- the chinese government, according to people speaking anonymously to bloomberg and the wall street journal, is restricting tesla vehicles from entering military and certain state-owned entities.
- the government is worried they cannot control what tesla cameras will record and concerned that information collected by the vehicles could be disclosed or funneled to the united states.
- china has become an increasingly important market for tesla, particularly following tesla's building of a plant in shanghai in 2019.
it’s no secret that tesla’s vehicles are constantly recording the world around them, but the chinese government is now concerned that security breaches could result from those always-on cameras. in turn, the chinese government is banning teslas from military complexes and state-owned entities in sensitive industries due to concerns that those cameras will collect and divulge information, according to bloomberg and wsj.
the order, issued by china's military, suggests that tesla owners park their vehicles outside military property, according to people speaking anonymously with both news outlets. reportedly the government is concerned that it cannot control what tesla vehicles do and don't record, and that information could get funneled to the u.s. the chinese government has also told some of its agencies to tell its employees to stop driving teslas to work, both publications said.
a representative for tesla in china did not respond to car and driver's request for comment.
all tesla vehicles have had eight cameras around the entire vehicle that give a 360-degree view of its surroundings, in addition to an internal camera; prior to 2016, not all tesla vehicles were equipped with such hardware. in 2020, an update was rolled out to tesla vehicles that allowed owners to view dashcam footage and sentry mode footage on the infotainment screen.
the china market is important for tesla. in 2019, tesla finished construction of a plant in shanghai where it now builds the model 3 and model y, and the company enjoyed a tax break from the chinese government in the process. tesla doesn’t break down its sales by country, but according to an sec filing, the automaker’s revenue from sales in china doubled from 2019 to 2020. in total, china made up a fifth of its total revenue from vehicle sales in 2020.