Canada needs the U.S. and the U.S. needs Canada. However with President Trump’s threats to crush Canada’s economy and force it to become the U.S. 51st state Canada’s relationship with the U.S. has rapidly changed. Forced to protect itself Canada has been seeking closer relationships with other nations such as China. A recent agreement was reached between Canada and China whereby 49,000 imports of Chinese automobiles will be accepted into Canada.
The threat of Chinese imported vehicles into North America was high-lighted in a recent interview (Bloomberg News) of the CEO of the Ford Motor Company, Jim Farley, who expressed grave concerns over what could take place. An interesting comment was made in that interview where he warns of national security risks of “allowing technology-laden Chinese vehicles to navigate U.S. roads”. He emphasized that “All of these vehicles have 10 cameras. They can collect a lot of data”.
Naturally comments like these are not expected as Chinese imports could be a threat to the Ford Motor Company. However, the issue of data collecting may not be just empty rhetoric. Motor vehicles are evolving rapidly and their capabilities to gather information are also increasing just as rapidly. It is reaching the point that vehicles that were created for the simple purpose of transporting persons and cargo are now becoming super computers that capture data about the personal lives of their occupants. Analysed by artificial intelligence such data can be used for many purposes by foreign and domestic entities. If foreign entities like China can collect personal data then so too can domestic entities like Ford.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is already proposing rule-making that would require vehicles, commencing in the 2027 model year, to monitor driver behavior/condition to reduce incidents of impaired driving. Details such as tracking of eye movements, pupil dilation and other patterns of behavior will be monitored by artificial intelligence. So is this the type of data that could be captured by Chinese imported vehicles as well?
There is discussion that, in the not-to-distant future, vehicles could be totally controlled by AI software which learns the driving behaviors and preferences of the vehicle owner. As AI learns the driver’s behaviors it actually changes the functioning of the vehicle such that the same two vehicle models could function differently because of what AI has learned.
Whether, when and how these developments will take place is yet to be seen. However Canadians need to be aware that the vehicles they drive are no longer instruments of transportation. They are instruments of personal data collection.