A US national lab was reported to be testing Chinese lidar for security flaws

Idaho National Laboratory, a Department of Energy facility, is examining whether Chinese-made lidar sensors would pose a cybersecurity risk if fitted at scale to vehicles in the United States, TechCrunch reported on August 21, citing two people familiar with the effort. The laboratory told the outlet it was not at liberty to discuss the project, and no public record of the work exists.

The report named Hesai and RoboSense, both of which appear on the Department of Defense 1260H list and both of which declined to comment. It described the review as paid for by a company or group of companies in the electric and automated vehicle industry rather than by the government. The concerns attributed to people familiar with it were that sensors could be disabled remotely across a fleet, and that data could be sent abroad.

Rivian, GM, Ford, Kodiak, Lucid, Nuro and Uber all told TechCrunch they had no knowledge of the review. Neither the laboratory nor either supplier has confirmed that it is taking place.