Five state agencies of China (the State Administration of Market Regulation, the Central Administration of Cyberspace in China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport, and the Fire Bureau of the Ministry of Emergency Management) have expressed recently their concern about various security flaws detected in some Tesla brand vehicles.
The authorities have focused on three specific problems: the sudden and involuntary acceleration experienced by some units, a series of fires originating in the batteries, and the OTA updates. The automaker is being investigated if it tried to stop the fires by reducing its vehicle packs’ capacity through a wireless update.
The State Administration for Market Regulation has asked the company to “strictly comply with Chinese laws and regulations, strengthen internal management, implement corporate responsibility for quality and safety, effectively maintain social and public security, and effectively protect rights and consumer interests.”
Tesla has responded to the Chinese government that it will strictly abide by the country’s legality, stating that it always has respected consumer rights.
This is not the first time that Tesla has confronted the Chinese government for issues of this nature: without going any further, at the time, the authorities forced the company to replace the Autopilot 2.5 hardware with the 3.0 hardware that its customers had paid for. This situation was due to the shortage of chips caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced Tesla to use other components to be able to carry out production.
Everything seems to indicate that from now on China’s consumer agencies will monitor Tesla more closely, which has also faced the US NHTSA on several occasions due to some potential failures in its cars’ safety.