Leapmotor Maintains Use of Banned Dahua Camera Hardware
The manufacturer continues to integrate components under international government bans for its safety driving systems.
Updated on Oct. 15, 2026 in Cybersecurity
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Leapmotor maintains its use of Dahua cameras for vehicle safety systems despite international restrictions on the manufacturer. The company reports that only 2 out of every 100 customers have raised data privacy concerns regarding these components.
Why it matters
The continued integration of restricted hardware in consumer vehicles highlights the friction between global supply chains and national security bans. This creates a complex regulatory environment for exporters navigating different data privacy and security standards.
Leapmotor utilizes Dahua cameras to power vehicle safety driving functions. Dashcam footage is stored exclusively on removable USB drives rather than onboard cloud servers, and vehicles undergo independent testing for privacy certification.
The players
Leapmotor
An automotive manufacturer operating as a joint venture with Stellantis for export markets that integrates safety-critical camera hardware.
Dahua
A technology manufacturer known for surveillance equipment that faces government-level usage bans in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.
Stellantis
A multinational automotive corporation acting as a joint venture partner with Leapmotor to facilitate global vehicle exports.
The details
Leapmotor vehicles use Dahua cameras to support safety driving functionality, such as driver assistance features. To manage data handling, the company routes dashcam footage to removable USB drives for exporting, rather than internal storage. The vehicles also maintain compliance with European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards to ensure data privacy.
Timeline
Dahua equipment was banned from federal government buildings in 2023.
Leapmotor addressed data privacy concerns on October 15, 2026.
The Tech Race
Leapmotor is positioning its vehicle stack against strict international data sovereignty requirements established by the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. This effort follows a pattern of heightened scrutiny for manufacturers utilizing hardware from firms already under restrictive government-level bans.
Drivers using these vehicles will find that all dashcam footage is manually managed through removable USB devices. Owners should be aware that while the vehicles meet local privacy standards, the underlying camera hardware remains restricted in certain government settings.
The takeaway
The gap between consumer usage and government restrictions will remain a point of friction for international vehicle manufacturers. Watch for future compliance certifications or hardware modularity updates that may seek to address persistent security concerns.
Further reading
For broader trends in component-level security, see our Cybersecurity section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by 7NEWS.
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