How Americans helped create the Chinese car tech capable of 'spying'

FIRST ON FOX: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison overlapped on work with China's powerful police ministry developing vehicle technology capable of tracking cars and overtaking driving functions, according to findings from a report shared exclusively with Fox News Digital ahead of its release.Beijing has already begun deploying the systems across China.The technology, known as "vehicle-road-cloud" integration, links cars with roadside cameras and sensors and centralized cloud platforms, allowing authorities to monitor traffic in real time and, at its most advanced levels, send commands to connected vehicles.The implications of connected vehicles have alarmed U.S.officials.The Commerce Department moved last year to restrict certain Chinese and Russian connected-vehicle technology in the United States, warning that foreign adversaries could potentially collect sensitive information about American drivers or remotely manipulate their cars.An outside view of Bascom Hall on the campus of the University of Wisconsin on October 12, 2013, in Madison, Wisconsin.

(2013 Getty Images)HARVARD, NYU AMONG 30 UNIVERSITIES HIT WITH PENTAGON FOREIGN-TIE AUDIT DEADLINEIn 2016, then-UW Vice Provost Jeffrey Russell traveled to Southeast University, where the schools signed agreements covering research, faculty exchanges, student training and plans to create a joint institute.The following year, Southeast University's president traveled to Madison to formally establish the Joint Research Institute, according to university records cited by Strategy Risks.The institute focused on intelligent transportation, connected and autonomous vehicles and vehicle-road-cloud technology.

UW-Madison's own College of Engineering wrote in 2019 that the institute had "launched in late 2017."Two years later, UW researchers appeared on technical work that also involved an institute of China's Ministry of Public Security.Five UW-Madison researchers were among 46 contributors to a Chinese indu...