[TusharK]

MG Motor plans to invest Rs. 1,000 crore in India, which will enable the company to expand its operations and launch new models.



The carmaker will be approaching the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) with their proposal to make fresh investments. As per the new FDI rules, MG, which is a sub-brand of China-based SAIC, will require clearance from DPIIT to make new investments in the country.

MG has already invested Rs. 3,000 crore in India. Its Indian product portfolio includes the Hector, Hector Plus and the ZS Electric.

The carmaker has opened bookings for the Gloster SUV, which will be launched next month. It comes with various advanced safety features including radar guided cruise control, autonomous emergency braking, automatic park assist, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring and forward collision warning. The new model will compete with the Toyota Fortuner, Ford Endeavour and the likes.

Source

Link to Team-BHP News

[BZ25]

They may be Chinese, but atleast they're showing intention of bringing competent products to the Indian market, unlike Toyota, who refuse to bring their excellent international portfolio, including the RAV4, C-HR, the new Corolla, among other offerings.

[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?

[07CR]

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?

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

To my limited knowledge and what I can recollect, this data is being handled by Accenture/MS Azure services, two of the most renowned names in the Software industry. I don't think there could be any threat to the user's personal data with these new connected cars.

[motor spirit]

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?

It all boils down to the Ethics of the company , Social responsibility as a corporate , the executives , the Govt which influences the HQ & also the 3rd party companies who are handling this data .
There was an issue with MG earlier . Kindly go through the below below link from Economic times . Guess they have sorted the issue by now.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/71089562.cms

[AZT]

Great Wall Motors is also planning to set up a factory here. The Indian car scene is going to heat up in 2021

[Cessna182]

Hopefully the DPIIT will do the most stringent due diligence because MG is a company with the Chinese Army ex-soldiers on its board. I don't get how Indians are okay with this despite what has transpired between the two countries in the last three months.

https://www.dnaindia.com/india/repor...-india-2832915

"SAIC Motor Corporation, a Chinese state-owned automobile company headquartered in Shanghai, sells the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), MG Hector, in India. One of the company's subsidiaries is Nanjing Automobile, which was previously a vehicle servicing unit of the PLA."

https://www.republicworld.com/world-...-in-india.html


"...while companies like Alibaba, Tencent, SAIC Motor Corporation Limited are involved in joint ventures with the PLA."

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.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by motor spirit

It all boils down to the Ethics of the company , Social responsibility as a corporate , the executives , the Govt which influences the HQ & also the 3rd party companies who are handling this data .
There was an issue with MG earlier . Kindly go through the below below link from Economic times .

Sorry but that's not the right interpretation IMHO. The article quoted talks of a hack against the testing vendor SGS which affected companies like MG and even Daimler. How is that related to the ethics of MG?

MG's customer data from the infotainment and connected features is stored with Microsoft’s Azure Cloud within India, for example.

In fact, the 'trusted' companies like Honda have exhibited far less ethics in this regard, leaving customer data in unsecured public buckets for the world to see.

[darkLightning]

In our programming world there is a commonly accepted fact - "The only unbreakable code is where there is no code" So as long as there is some kind of programmable code present in any device it can be intercepted/ intruded/ hacked whatever you want to call it. And the more data there is to be stored, more benefits for such intruder and more concerns for the user.

You want a car that can be accessed by your mobile then the possibility of reverse access will always be there, it really doesn't matter if it's MG or Tesla or Tata.

[CoffeeBeans]

Originally Posted by 07CR

To my limited knowledge and what I can recollect, this data is being handled by Accenture/MS Azure services, two of the most renowned names in the Software industry. I don't think there could be any threat to the user's personal data with these new connected cars.

Having worked in cloud tech, I can tell you there is lot more than just ethics of the companies involved. Accenture and MS are service providers to MG and thus any regulation they put in place are to protect interests of MG and not the end customer, so essentially just ensuring data security at their level. However MG is solely responsible for ensuring that data is not misused by them or anyone else. There are many data protection regulations put in place in various countries -GDPR being most well known impacting regional guidelines for data use. Sadly there is nothing for India as per my knowledge so its sole discretion of company to apply any guideline if they want to reassure customers or not.

[Turbohead]

The real question is, does a beggar have choices?

In the job loss thread and auto companies vs govt thread, almost everyone has unanimously agreed that the coffers of the central government is empty and that borrowing to spend on large projects by the government is risky.

So in this case where the govt isn't willing to spend, can they really turn away MG from investing in India because it's Chinese? Won't this be suicidal?

Either ways, we're all spied on. ( Google with Android phones, Android auto, Google search etc). And they all get away.

Other than VIPs, how will it affect the rest of us?

[AirWind]

Let me add that data usage guidelines have to be enforced at the hands of the user (MG in this case) and does not lie in control of the infra service providers like Accenture or MS. Equal ownership lies with the consumer as they agree to these data collection right?

Originally Posted by CoffeeBeans

Having worked in cloud tech, I can tell you there is lot more than just ethics of the companies involved. Accenture and MS are service providers to MG and thus any regulation they put in place are to protect interests of MG and not the end customer, so essentially just ensuring data security at their level. However MG is solely responsible for ensuring that data is not misused by them or anyone else. There are many data protection regulations put in place in various countries -GDPR being most well known impacting regional guidelines for data use. Sadly there is nothing for India as per my knowledge so its sole discretion of company to apply any guideline if they want to reassure customers or not.

[sramanat]

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.

Originally Posted by motor spirit

It all boils down to the Ethics of the company , Social responsibility as a corporate , the executives , the Govt which influences the HQ & also the 3rd party companies who are handling this data .

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?

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by Cessna182

Hopefully the DPIIT will do the most stringent due diligence because MG is a company with the Chinese Army ex-soldiers on its board. I don't get how Indians are okay with this despite what has transpired between the two countries in the last three months.

"
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. B][/u][/i].

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

During the Cold War era, and even later, most western countries,notably US were inimical to the Indian strategic interests by siding with our western neighbour in terms of arms and equipment. We should never have brought Pepsi, Coke, Ford, GM etc.
Better to have a successful company that generates and sustains jobs with acceptable products than a bloated, sick PSU that simply adds to the taxpayer burden.
And while we are it, lets stop using our PCs and mobiles since most of them have components made in China anyway.
MG Hector seems to be a decent product for what it offers and it does seem to have satisfied customers.Better this than an unsafe car that relies on weight savings for fuel efficiency or an obsolete platform that is being plied on our roads for decades in the name of " tough and rugged".

[RedTerrano]

Some days back, I read a TBHP post about a media report about Toyota's alleged whining. Said article also had a clarification from Union Minister Shri Javdekar, as well as Shri Kirloskar absolutely denying the news article.

Now, MG is investing.
As per this, so is Suzuki.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...hub-jimny.html (Suzuki plans to make India sole production hub for Jimny)

So is it safe to deduce the original Toyota article was a media hit job?