Last month, Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD announced its partnership with DeepSeek, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) company from China, raising concerns about information leakage. DeepSeek is banned for use by various governments, public institutions, and corporations around the world due to security issues.
On 16th, the finished vehicle industry reported that BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu announced during a smart strategy presentation at its headquarters in Shenzhen, China, on 10th, that all future vehicles will be equipped with the autonomous driving system "God's eye (天神之眼)" developed in collaboration with DeepSeek. BYD plans to apply DeepSeek's large language model "DeepSeek R1" to its advanced driver assistance system (ADAS).
AI is considered an essential technology to be installed in autonomous vehicles. Based on road information collected through cameras and radars, AI can find the optimal driving path and respond to various emergencies.
DeepSeek has been evaluated as highly efficient in voice recognition, natural language processing, and image recognition, and is also said to possess advanced logical reasoning abilities. BYD expressed expectations that it could further advance voice recognition technologies through its collaboration with DeepSeek. Prior to BYD, other Chinese automakers such as Geely and Dongfeng Motor also announced plans to utilize DeepSeek.
As DeepSeek has been made public, major countries and corporations have banned its use due to concerns over information leakage. The U.S. Congress is pushing for legislation to prevent the use of DeepSeek by government and public institutions, and several major Japanese corporations, including Toyota and SoftBank, have also prohibited the use of DeepSeek. Government departments and agencies in South Korea, along with major companies like Hyundai Motor Group, have decided to ban deepseek use as well.
The reason that governments and corporations are blocking DeepSeek is due to concerns that various information may flow to China during its use. Therefore, if DeepSeek is installed in BYD vehicles, there is a possibility that personal records such as the driver's route and driving information could be leaked.
Given the significant increase in users of in-car infotainment (a blend of 'information' and 'entertainment'), there are also concerns that important information may escape during processes of handling business or making calls while driving autonomously. Additionally, there are many opinions that suggest it will collect various terrains and locations across the country through image recognition.
BYD has disclosed that it stores collected personal information in the cloud servers of Tencent, a Chinese IT company, but has not provided specific information protection measures.
Currently, the model being sold by BYD in the country, the Atto 3, does not have DeepSeek applied. However, as BYD's headquarters announced plans to equip all vehicles with autonomous driving technology utilizing DeepSeek software, it is highly likely that vehicles equipped with DeepSeek will be released in the domestic market.
A representative from the finished vehicle industry noted, "An autonomous vehicle equipped with DeepSeek and connected cars can gather information not only on driving routes and driving habits but also on visited locations," and emphasized that "BYD must clearly disclose the information it collects and provide specific measures on how it can prevent the risk of leakage."
A BYD representative stated, "The policy of applying DeepSeek to new cars currently only applies to models sold in the Chinese market. In South Korea, we will decide whether to sell vehicles equipped with DeepSeek based on future developments."