An investigation in Norway last year found the Zhengzhou-based company could, in theory, disable the buses mid-transit via a remote \u201ckill switch\u201d, Norway\u2019s public transport authority, Ruter, said.<\/p>\n
The troubling findings triggered Denmark to launch its own urgent review of Yutong buses.<\/p>\n
The UK followed, with the Department for Transport working with the National Cyber Security Centre to investigate, according to the Times of London.<\/p>\n
Last week, Transport Canberra launched a fresh investigation into its Yutong electric buses. The agency told ABC it had looked into the issue last year and found no vulnerabilities, but decided to relaunch an investigation following recent developments overseas.<\/p>\n
While the UK\u2019s National Cyber Security Centre reported it was \u201ctechnically possible\u201d for the buses to be remotely disabled by Beijing, there is no evidence this has actually happened.<\/p>\n
Public transport operators in Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington all operate Yutong electric buses as part of their cities\u2019 fleets. Each operator said it was aware of the concerns, but confident its vehicles were safe, and \u201cdo not have reason to be concerned\u201d.<\/p>\n
Yutong is the world’s largest electric bus manufacturer, making vehicles for new Zealand’s public transport providers. Photo \/ Yutong<\/p>\n
In the capital, 14 buses of Metlink\u2019s 122 electric bus fleet were manufactured by Yutong, including those on its Airport Express service.<\/p>\n
Metlink confirmed the 14 buses are fitted with Yutong sim cards, a feature of Yutong\u2019s onboard telematics system called Yutong Vehicle Plus. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis allows Yutong to remotely retrieve information that the bus produces and collects,\u201d Metlink\u2019s Fiona Abbott said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also allows Yutong to perform remote actions such as software updates or turning on or off individual functions like air conditioning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYutong does not have enough control to turn off the bus,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Abbott said Metlink was aware of the international reporting of the \u201ckill switch\u201d, but said they \u201cdo not have reason to be concerned about our buses here in Wellington\u201d.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, 22 Yutong buses are operated on Auckland Transport\u2019s (AT) bus network.<\/p>\n
\u201cAT has not been aware of any vehicle security issues that have affected the electric buses operating in Auckland,\u201d AT public transport operations group manager Rachel Cara said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are continuing to closely monitor developments overseas with bus safety and security alongside our bus operators, but we remain confident that Auckland\u2019s buses are safe for the more than 75,000 bus services we run each week,\u201d Cara said.<\/p>\n
Environment Canterbury, which is responsible for Christchurch\u2019s Metro bus network, operates 25 Yutong buses, but said they are an older generation, \u201cand don\u2019t have the level of connectivity of the newer buses\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe operator who owns these buses has assured us these buses can\u2019t be accessed externally as these buses do not have this level of access, and they would not allow such modification,\u201d public transport general manager Stewart Gibbon said. <\/p>\n
AT operate buses built by Chinese company Yutong on its Airport Link route. Photo \/ Stephen Forbes<\/p>\n
In a statement to the Herald, a spokesman for the company rejected the international findings, saying Yutong can not remotely control its vehicles.<\/p>\n
\u201cYutong operates independently on market principles and is not controlled by the government,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYutong strictly complies with the applicable laws, regulations, and industry standards of the locations where its vehicles operate.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said the technology on board is designed for \u201cafter-sales service needs\u201d, allowing Yutong access to functions like scheduling air conditioning, but the system can not be accessed without customer authorisation and \u201ccannot be remotely controlled for acceleration, steering, and braking\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYutong cannot remotely control customers\u2019 vehicles and does not have the so-called \u2018kill switch.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The company confirmed it has around 150 buses in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Founded in 1963 as Zhengzhou Bus Repair Factory, Yutong is now the largest bus manufacturer in the world by sales volume.<\/p>\n
While publicly listed, the company has recorded receipts for tens of millions of dollars in subsidies from the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n
Yutong’s manufacturing plant in Zhengzhou, China. Photo \/ Yutong<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) said the New Zealand Intelligence Community has not investigated or provided specific advice on the issue.<\/p>\n
In its most recent threat assessment, the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) raised concerns over Chinese interference<\/a>, saying China is the most active force undertaking foreign interference on our shores.<\/p>\n \u201cForeign states continue to target New Zealand\u2019s critical organisations, infrastructure and technology to steal sensitive information,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n \u201cSome foreign states seek access to, or control of, critical infrastructure assets. Suppliers or service providers to these assets can also be targeted due to the amount of harm that can be caused.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAccess or control could be gained, for example, by creating physical or remote entry points to key assets for later exploitation, creating supply chain dependencies, or compromising significant and sensitive data sets.\u201d<\/p>\n Ethan Manera<\/a> is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An investigation in Norway last year found the Zhengzhou-based company could, in theory, disable the buses mid-transit via…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1443,118173,138,4444,150548,15245,10709,124,127,28164,1019,25442,12898,130,111,139,5006,69,6662,10711,1523,150549,20383,4514,2437,131,8229,7563,19054,8238,150547,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-263009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-about","9":"tag-buses","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-chinese","12":"tag-chinesemade","13":"tag-concerned","14":"tag-concerns","15":"tag-could","16":"tag-despite","17":"tag-fears","18":"tag-international","19":"tag-internationally","20":"tag-investigation","21":"tag-more","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-not","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-off","27":"tag-officials","28":"tag-over","29":"tag-remotely","30":"tag-roads","31":"tag-same","32":"tag-security","33":"tag-than","34":"tag-they","35":"tag-those","36":"tag-turned","37":"tag-under","38":"tag-yutong","39":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}