I was recently interviewed about the dangers of Chinese smart cars. This topic reminds me of a talk I gave in 2014 at RSA San Francisco, alongside the superstar Hila Meller, and at TEDx in Greece (thanks to the amazing Keren Elazari). Both talks were titled "State-Sponsored Spies Inside Facebook."
In these talks, I discussed the growing cooperation between commercial entities and their governments. I concluded with this question: Will we teach our children not to download certain apps just because they were developed in an enemy country?
Just a few years later, this scenario has become a reality. For example, the U.S. government prohibits its personnel from installing the Chinese TikTok app, citing concerns that it is used by the Chinese government to track people globally.
It's easy to vilify China as the "evil giant," but let's not forget that the U.S. has engaged in similar activities. Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA used data from companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple to promote American security and economic interests. And the U.S. is just one example in a long list of countries engaging in such practices.
To summarize my RSA and TEDx lectures in one sentence: Nations have both homeland and financial incentives to embed spies in commercial companies like Facebook, Google, and Apple.
Years after my lecture, it was discovered that Saudi Arabia had hired three spies inside Twitter to gather information on regime opponents. The Saudi authorities boasted of a new secret weapon against dissenters, claiming that the anonymity of the internet no longer protected them.
Surprisingly enough, Saudi Arabia has started building their relationship with the Twitter spies, just 5 months after my talk. I hope my lecture wasn't the inspiration for their actions, though the RSA conference is attended by 30,000 people, and my talk had only about 30 attendees (0.1%). So, the chances are slim.
Now, this scenario is repeating itself with smart cars. These vehicles are equipped with countless sensors, including microphones and GPS, transforming what was once a private space into an advanced surveillance system. This poses significant security risks, especially for military and security personnel who might have confidential conversations in their cars.
And this is before we even consider the cyber threats, such as car hacking and kidnappings.
However, it's essential to remember that the smart car war is primarily an economic one. The American automobile industry accounts for over 3% of the U.S. GDP. The Chinese see the smart electric vehicle revolution as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape the industry and aim to be the leading player. They have numerous advantages, such as natural resources, mass production experience, and cheap labor. Moreover, the Chinese government is making it a national goal to dominate this sector, even subsidizing car production to artificially lower prices.
The car war is on.