Hesai Faces U.S. Cybersecurity Blacklist Scrutiny

CNBC reported on July 7, 2026 that Hesai Technology, a Chinese lidar maker with an expanded partnership with Nvidia on autonomous-vehicle platforms, faces renewed cyber-risk scrutiny stemming from the U.S. Department of Defense's designation of Hesai as a "Chinese military company," first issued in January 2024. According to CNBC, AUVSI CEO Michael Robbins pointed to a 2024 incident in which a Hesai firmware update miscalculated the leap year and disabled lidar units on February 29 as evidence sensors could be disabled or exploited remotely; Hesai has said the bug affected only two older L4 mechanical lidar models, not its automotive AT128 sensors or OEM customers. For practitioners integrating lidar into robotics or AV perception stacks, this is a concrete illustration of firmware and supply-chain risk in safety-critical AI systems.