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China Blocks Foreign Companies From Mapping Its Roads for Self-Driving Cars (thedrive.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tough-luck dept.

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.

7 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Then the cars aren't truly self-driving by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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."

    1. Re:Then the cars aren't truly self-driving by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Insightful

      they should be able to operate with GPS info and knowing how roads are "networked."

      Just like human drivers without maps and any knowledge of the neighborhood, right? Very efficient!

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:Then the cars aren't truly self-driving by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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."

      The more clues it has, the better. This applies to humans also.

      But the bigger issue here is unfair competition: local firms get extra info that foreign firms don't. Being we have a huge trade gap, partly because of this kind of favoritism, I hope the Trump administration makes an issue out of it and threatens sanctions.

      This is the kind of thing voters hoped Trump would focus on, instead of Twitter fights with athletes. He used to always rail against China's trade practices. Let's hope the Good Trump comes out instead of the Distracted Trump.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    3. Re:Then the cars aren't truly self-driving by vux984 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "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."

      What it if it doesn't 'need', what if it just 'benefits from' it?

      I mean, are you personally better at driving on streets that you know? You know which lights are stupid, the road with really bad potholes, you know about the blind driveway on the corner of X, you know that there's a school at Z where kids are often playing. You know there's always a lineup that backs out onto the road from the starbucks at Q between 7am and 9am, and that the construction at F is makes left turns hard, etc. You know every driveway, twist, turn, and ramp, and elevation change, where its safe to pass, where its safe to pull over, where to get gas, where to park.

      Are you really just as comfortable looking at an out of date map for a city you've never been to?

      You don't need the extra information, but it sure helps.

    4. Re:Then the cars aren't truly self-driving by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Informative

      trump can not, nor will, make an issue out of this.
      So far, trump has shown more favortism towards china and russia than either W or O. Hell, he PROMISED to stop China's dumping and once his kids got their IP from china, he turned china into his best friends, while they are laughing at what a traitor Trump is.

      But, CHina will crack down further in a short bit and prevent any western car maker from having self-driving vehicles in CHina. They really are a danger esp. since CHina is in a cold war with the west.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  2. Shades of Stalin by mykepredko · · Score: 4, Informative

    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
  3. Camera's can't see the roads anyway due to smog by JoeyRox · · Score: 4, Funny

    Take a left at the smog-obscured road, then continue for 3 miles, veering right of the smog-obscured fork.