Following concerns over how data from their vehicles is handled, Tesla announced today the opening of a new data center in China. Not only will the vehicle data be stored locally, owners will also soon have access to it.
The data center was first announced in April after reports Tesla vehicles had been banned from Chinese military facilities over fears the on-board cameras could be used for spying. To allay those fears, CEO Elon Musk confirmed that any data would be stored locally within China.
Soon after Tesla China’s head of communication and government affairs, Grace Tao confirmed a new data center was under construction and would be completed by the end of June 2021.
In a post to their Weibo account, the automaker has confirmed the opening of the new data center more than a month ahead of schedule.
“We have established a data center in China to achieve data storage localization, and will continue to add more local data centers. All data generated from the sales of vehicles in the Chinese mainland market will be stored in China.”
Tesla also confirmed owners in China will soon be able to access their own vehicle’s data, but did not specify when the service will be available or how owners will be able to do so.
“At the same time, we will open the vehicle information query platform to car owners. This work is in full swing, and the details and progress will be reported to you one after another. Thank you for your support. We will work hard to continuously improve the user experience.”
Giving owners access to their own data comes in response to scrutiny over safety concerns, in particular around the brakes in the Model 3. Questions arose after an owner jumped on the roof of a Model 3 at the Shanghai Auto Show in April claiming the brakes in her car had failed, causing an accident when her father was behind the wheel.
Tesla later released data logs from the vehicle showing the brakes worked as designed, and the car’s active safety features actually reduced the impact of the collision.
