This week, President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration finalized rules effectively banning all Chinese- and Russian-connected vehicle tech from American roads—a landmark crackdown with far-reaching effects, not least on the rising trade of inexpensive Chinese EVs.
The US Commerce Department has argued that the rules, first proposed in September, are necessary to protect American vehicles from foreign adversaries and interference. “Imagine if there were thousands or hundreds of thousands of Chinese-connected vehicles on American roads that could be immediately and simultaneously disabled by somebody in Beijing,” commerce secretary Gina Raimondo said last year. Prohibitions against Chinese and Russian software will begin in 2027, with hardware restrictions following in 2029.
On paper, that might sound like a disaster for Waymo. Alphabet’s self-driving tech developer announced…
