FCC bans dashcam and video transmitter over Huawei AI chip

New FCC rule targets chips

The Federal Communications Commission recently adopted a rule that allows it to block devices based on the internal chips they contain rather than on individual products or brands. This change closes a loophole that let rebranded products with parts from Chinese manufacturers on US export restriction lists remain on the market.

Two devices banned

Using the new authority, the FCC has for the first time banned a dashboard camera and a wireless video transmitter from sale and marketing in the United States. Both devices were found to contain a HiSilicon Smart Vision system on chip that includes built-in face tracking algorithms.

HiSilicon SoC details and FCC concerns

The chip in question is the Hi3516CV610 UHD Smart Vision SoC designed for surveillance and camera products. It integrates Wi-Fi, Ethernet, video encoding, an Arm Cortex-A7 core and a neural processing unit for artificial intelligence features. The neural processing unit runs a dedicated multimodal large model with transformer feature acceleration that enables the chip to recognize pets, faces, human figures and parcels across video frames. The FCC states that the logic-bearing smart components produced by entities on its Covered List pose a risk because they could be used to survey US citizens and log faces for foreign surveillance.

Previous Huawei chip issues

Huawei has previously been involved in an AI chip scandal where shell companies were used to deceive TSMC into manufacturing AI chips for the company despite US requests to halt supplies to a list of Chinese customers. That incident contributed to broader restrictions on Huawei products in the United States.

Sources: Tom's Hardware