Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/30/apple-china-espionage.html
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Kitt : “I don’t get Michael if China isn’t big on the autonomy of its citizens why do they care about or want to make autonomous cars ?”
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I hope the CIA is investigating the companies that are recruiting these guys. Must be quite a pitch to get them to take such a chance. Should have included some tips/training on trade-craft or screened for that skill though.
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I hope the CIA is discreet on Canadian soil.
Software and Data Architect (Platforms – Autonomous Vehicles)
Company Name Huawei Technologies
Company Location Toronto
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I believe the Huawei unit in this case is in China where they also have research going on. Hence the airplane ticket to China.
I don’t see an airplane ticket mentioned in the LinkedIn posting. The job poster is in China, but that’s common when head office calls the shots. Their Markham location looks like a standard dev office glass palace.
- Knowledge of self-driving domain or relevant experiences is a plus
Really…
LinkedIn? I am referring to the NBC story in the original article. I don’t see any LinkedIn posting there.
Apple learned Chen recently applied for a job at a China-based autonomous vehicle company that is a direct competitor of Apple’s project, according to the complaint. A photo found on Chen’s computer, which Apple provided to the FBI, showed an assembly drawing of an Apple-designed wiring harness for an autonomous vehicle.
Chen was arrested just one day before he was scheduled to fly to China, according to the complaint.
Company Location Toronto
Why are we talking about Huawei? I fell for the mention of Huawei in your reply, I have to admit. But, looking back again (and trying not to make research of this thing my evening’s work) the company that the accused spy was going to was not named in any story I read. Did you find out from some source that the company that Chen was hired by actually is Huawei? Citation please.
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Chinese autonomous cars will obey the Party even if their owners don’t.
Seriously, they’re probably working on systems to arrest people by taking control of their autonomous cars.
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Because for all of the differences in various cultures around the world, one thing they all have in common is that their well-off people all really want to have servants who will shut up and do what they’re told.
An autonomous car is better than having a driver, because you don’t have to worry about the autonomous car taking time off for illness (or sleep). You also don’t have to worry about the autonomous car getting bribed to put a bullet into your head (though you DO have to worry about it getting hacked to drive you off a bridge, so the paranoid authoritarian will never truly find the perfect slave that they want).
If you think that all of this research into robots is somehow for the masses don’t kid yourself - nobody from the moneyed class in any country would devote the time and energy to a project like this for that. It’s always about the moneyed classes getting what they want - if the plebes also get a benefit they should be happy to get it.
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It’s not all that difficult, there’s no real penalty, and there’s both a financial and patriotic motive. Plus, “everybody” is doing it, so there’s no attached social stigma.
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Because if they can figure out what it is about the programming for autonomous cars that works, they can reverse engineer how to make humans exactly as “autonomous”. Having a population of ‘well-programmed citizens’ is Xi’s wet dream. He’s already started, what with the gamification of many human activities, via the social credit score.
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Working on it? I would bet that nut has already been cracked. That’s as simple as remotely disabling the door and window controls. Now they just need to cars to drive correctly.
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we need an app/web-service that disrupts corporate secrecy permanently.
And then they can program cars to drive to the nearest police station.
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Hah. No. Once everything is sealed up it just releases the poison gas and drives the bodies to the nearest “problem solver” pit.
You’ll be able to spot a used autonomous car by the bouquet of air fresheners dangling from the mirror.
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A wiring harness? Is that really all he could get? He sucks at spying.
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Exactly.
Plus, the moneyed classes will use autonomous cars as yet another means to control the non-moneyed classes.
For starters, it would be trivially easy to make sure no pleb can drive anywhere near their villas and gated communities (unless they have a special pass to work there). The possibilities are endless. One of the reasons why autonomous cars won’t be “buy to own” for the masses but “as a service” to rent.
And that Trolley Problem? Much easier to solve when the algorithm factors in who has a premium account and who doesn’t.
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