According to The Sun newspaper, British Ministry of Defence staff have been ordered to stop talking in their electric cars over fears that the cars’ Chinese manufacturers will eavesdrop on them.
The UK Ministry of Defence has already leased hundreds of electric vehicles to meet its Net Zero targets and become carbon neutral. Thousands more have been ordered to de-pollute its entire fleet of 12,000 vehicles within two years.
Much of the lease cars are MGs from the Chinese state-owned Automotive Industry Corporation. According to the British newspaper The Sun, however, there are fears that built-in microphones can record and transmit conversations, which could pose a risk to national security. Therefore, a security warning was issued within the ministry, prohibiting conversations about sensitive information in electric cars.
“They can do more than just listen.”
“It’s crazy,” a source within the Defense Department told the newspaper. “Many of these cars are used by high-ranking officers, who know a lot of secrets and work on sensitive missions. And it’s normal to discuss work while driving, especially if everyone in the car has the same authority or is working on the same project. They’re not used to thinking that the car might be listening, especially if the Defense Department itself issues it.”
The latest figures show that the ministry has 745 electric and 1,414 hybrid vehicles. “These cars are now everywhere, from Special Forces headquarters to nuclear submarine bases,” a second source said. “Not only can they monitor conversations, but the cars record where they go, and some have cameras inside and outside.”
A Defense Department spokesperson responded that “protecting national security is at the heart of everything we do. “We have strict security procedures in place to ensure that sensitive information is protected.” The Sun contacted MG and BYD, another Chinese electric car manufacturer, for comment but have not yet responded.
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