Threatening National Security, China Bans Tesla Cars From Entering Military Complex
JAKARTA - The Chinese military has banned Tesla cars from entering military housing complexes, citing security concerns. This is related to the camera attached to the electric vehicle, the two sources who saw the notification about the direction.
An order issued by the military advises Tesla owners to park their cars off military property, Bloomberg previously reported, saying the ban had been made known to residents of military housing this week.
Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Chinese government is restricting the use of Tesla cars by Chinese military personnel, state-owned companies in sensitive industries, and key institutions, because they can be a source of national security leaks.
It was not immediately clear whether the measure was applied to all such facilities.
China's State Council Information Office and Tesla did not immediately respond to Reuter's requests for comment. China's Ministry of Defense could not immediately be reached for comment.
It is known that the Tesla electric car has several small cameras externally to help park and drive itself. The Model 3 and Model Y also have cameras embedded in the rearview mirror for driver safety which is disabled by default.
In 2019, Tesla CEO Elon Musk opened his voice about the internal camera in his company's vehicle alert product.
"It's been around since we started competing with Uber/Lyft and people allowed their cars to make money for them as part of the Tesla autonomous car fleet. If someone messes up your car you can check the video", Reuters reported.
Musk often talks about the value of data that Tesla vehicles can capture, which can be used to develop autonomous driving functions. Other car manufacturers also equip vehicles with cameras and other sensors, which can capture images of objects around the car.
The Wall Street Journal reported the ban came after a government safety review of company vehicles, citing people with knowledge of the effort. Chinese officials found that Tesla car sensors can record visual images of surrounding locations, the report added.