Australia’s new-car dealers want the industry and the government to explain connected vehicles before more of them reach driveways. The Australian Automotive Dealer Association says buyers keep asking what their cars collect, what can be reached remotely and what protects them, and chief executive James Voortman wants automakers, regulators and security agencies working on an urgent answer.
BYD has started answering for itself. Its Australian chief operating officer, Stephen Collins, told CarExpert the company is reviewing the Four Corners claims about unauthorised remote access to non-critical control functions and will respond in detail once that work is finished. He said personal data generated by BYD vehicles in Australia stays on Australian servers, and that BYD has publicly called for purpose-built connected vehicle legislation setting a clear, enforceable standard for every brand.
Xpeng faces the same questions from a different direction. An insider showed the program how much the company can reach: location, speed, steering wheel angle, seat position, passenger occupancy and whether the car is braking or accelerating. Xpeng told the ABC it cannot immobilise a customer’s vehicle in Australia, that no third party can either, and that it has never given Australian customer data to Chinese authorities.
BYD said it has formally responded to preliminary inquiries from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Australia still has no mandatory vehicle cybersecurity standard, and the law the dealers are asking for does not yet exist in draft form.
