[rocketfinger]

Little OT but had to say

Originally Posted by 07CR

If I am not wrong, lot's of new cars are coming with the same tech. Maybe we can ask them the same question.

Which is why fear aggravates with MG !
As at the end of the day it is owned by Chinese parent and there have been so many recent revelations about data theft by Chinese companies from US and from other parts of the world !

[Singh101]

MG could offer the Bentayga at 2 million rupees and it'd get knocked out of consideration for me simply for being an MG. That British veneer is infuriating as well- you don't have to scratch it too deep to reveal the five-starred red flag underneath.

Yes, I realise I'm writing this on a device which has components sourced from PRC. Yes, I'm aware of global supply chains- I'm in the Merchant Navy myself. No, I'm not a nationalist nut.

As long as the CCP is holding Pakistan's pinkie finger and showing aggression towards my country and its peoples, I'm going to be aggressively mindful of who gets my business.

Just like seismic events shift the earth's tilt and magnetism, PRC needs to understand that they overplayed their hand and have triggered a global uprising against their intimidation tactics via economic superiority.

Hello, MG. Cheerio, MG.

[landcruiser123]

Some BHPians are hinting that the government might block the investment. Trust me, they will do no such thing as manufacturing brings jobs and taxes.

When comparing MG and Toyota, one has to realize that India isn't Toyota's largest market. MG needs to expand beyond China and going by their product quality, I doubt they can compete in the US. So India is the largest single market for them.

[AZT]

Originally Posted by sramanat

Can this be put to malicious use? Either by hackers or by the country/company?

There was an article last year about a Tesla key fob being hacked and the car being stolen. The company has made some changes since then and there's another statistic that Tesla vehicles are about 90% less likely to be stolen than the average car. Posting both links below

https://electrek.co/2019/08/22/tesla...to-prevent-it/

https://electrek.co/2019/08/01/tesla...n-average-car/

[Astonite]

Originally Posted by sramanat

I wasn't referring to the data collected from the car. While that poses interesting privacy questions (Imagine your insurance company rejecting your claim "Sir, as per the data your car was parked for 3 hours outside the pub and you got into an accident 30 minutes later. We suspect you were drunk"), I am more interested in what sort of "updates" are pushed into the car and to which software/firmware components. I read in the Kia Seltos DCT threads that there was an upgrade to the onboard systems to fix the issues with odd/even gear shifting (that's my understanding of it ). Could something similar be done by an attacker to cars that receive OTA updates?

Updates should be more towards improving the functionality/performance of existing systems and adding new options as possible. The same that happens in Tesla/Ather. Hackers can definitely intercept the transmission and plant something in the car. It's not just while OTA but whenever there is a communication between the car and the server (example while using voice assistance). It's all about how well the company has encrypted the comms in transit.

Regarding the insurance claim scenario that you mentioned, this should be an interesting read for you - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-51466273

And regarding privacy, what if the manufacturer stores information on board (for a non-connected car) and unloads data back to their system while the car goes for service? This should be possible in a car which has a ECU and that's every single car on the road except for vintages/classics. If we want to question, we can question everything but we have to accept the fact that this is the new normal!

[adhd92]

Originally Posted by Cessna182

This post is not about politics. If other options are available, would you buy a product from Pakistan if it came from a company with army ties? Nope mostly because we perceive them as a national security threat. Here is perhaps the most aggressive communist dictatorship to the north, and Indians continue to buy its products despite what they did to our soldiers from a company that's a supplier to the enemy army.

Sometimes it is just baffling to see that a basic sense of national interest is not displayed in discretionary purchases.

I understand that the concern is with good intention but why is the onus always put on the citizen?

First he/she pays almost 40% taxes on the vehicle and then he/she has to be lectured upon how dare you buy Chinese.

If this is such a major issue, shouldn't the government red flag such investments first or restrict their entry into the market?

Or have we already accepted that they are so incompetent that they are not their job properly hence, we need to take upon this responsibility too?

What is more baffling is how much our government gets away with while citizens are always put under the radar.

Let the markets decide what is a good product what is not and allow people to be rational consumers imho.

[db DrivE]

The point here is the government not doing something about such investments.

The government does not do so because a lot of factors come in to the picture.
Anything that comes out from the government officially would have multiple impacts.
Also consider the international trade pacts and obligations.
The government allows clothing and other produce even from Pakistan.

That is where we as consumers should be doing what's right by considering national interest.

The cars definitely are good, an investment does not just stay limited to it.

Just consider a family member to be in the army posted at the border and you have a car being sold by the country on the other side. Now take a call.

I absolutely do not intend to spark any unhealthy conversation here but I definitely want my countrymen to make a judgment by considering the right factors.

[digitalnirvana]

Originally Posted by sramanat

I know I am sounding like a conspiracy theory nut, but I have an honest question...
The Hector was advertised as an internet based car that can receive updates to various (SW) components. Can this be put to malicious use? Either by hackers or by the country/company?

Whether it can be put to malicious use is a moot point. Any electronic data stored on any cloud is open to malicious use. The question is about the cost of breaking into it. This many others have explained already.

So I'm instead going to focus my answer on whether it is "required to be open to monitoring or surveillance". The answer to that is not fully clear when we are talking about outside mainland China.

Article 37: Critical information infrastructure operators that gather or produce personal information or important data during operations within the mainland territory of the People’s Republic of China, shall store it within mainland China. Where due to business requirements it is truly necessary to provide it outside the mainland, they shall follow the measures jointly formulated by the State cybersecurity and informatization departments and the relevant departments of the State Council to conduct a security assessment; where laws and administrative regulations provide otherwise, follow those provisions.

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by Cessna182

Hopefully

Sometimes it is just baffling to see that a basic sense of national interest is not displayed in discretionary purchases.

On the contrary, FDI is FDI. A lesson we should learn from the Chinese themselves. They accepted FDI from all, chiefly from their greatest enemy (ideologically and they fought a pitched war as well), but for decades they took US money, tech and now are challenging them.

My firm works with MG and are now working with Great Wall, and the majority of the staff are Indian, the investment goes into the economy.

[Nalin1]

Here is an interesting piece of news-

https://www.carandbike.com/news/mg-m...turing-2306425

A Times of India report says that MG Motor India is in talks with other car manufacturers like Volkswagen and Mahindra-Ford alliance for contract-based manufacturing.

[theAutomaniac]

Originally Posted by Nalin1

Here is an interesting piece of news-

https://www.carandbike.com/news/mg-m...turing-2306425

Just imagine the panic among the 'Boycott Chinese' sort of people if MG contracts with Mahindra!

Anyways, considering Mahindra has their upcoming products in the pipeline which are expected to create huge demand amongst the customers, the chances of Mahindra taking the contract are not very high!

Who's left? VW?? Probably! They might grab this contract as their product pileline is anyways dry!

What comes in my mind though is that why won't MG takeover GM's India plant which was being planned to be handed over to GWM??

[landcruiser123]

To me, it seems like MG is just hinting it's contingency plan so that GoI doesn't put any roadblocks.

But knowing GoIs appetite for tax revenue, they will make an exception for MGs cars. MG producing their own cars generates employment and taxes through:
1. Factory building/expansion/maintenance
2. Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers of parts
3. Excise duty and Road tax
4. Fuel & other consumables used through the life of the car

I'm willing to be MGs cars manufactured through a contract will be much more expensive which will mean reduced sales. Not what the Indian government wants.

Originally Posted by Cessna182

Sometimes it is just baffling to see that a basic sense of national interest is not displayed in discretionary purchases.

I think I'd buy a good quality MG car in India. Unless you're a VIP/VVIP, are they going to collect data about your movements and analyze it? Whether you have an MG car or not, anybody with reasonable resources and skills can get to know your whereabouts easily with the help of all the connected devices.

However, I'd not buy a laptop/cellphone from the Chinese brands as it can compromise my personal (financial) information.

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by Nalin1

Here is an interesting piece of news-

https://www.carandbike.com/news/mg-m...turing-2306425

If this materializes, it has got to be with Volkswagen. Let's not forget the German car-maker's Chinese partner is SAIC which owns MG. This will just be an extension of their existing synergy apart from being a near-perfect contingency plan for MG's expansion in India and adding some much-needed volumes for Volkswagen India's under-utilized plant.

[coolkurt]

I for one don't see any short term constraints to MG's growth, barring sentiment of course. Government intervention isn't a factor here as they wouldn't want to lose out on foreign investment and impede creation of hundreds if not thousands of jobs, if we take ancillary units and partners into consideration.

MG is just preparing for the worst case scenario, which shouldn't arise. They've recently submitted a proposal to invest a further Rs 1000 Crores and despite the government dilly dallying on it, they're eventually bound to clear it once the situation on the borders stabilizes.

[coolkurt]

MG Motor to invest Rs 500 crore more, hire 1,000

MG Motor India is planning to invest an additional Rs 500 crore to increase localisation of critical components and fund vendor development.

This comes close on the heels of its announcement four weeks ago of a Rs 1,000-crore investment to ramp up capacity at its Halol, Gujarat plant.

This takes the total planned investment to Rs 4500 crores. They have 3500 people in their employment, directly and indirectly, and the same will be augmented by a further hiring of 1000 people.

As demand grows, it will increase the number of shifts to two in certain areas and third in some others. The plant now products 75,000-80,000 units a year, and can be expanded to one lakh units a year.

Source