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China Blocks Foreign Companies From Mapping Its Roads for Self-Driving Cars (thedrive.com)
The Chinese government is blocking foreign companies from mapping its roads in great detail, according to a Financial Times (paywalled) report. The restrictions, which reportedly do not apply to Chinese firms, are being instituted in the name of national security. China is concerned about spying. From a report: China has restricted the recording of geographic information for more than a decade because it believes giving other countries access to that information constitutes a security risk. Geographic surveys can't be performed without permission from the government, and many digital cameras don't record GPS coordinates for geotagging, as they do in other countries, according to Fortune.
If a car needs a detailed map to drive itself, instead of responding to visual cues like signs, curb position, road markings, then it's not truly "self driving." Self-driving cars should be able to follow maps of the level of detail given by (say) Google Maps -- they should be able to operate with GPS info and knowing how roads are "networked."
google maps does not even line up right in china.
It's like there forced to be off a bit.
Like those that do keep the Chinese government up at night already have street locations, map locations, base locations, population patterns, and traffic flow patterns? It's laughable how the Chinese want the planet to believe how late to the dance they are.
Maybe it's even simpler, How much does Google want to pay?
and data roaming fees can add up fast with that (your car is locked to ATT that will be up to $15/meg in canada)
Reading this reminded me of Stalin ordered that the Soviet Union never published accurate maps of the country for fear of spying/invasion/bombing. This went on until the USSR's break up.
Not surprisingly, Stalin ordered the creation of very detailed maps of the rest of the world to aid in spying/invasion/bombing: https://www.wired.com/2015/07/...
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
This is a typical China play. In addition they have full control of the data which they won't if they let foreign companies do it.
I don't read AC
Maybe more of a national security issue in China's eyes.
China indeed forces geographic data to be "off" a little bit compared to the rest of the world. For more information, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... in particularly the discussion on the GCJ-02 datum (colloquially Mars Coordinates).
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
China is very much in a cold war with the west (and is winning). The ability to map the streets and then have a self-driving car with multiple cameras,move around, means that these vehicles can be used for weapons,but also for spying on what is happening.
As such, I fully expect china to block ANY self-driving western company car from China. Likewise, the west would be very wise to follow their steps on this.After all, China is just as likely to use their manufactured buses and vehicles as weapons and spy devices as well.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Take a left at the smog-obscured road, then continue for 3 miles, veering right of the smog-obscured fork.
One modern spy sat fly over could probably do more than a year of on the ground mapping.
Doesn't line up - I wondered about an area I discovered in a foreign country I lived in. About a 2KM X 1KM area where about half of GPS units consistently read about 1KM EAST of reality. The other half of units I tested were spot on - consistently. This area was near my home so I got a lot of neighbors to try it. 50-50. This persisted years. Why?
In fact, after reading your comment, I searched and here is the results :
Average size :
China - 4.287 in
Japan - 4.299 in
I can't call that English
China...
Geographic surveys can't be performed without permission from the government, and many digital cameras don't record GPS coordinates for geotagging, as they do in other countries, according to Fortune.
This sounds like a critical privacy feature, which is lacking in non-Chinese cameras.
Ask the Illuminati
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
In a previous generation, this would be handled with tariffs. No wonder we can't negotiate a trade deal for shit. The Chinese know we don't have the backbone to actually impose tariffs and restrictions on their trade. We are toothless and the Chinese are eating our lunch. This country needs to have its balls reattached.
detailed maps (like google maps) vs super mapped roads (street view with all signs, curb position, road markings mapped out and updated all the time)
Right now street view can be 1+ years out of date.
It would be interesting to know what the Chinese are attempting to hide from the satellite mapping of their roads that has already been done by the US Military, The Russian military and any other military that has a spy satellite in orbit. Their roads and streets are already mapped by everyone and their brother.
Poor A/C the maps were very accurate; you're ignoring that this planet rotates, and moves around the sun. Not the other way around. LOL
People worry about the things that they would think of doing to others being done to them.
So, if they are afraid of others having detailed plans of any streets, not just specific areas, it stands to reason that they make use of detailed plans of the streets of their neighbors in their own offensive plans.
People marching don't need detailed plans. What kind of attack would benefit from detailed plans of everything as opposed to just detailed plans of specific targets? Maybe they plan some fully automated, massive, ground-based, modern blitzkrieg?
If China won't allow foreign competition in China, we simply don't allow Chinese Competition in $country until they do.
If I were to wager a guess, it's less about National Security than it is the inability to manipulate a foreign business like they do their own.
Commercial mapping attempts might be front companies for the GCHQ and NSA. Roads near mil and gov sites get all their digital and staff data collected.
Every phone, face and road. MI6 and the CIA then have a larger database of staff working at mil sites to try and make an offer to buy secrets.
How to stop Western intelligence services setting up front companies and doing collect it all?
Just keep them all out. Mil sites and staff are safe from new road level collection methods.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
All you need a few thousand people driving around with a phone GPS phone mapping app and you'll have all the detailed maps you need.
And that's why self-driving cars should really be selfdriving and not having to rely on any extra maps.