On the Road No. 1 — Thursday, September 24, 2026

Good morning to everyone listening. Two numbers are enough to understand this case. This year in Australia, electric cars and plug-in hybrids account for almost a third of new car sales, and more than half of those sales carry a Chinese brand. The test took time. Dan Hreszczuk, co-founder of Fortify Labs, kept the car for two weeks before the demonstration. Then he got into the vehicle's systems through an access point that asked for no password at all. From there he was able to work out how the programs that control headlights, doors and wipers actually run. His comment was: it was easier than we expected. On that same September 21, Security Affairs picked up the case, published the technical details of the access, and filed it among the risks of connected vehicles. A corporate fleet buys in batches and takes the same model dozens of times. A design weakness then becomes the weakness of the entire fleet.

Good morning. In a vehicle like this, three separate parts matter. The sensors read the environment with cameras, radar and lidar. The driving program decides where the car goes: when it brakes, when it turns, when it accelerates. The booking app brings in the customers. On September 10, 2026, in Zagreb, Pony.ai and its Croatian partner launched the first driverless taxis in Europe, with passengers on board and the driver's seat empty. The route runs from the airport to the business district. The computers installed in these cars use Nvidia chips. That same day, in Madrid, Spain issued its first national permit for level 4 autonomous vehicles. The program that decides where the car goes is supplied by the Chinese company, and it has already been trained on millions of kilometers driven in China. The European partner adds the vehicle, the workshop, the license and the relationship with the city. A booking app can be replaced in three months. Getting a driving model approved takes years of work.

Good morning to you all. On September 19, 2026, China's ministry of commerce declared that it firmly opposes the so-called voluntary restrictions on exports of hybrid vehicles to Europe, calling them a serious violation of World Trade Organization rules and of the principle of fair competition. The request had come earlier. On September 17, the Financial Times reported that Brussels is asking China to limit exports on its own, otherwise the tariffs arrive. In the reporting that followed, a ceiling appeared: 15 percent of the market. These are the same words used in 1981, when Japan accepted a cap on its exports to the United States. The deal was simple. It set how many cars could be sold and at what price, and it forced Japanese carmakers to build cars inside the United States. In 1982 Honda opened its factory in Marysville, Ohio. Whoever pays the tariff ends up building the factory in the country imposing it.

The tariff you describe does move factories, Cato. On the 1981 case, the facts are on your side. But there's a difference. The tariff is paid on the body, on the engine, on the battery. The driving software, though, travels over the network and updates overnight. In your view, does a factory in Hungary or Spain bring the driving software to Europe too, or does the software stay where it was trained?

It depends on what actually goes into the plant. The Japanese factories brought in equipment, jobs and bargaining power. But when the market falls, the ones who pay are the towns that host those factories. Today a carmaker can set up production in Europe much faster. Leapmotor assembles its cars in a Stellantis plant, and within three months that car counts as made in Europe. So it pays no tariffs. The software, on the other hand, stays with whoever wrote it, governed by a separate contract.

Yes. On board some of those vehicles, Dahua cameras were found, a brand banned in Australia inside public buildings. The ban applies to state buildings, and every morning a company car drives right in there. If the corporate inventory counts the cameras in the offices but not the ones in the cars, half the cameras don't show up anywhere. Nova, the driverless taxis in Zagreb are monitored remotely from a control room. What do the people in that room actually do, and do we know who keeps the footage?

In the room there are people ready to step in when the situation gets difficult, but the decisions stay with the onboard program. I haven't verified who keeps the camera footage, or for how long. We're already seeing a similar case, though. In Zurich, driverless shuttles will carry passengers out to the remote aircraft stands at the airport, where you only get in with a permit. That's reported by Euronews on September 18.

The rules matter too. In Szeged, Hungary, there's the first European BYD factory, and to expand it the company has to meet stricter standards. Hungary Today reported that on September 17. So let me ask you, Atlas. If the car is assembled in Europe, with declared suppliers and checks on site, do we finally know what's inside it?

The assembly line only solves the problem of the mechanical parts. Even after the sale, the manufacturer can change and update the car remotely. In the Australian case, that program is controlled by companies headquartered in China. The experts quoted by the broadcaster point out that Chinese national security laws can require companies to cooperate with the authorities. A factory in Szeged cancels the tariff, but it doesn't answer the real question. Who decides what changes in the car during the overnight updates?

The numbers are being decided right now. On September 18, Lucid and Bolt announced a program of 25,000 robotaxis destined for Europe, while more and more countries are granting their authorizations. In Europe there are already companies that have obtained the permits and are running vehicles on the road, years ahead of the forecasts. Companies will be able to buy them as early as the next fiscal year.

Carmakers moved while the talks were stuck. Bloomberg reported on September 17 that BYD is aiming at four European plants: three for vehicles and one for batteries. On September 20 we learned that one of those plants will be in Spain. A car factory takes years, from the decision to the first vehicle that leaves the plant. The choices announced these days decide where cars will be built in Europe in 2030.

The specifications in corporate fleet tenders. If the next tenders include a line for onboard cameras, with brand and suppliers declared, it means companies have started counting the cameras in the cars too. Today that line is almost never there. Companies count the cameras in the offices, not the ones in the cars.

The first European city that sets a date for the 25,000 robotaxis announced by Lucid and Bolt in September. Then I'm watching the contract for the Zagreb control room. If a local company wins that contract, control of the driving software may move into European hands too. For now the car drives itself, and whoever watches over it sits outside Europe.

I'm watching whether China signs the voluntary export ceiling before winter, or not. And the date of the first vehicle rolling off a European line at those plants. From that day on, the problem won't be the tariffs anymore. It will be the software and its updates.