In Australian cities, fleets of beautiful electric buses quietly transport thousands of commuters every day. But new warnings from cybersecurity experts have turned what once seemed like a clean energy success story into a geopolitical flashpoint.
Officials in Australia and the United Kingdom now say some Chinese-made buses may contain code that theoretically allows the bus maker to shut them down remotely with a so-called “kill switch.”
The revelation renewed global fears about alien-controlled technology embedded in critical infrastructure.
The sights are set on battery electric buses manufactured by Yutong. It is a major Chinese manufacturer whose vehicles have been widely purchased in Australia’s capital Canberra and other jurisdictions.
The British reports, citing tests carried out by Britain’s National Cyber Security Center and Transport for the UK government, found that similar models in Europe could be accessed remotely from manufacturer systems, including diagnostics and software updates, and that such access could theoretically be used to shut down a bus’s driving system.
Image credit: Yutong Australia.
It marks a dramatic escalation in cyber risk warnings linked not to phone networks or internet routers, but to public transport vehicles. Transport Canberra responded by launching a new investigation into cyber security risks related to buses, following the British review and earlier signals from Norwegian transit authorities, which discovered what it called a functional remote stop capability during tests.
For cyber researchers, the concern is not that a Chinese government operator is now flipping the switches in real time, as there are no confirmed cases of foreign actors actively disabling buses. The concern is that the vulnerability exists at all in imported vehicles that ply public roads and in some cases carry government employees and personnel.
“It’s not just about buses,” Australian cyber security expert Alastair MacGibbon told local media. “It’s about how much control is built into the technology we’re importing and whether those controls could be abused.”
You hit too close to home
Image credit: Yutong Australia.
This episode from neighboring Australia (ally, we mean) reads like a vindication for US policymakers, who have long sounded the alarm about reliance on Chinese technology.
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy and other followers have repeatedly argued that China-linked vehicles and connected technologies pose unacceptable security risks – even going so far as to say that China should not sell cars (or similar connected vehicles) on American roads “as long as I have breath in my body.”
While those comments were dismissed by critics as bluster, the Australian “kill-switch” story suddenly gave them a concrete, globally reported incident to point to.
In Washington, the Biden administration has tightened restrictions on connected vehicles containing Chinese software or hardware, with new rules aimed at banning such imports by the 2027 model year — an exact response to the kinds of national security vulnerabilities highlighted by the Australian case.
Image credit: Yutong Australia.
Opponents of these policies argue that connectivity features, including remote diagnostics and over-the-air updates, are standard across the global auto and transit industries, not exclusive to Chinese manufacturers.
Indeed, any modern internet-connected vehicle could theoretically be accessed remotely, whether it’s made in Beijing, Detroit or Tokyo. Critics in China have taken to global media to warn that the US bans could backfire by raising costs and supply chain challenges for US automakers dependent on global components.
But for many US national security experts, the defining issue is not simply connectivity, but control. If a foreign company can access the critical systems of vehicles that drive on public streets — or the power grids, solar inverters, or AI systems that underpin modern life — then that access becomes leverage that adversaries can exploit in times of crisis.
Global security, local streets
The Australian episode has already spurred official reviews of every Yutong model in service. Transport Canberra officials insist there is no immediate operational concern based on current investigations and that local buses are being updated through physical service centers rather than remote connectivity.
But the broader resonance of the warning spread across capitals from London to Canberra, from Oslo to Washington: As nations electrify their transit fleets and embrace connected vehicles, they must also consider who controls that connectivity.
And for US lawmakers who have warned loudly (and, in the eyes of some, prematurely) that Chinese technology on wheels is not just another import, this moment may seem like a long overdue reckoning.
Sources: ABC, afr.com