China has drafted new regulations for its autonomous and networked vehicles makers.
Data security is at the heart of the new rules, which require manufacturers to store the data collected by connected cars within China. Data can go offshore only with China government’s explicit approval.
Auto-makers are also required to appoint a chief security officer to ensure that autonomous vehicles are not vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Automakers are also required to inform vehicle owners about the importance of applying over-the-air updates.
Driverless cars must be tested and operated on the road to prevent human error and minimize the risk of accidents. They must also detect when a human driver’s hands are not on the wheel and when to cede control to a human when needed. If a vehicle’s autonomous guidance system fails, it must be able to hand back control.
Although the regulations only encourage the use of China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system, they also allow the possibility of using signals from other global navigation systems such as Galileo, GLONASS, and GPS.
The new regulations ask manufacturers to thoroughly examine their work and stop their operations if they’re not compliant.
On the same day the new rules were announced, China’s search giant Baidu reported Q2 results. The company’s cloud grew at a fast pace of 71 percent year on year.
In addition, the company revealed that its own autonomous vehicles have logged up over 7 million test miles and have received 278 autonomous driving permits around China.
Recently, China’s search engine giant has signed a deal with autonomous carmaker Geely that will use its cloud services. Under the terms of the agreement, the company will use Baidu’s AI technology to improve the efficiency of its manufacturing operations and provide cloud services to its customers.
