Beginning July 1, all Tesla models will be forbidden to enter the coastal city of Beidaihein China for two months, a period leading up to a meeting of Chinese leaders that was supposed to take place in the utmost secrecy.
The reason for this ban is related to the ability of the North American brand’s cars to collect images around them, in operation or stationary, either to power the Autopilot system or the “Sentinel” security solution.
According to Reuters, this It’s not the first time that the Chinese show some concern with the Tesla models, from S to X and from 3 to Y, since at the beginning of June the circulation of North American electric cars was also prohibited in the sprawling center of Chengdu, in a period that coincided with the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the city.
The cameras that power Tesla’s autopilot
If we go back a little further, in 2021, Tesla had already been targeted by Chinese authorities, when the military banned models manufactured by Elon Musk’s company from entering official facilities, even in China. The limitations continued, although Musk had guaranteed that all images collected by the Chinese Teslas would be stored forever on servers in China, and in the digital world this is what counts.
China is now one of the most important markets for Tesla, especially as the Gigafactory in Shanghai is on track to double production capacity, to reach around 1 million units/year. That is why this concern with Tesla cameras is strange, when the vast majority of vehicles capable of performing simple maneuvers without driver intervention, such as describing curves, overtaking maneuvers and parking, also use video cameras.
Source: Observadora
