Detroit News: Michigan lawmakers voice concerns over Chinese autonomous vehicle testing in US

Washington — U.S. Reps. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, and Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, sent a letter to the Biden administration Monday raising concerns about Chinese companies operating and testing autonomous vehicles in the United States.

At least seven Chinese companies have licenses to test self-driving vehicles in California, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. But DOT's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's voluntary AV reporting initiative doesn't include any of them.

The Michigan lawmakers, joined by Republican Rep. Bob Latta of Ohio and Democratic Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas, argued this creates both a competitive and national security challenge because the Chinese government has strong restrictions on foreign AV companies operating there.

"We are concerned that we are ceding a serious strategic advantage by not barring Chinese companies from operating in the United States in return," they wrote in the letter shared exclusively with The Detroit News.

The lawmakers urged the agencies to investigate the prevalence of Chinese AV companies operating in the United States and "identify pathways to restricting their access and ability to operate here."

They said autonomous vehicles promise major safety improvements and could help improve a "national crisis" of high road fatalities. But technology used in autonomous vehicles can be used to collect data on American people and infrastructure and shared with the Chinese government, they said, including cameras and LiDAR as well as artificial intelligence.

"The massive amount of data being collected by these cars could give the CCP an unprecedented vantage point into the United States," they wrote. "Beijing has already pioneered the use of big-data analytics to identify dissidents at home, and we are concerned that those tactics could be deployed here and abroad."

Spokespeople for NHTSA and the Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

The bipartisan letter comes as concern over competition with China is center stage in Washington. It remains one of the major areas where an otherwise politically-stymied Congress sees eye to eye.

Read the full article at DetroitNews.com.