Here’s why China has been testing its autonomous car technology in the U.S. for years

Published

8 months ago

October 23, 2024

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Chinese companies are aggressively developing autonomous vehicles. In August, China announced that it had issued 16,000 test licenses for driverless cars and opened up about 20,000 miles of roads nationwide for autonomous vehicle testing.

But Chinese autonomous vehicle companies have also quietly been testing their technology on U.S. streets.

Baidu, Didi, WeRide, Pony.ai and AutoX all have offices in northern California, right alongside many U.S. autonomous car outfits. Collectively, these five companies logged over 1.6 million test miles on California’s roads between 2017 and 2023, according to data from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which is responsible for issuing test licenses for companies aiming to test autonomous cars in the state. Out of these five companies, Didi, is the only one that no longer has an active AV testing permit according to the DMV’s website.

Michael Dunne, CEO and founder of consulting firm Dunne Insights, told CNBC that China had “carte blanche” when it comes to testing AVs in California.

“They recognized that Silicon Valley was the cradle of autonomous vehicle technology,” Dunne said, adding, “They hired a lot of people who had previously been working for Apple or Tesla or Waymo or Cruise and said, ‘Let’s get the best talent in the world. We have funding, and we want to build a world-class company. Take that knowledge, bring it back to China, apply it to our massive home market, and we’re off and running.'”

But now, concerns about the massive amount of data being collected by these cars and the potential implications for national security have led the U.S. government to propose a ban on Chinese connected vehicles.

Missy Cummings, a former senior safety advisor to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told CNBC the ban was a good start.

“These vehicles are very much surveillance machines,” Cummings said. “They have multiple cameras looking at everything from many different angles, and they can do the same pattern every day, over and over and over again, under the guise of testing.”

Cummings added that the vehicles gather “critical information that may not seem confidential, but certainly is sensitive, about patterns of life, about vehicles that go in and out of certain installations, about how we actually do supply chains.”

Representative Marc Veasey of Texas told CNBC he is also concerned. Last year, he and three other representatives wrote a letter to the Biden administration, detailing their fears that Chinese autonomous vehicles operating in the U.S. pose threats to national security and competitiveness.

Feeling the increased scrutiny, Chinese autonomous car companies have been pulling back from the U.S.

At the peak of Chinese AV testing, Dunne told CNBC there were more than 14 companies testing their vehicles in California, Nevada and Utah, but today, Dunne said he sees “very little evidence or intention among Chinese autonomous vehicle makers to launch products in the United States.”

“There’s a recognition,” he said. “‘Oh, we had a nice run in the United States. We learned a lot. From here forward, maybe we have enough that we can build our own innovation inside China.'”

Watch the video to find out more about how these AV companies are testing their vehicles on California’s roads and what impact the increased scrutiny around Chinese connected vehicles could mean for the industry in the future.

Technology

Amazon CEO Jassy says AI will lead to ‘fewer people doing some of the jobs’ that get automated

Published

37 mins ago

July 1, 2025

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Amazon CEO Jassy says AI will lead to 'fewer people doing some of the jobs' that get automated

AI will change the workforce, says Amazon CEO Andy Jassy

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the rapid rollout of generative artificial intelligence means the company will one day require fewer employees to do some of the work that computers can handle.

“Like with every technical transformation, there will be fewer people doing some of the jobs that the technology actually starts to automate,” Jassy told CNBC’s Jim Cramer in an interview on Monday. “But there’s going to be other jobs.”

Even as AI eliminates the need for some roles, Amazon will continue to hire more employees in AI, robotics and elsewhere, Jassy said.

Earlier this month, Jassy admitted that he expects the company’s workforce to decline in the next few years as Amazon embraces generative AI and AI-powered software agents. He told staffers in a memo that it will be “hard to know exactly where this nets out over time” but that the corporate workforce will shrink as Amazon wrings more efficiencies out of the technology.

It’s a message that’s making its way across the tech sector. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff last week claimed AI is doing 30% to 50% of the work at his software vendor. Other companies such as Shopify and Microsoft have urged employees to adopt the technology in their daily work. The CEO of Klarna said in May that the online lender has managed to shrink its headcount by about 40%, in part due to investments in AI and natural attrition in its workforce.

Jassy said on Monday that AI will free employees from “rote work” and “make all our jobs more interesting,” while enabling staffers to invent better services more quickly than before.

Amazon and other tech companies have also been shrinking their workforces through rolling layoffs over the past several years. Amazon has cut more than 27,000 jobs since the start of 2022, and it’s announced smaller, more targeted layoffs in its retail and devices units in recent months.

Amazon shares are flat so far this year, underperforming the Nasdaq, which has gained 5.5%. The stock is about 10% below its record reached in February, while fellow megacaps Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia are all trading at or very near record highs.

WATCH: Jassy says robots that will eventually do delivery and transportation

Over time we will have robots that will do delivery and transportation, says Amazon CEO Andy Jassy

Technology

Stablecoin issuer Circle applies for a national bank charter

Published

6 hours ago

June 30, 2025

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Stablecoin issuer Circle applies for a national bank charter

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), on the day of Circle Internet Group’s IPO, in New York City, U.S., June 5, 2025.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group has applied for a national trust bank charter, moving forward on its mission to bring stablecoins into the traditional financial world after the firm’s big market debut this month, CNBC confirmed.

Shares rose 1% after hours.

If the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency grants the bank charter, Circle will establish the First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A. Under the charter, Circle, which issues the USDC stablecoin, will also be able to offer custody services in the future to institutional clients for assets, which could include representations of stocks and bonds on a blockchain network.

Reuters first reported on Circle’s bank charter application.

There are no plans to change the management of Circle’s USDC reserves, which are currently held with other major banks.

Anchorage Digital is the only other crypto company to obtain such a license.

Circle’s move comes after a wildly successful IPO and debut trading month on the public markets. Shares of the company are up 484% in June. The company is also benefiting from a wave of optimism after the Senate’s passage of the GENIUS Act, which would give the U.S. a regulatory framework for stablecoins.

Having a federally regulated trust charter would also help Circle meet requirements under the GENIUS Act.

“Establishing a national digital currency trust bank of this kind marks a significant milestone in our goal to build an internet financial system that is transparent, efficient and accessible,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a statement shared with CNBC. “By applying for a national trust charter, Circle is taking proactive steps to further strengthen our USDC infrastructure.”

“Further, we will align with emerging U.S. regulation for the issuance and operation of dollar-denominated payment stablecoins, which we believe can enhance the reach and resilience of the U.S. dollar, and support the development of crucial, market neutral infrastructure for the world’s leading institutions to build on,” he said.

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

Technology

Meta shares hit all-time high as Mark Zuckerberg goes on AI hiring blitz

Published

9 hours ago

June 30, 2025

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Meta shares hit all-time high as Mark Zuckerberg goes on AI hiring blitz

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during the Meta Connect event on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Meta shares hit a record high on Monday, underscoring investor interest in the company’s new AI superintelligence group.

The company’s shares reached $747.90 during midday trading, topping Meta’s previous stock market record in February when it began laying off the 5% of its workforce that it deemed “low performers.”

Meta joins Microsoft and Nvidia among tech megacaps that have reached new highs of late, all closing at records Monday. Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Tesla remain below their all-time highs reached late last year or early this year.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on an AI hiring blitz amid fierce competition with rivals such as OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet. Earlier in June, Meta said it would hire Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and some of his colleagues as part of a $14.3 billion investment into the executive’s data labeling and annotation startup.

The social media company also hired Nat Friedman and his business partner, Daniel Gross, the chief of Safe Superintelligence, an AI startup with a valuation of $32 billion, CNBC reported on June 19. Meta’s attempts to buy Safe Superintelligence were rebuffed by the startup’s founder and AI expert Ilya Sutskever, the report noted.

Wang and Friedman are the leaders of Meta’s new Superintelligence Labs, tasked with overseeing the company’s artificial intelligence foundation models, projects and research, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The term superintelligence refers to technology that exceeds human capability.

Bloomberg News first reported about the new superintelligence unit.

Meta has also snatched AI researchers from OpenAI. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, said during a podcast that Meta was offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million.

Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s technology chief, spoke about the social media company’s AI hiring spree during a June 20 interview with CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime,” saying that the talent market is “really incredible and kind of unprecedented in my 20-year career as a technology executive.”

WATCH: Meta’s AI talent spending spree