July 28, 2026 Automotive Take

The Senate Just Discovered Cars Collect Data

Surveillance packages on wheels. Yes. They have been for about fifteen years.

Modern sedan on a nighttime highway with a Flock Safety-style license plate reader camera on a pole in the background

Sometime last week, the United States Senate discovered that cars collect data.

This is true. It has been true for about fifteen years.

The Senate Commerce Committee advanced a bill that would ban connected vehicle sales by companies with more than 15% Chinese ownership. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., explained the rationale: "Chinese cars are surveillance packages on wheels, with the ability to collect on American citizens and transmit that data back to Beijing."

She's right. She's also describing every other vehicle on the road.

General Motors' OnStar has been tracking location, speed, and driver behavior since the early 2000s. By 2009, telematics were standard equipment across virtually every major OEM. Today, Ford SYNC logs where you drive. Tesla's cameras record exterior environments continuously. Progressive Snapshot and similar programs sell your braking patterns to insurance underwriters. GM's Super Cruise uses a driver-facing camera to monitor your attention. It is pointed at your face and running the entire time you are behind the wheel.

Flock Safety operates automated license plate readers in more than 5,000 American communities. These systems read, log, and store plate numbers and vehicle locations, then make that data available to law enforcement agencies and paying subscribers. The opt-out mechanism is not driving. No Senate hearing has been scheduled about Flock.

The phone in your cupholder knows more about your movements, purchases, and conversations than any automaker, foreign or domestic. Apple, Google, and Meta hold more behavioral data on American drivers than a Chinese-affiliated OEM could accumulate in a decade. The Senate has not moved to ban iPhones.

The data a Chinese-affiliated vehicle collects and the data an American one collects are, in most cases, identical. The distinction isn't what gets collected. It's who can compel the disclosure afterward, and under what legal framework. American companies have been sharing that data with insurers, data brokers, and law enforcement for years without a Senate bill requiring them to stop.

The legislation has also produced an unresolved question about its own terms. The Trump administration banned Polestar from selling new connected vehicles in the U.S. starting in 2027, citing majority ownership by Geely, the Chinese automaker. Volvo Cars, also majority-owned by Geely, received a green light to continue selling. The principle distinguishing the two has not been clearly stated. Both companies collect connected vehicle data. Both share the same majority owner.

Then there is the matter of General Motors.

Sen. Ted Cruz, who chairs the Commerce Committee, warned that the bill as written would effectively remove Mercedes-Benz from the American market. He also accused GM of pushing the legislation not to protect American drivers, but to weaken a direct competitor to Cadillac in the premium segment. A separate provision backed by GM would require competitors to purchase more expensive batteries, adding approximately $5,000 per vehicle. This is industrial policy with a national security label, using China as the justification to hand a market segment to an American manufacturer that cannot win it on product.

The legitimate concern underneath this legislation is real. Data on American citizens' movements and behavior should not flow to foreign governments without oversight. That is worth legislating.

The answer is a data governance framework covering all connected vehicles and all data brokers, regardless of who built the car. Who collects the data. What they can do with it. Who they can sell it to. Under what circumstances law enforcement can access it without a warrant. Those are the questions. A ban on companies above a Chinese ownership threshold doesn't answer any of them. The vehicles that stay on the road are equally capable of collecting the same data and routing it to anyone willing to pay for it. The Flock cameras stay. The insurance telematics stays. The data brokers stay.

If the goal is protecting American privacy, this bill doesn't accomplish it. If the goal is protecting American automakers from German competition, this bill might.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Senate bill targeting Chinese-owned automakers?

The Senate Commerce Committee advanced a bill that would ban connected vehicle sales in the U.S. by companies with more than 15 percent Chinese ownership. Sponsors cited national security concerns, arguing that Chinese-affiliated vehicles could transmit American driving data to Beijing.

Why could Mercedes-Benz be affected by the connected vehicle bill?

Two Chinese investors hold a combined stake of nearly 20 percent in Mercedes-Benz, placing it above the bill's 15 percent threshold. Sen. Ted Cruz warned the legislation as written would effectively ban Mercedes-Benz from the U.S. market.

What data do American connected vehicles already collect?

American connected vehicles collect GPS location, speed, braking patterns, acceleration data, and in some cases interior audio triggers and video. GM's OnStar has tracked this data since the early 2000s. GM's Super Cruise uses a driver-facing camera for continuous facial monitoring. Progressive Snapshot and similar telematics programs sell driving behavior data to insurance underwriters.

What is Flock Safety and why is it relevant to vehicle surveillance?

Flock Safety operates automated license plate readers in more than 5,000 American communities. These systems log plate numbers and vehicle locations and make the data available to law enforcement and paying subscribers. The Senate bill targeting Chinese vehicle ownership does not address Flock or similar domestic surveillance infrastructure.

Is the data collected by Chinese-affiliated vehicles different from what American vehicles collect?

In most cases, no. The data collected by Chinese-affiliated vehicles and American vehicles is largely identical: location, speed, braking, and driving behavior. The meaningful distinction is not what gets collected, but who can legally compel the disclosure of that data and under what framework.

What would meaningful connected vehicle privacy legislation look like?

Effective legislation would establish a data governance framework covering all connected vehicles and all data brokers, regardless of manufacturer ownership structure. It would define what data can be collected, what companies can do with it, who they can sell it to, and under what circumstances law enforcement can access it.