The restrictions, which apparently do not apply to Chinese car-makers, were reported Thursday by the Financial Times. The issue concerning the authorities is national security—they fear the cars could be used for spying.
“We have obstacles driving around China making photos and recording GPS coordinates,” a representative of one car firm told the paper.
China has had strong restrictions on the recording of geographic data for over a decade, because it fears that countries might get too much information about where things are, precisely. This means people cannot perform geographical surveys without permission. Many digital cameras won’t record GPS coordinates to geotag the photos they take in China, either.
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