(Asian Tech Press)The Chinese government on Wednesday posted a draft for public comment on regulations on car data, following a social media storm caused by the woman denouncing Tesla's brake failure at the Shanghai Auto Show.
On Wednesday afternoon, May 12, China's State Internet Information Office published a draft to seek public comments on regulations on car data security. If they are successfully legislated, Tesla, which has a significant market share of cars in China, will become an important regulatory target.
At the Shanghai Auto Show on April 19, a woman climbed onto the roof of a Tesla and shouted "Brake failure", triggering continuous discussions among netizens.
Subsequently, Tesla's "no compromise" attitude made the company's situation in China even worse. The country's state-run news outlets, such as Xinhua News Agency, Global Times, voiced their doubts about Tesla's attitude, and questioned its corporate responsibility.
The latest news about the public protest is that the woman has filed a civil complaint with the court, formally suing Tesla and Tesla's global vice president Grace Tao Lin.
And interestingly enough, the woman was sued by a Tesla owner because the woman's protest subjected him to personal attacks.
Previously, the user data and authentication services for the Chinese market were kept on Tesla's U.S. servers, which raised concerns from the Chinese government that Tesla might provide the U.S. government with any vehicle and user data the company collected in China. And consequently, Chinese military personnel were restricted from using Tesla.
As for the storage of car data, especially involving the issue of whether the data is out of the country, the draft states that personal information and other important data should be stored within the country in accordance with the law. If necessary, the data should be provided outside the country complying with China's measures on Security Assessment for Data Cross-Border Transfer.
According to the latest news, Tesla China will establish a data center in Shanghai at the end of June to process data collected from Tesla's Chinese owners, apparently a move to respond to China's increasingly tight regulation on information and data.
The protest against Tesla has triggered more than a few changes to Chinese laws and regulations.
On April 26, a newly revised draft of China's Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), a permanent body of China's highest organ of state power, for a second review.
If the Standing Committee of the NPC approves the draft amendments, Tesla and other platforms that collect large amounts of user information will be required to set up an independent body composed primarily of outside members to oversee the platforms' handling of users' personal information, according to the regulations.
For the draft regulations on car data security, on Wednesday evening, May 12, Tesla responded on China's Twitter-like Weibo that the company supports and reacts to the new regulations, and is willing to contribute to a more regulated industry.
