Tesla promises new China data centre as Beijing lays down the law on local storage of EV data
- Development comes amid greater public scrutiny of how EV data is stored in China
- Musk has said Tesla would cease operations if its cars were used for spying in China or elsewhere
Tesla, the electric vehicle maker founded by Elon Musk, will build a data centre in Shanghai by the end of June to handle data collected from its EVs amid greater public scrutiny of how personal information is handled and after Beijing pushed for local storage of data gathered by smart vehicles in the country.
The news was confirmed by Grace Tao, Tesla’s China head of communications and government affairs, who was quoted on Monday in the 21st Century Business Herald, a Chinese newspaper.
Tesla did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment from the Post.
Tao’s statement came just days after she told reporters that data collected from Tesla’s electric cars in China is stored in the country. This came after China’s military banned Tesla vehicles from its facilities due to concerns about the cameras installed on the cars.
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Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla, told a government forum in Beijing via a video conference in March that Tesla vehicles are not used for spying in China. “If Tesla uses cars to spy in China or anywhere, we will be shut down.”