern and raises the question of what they might do if they had access to car manufacturers in the United States or cars sold to the United States,” Jaffer said.
The potential threat wasn’t an isolated incident.
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party published a report this month on its investigation of intelligence and cybersecurity risks posed by Chinese software made by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co (ZPMC) installed in cranes at U.S. seaports.
The investigation found that ZPMC “repeatedly requested remote access to its (ship-to-shore) cranes operating at various U.S. ports.”
The FBI also retrieved what it believed to be “intelligence collection devices” from a shipment of ZPMC cranes at the Port of Baltimore in 2021, the report stated.
“The Chinese government is now taking actions to install capabilities that go beyond just intelligence collection and could provide the Chinese government the capability to disrupt activities in those systems,” Jaffer said.
Getting ahead of potential foreign threats
There are relatively few Chinese-made cars imported into the U.S., but Raimondo said the U.S. won’t wait until its roads are populated with Chinese or Russian cars before acting.
Adam Tong, an associate fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said it’s better for the U.S. to get ahead of the threat rather than trying to fix it on the back end.
“They’re really looking into the future. There’s a bigger fear that in the future if there’s a flood of Chinese EVs and connected vehicles allowed to be imported into the U.S. market, that could cause severe national security concerns,” he said.
Tong said that connected vehicles could grant China or other adversary nations access to sensitive data such as the geolocation of drivers, their voice as well as daily routine based on driving patterns.
In more extreme situations or times of conflict, there is also concern that “malicious actors overseas” can gain remote access to U.S. critical infrastructure through the connection to the vehicles, Tong said.
Other concerns around Chinese products
Aside from national security, paving an open road for Chinese parts to get into the U.S. market can also come at the cost of American manufacturers.
“The introduction of cheap Chinese autos — which are so inexpensive because they are backed with the power and funding of the Chinese government — to the American market could end up being an extinction-level event for the U.S. auto sector,” the Alliance for American Manufacturing said in a report.
The Biden administration’s proposed ban would effectively create a trade barrier that could protect U.S. automakers seeking to develop robotaxis, Reuters reported.
The administration had previously imposed 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs and denied a $7,500 consumer EV subsidy to any vehicle with made-in-China components, but a ban would take an even bolder stance.
“China has long been using state driven subsidies to support its EV sectors with numerous Chinese car makers now really becoming quite competitive globally,” Tong said.
“As that happens, I think that fear (for national security) becomes a bit more substantial.”