You will have to specify if you don't like the purpose of the law or the implementation. Because the implementation isn't really up to the EU. Google could implement a http header tomorrow that complied with the law (at least as much as a notice) and would act like other ways of accessing your browser (like web camera or location). The problem is everyone would turn off the tracking, which would affect their revenue.
I feel this has become a bit of a standard excuse for git. The reason I use a gui isn't because I don't know how git works (while I do forget that too from time to time), but because I can't remember the default behavior and notation of the git cli. I'd be perfectly happy if the cli was actually made to be "low level", but it to a large degree isn't. So if I'm going to have to remember what some abstraction does, it might as well be on a higher level.
One can question their methods. Still why should they let foreign companies map their country? Technology and information assets like everything else. They might be the natural resources of the 21st century. And a lot of countries might be giving up their chance of becoming the next Norway without even knowing it.
Look, I'm not saying you are a paid shill, but 2 cents worth of thinking would lead you to the truth:
Any self-driving car can map out your roads. Saying "no road mapping for your [future] self driving cars" is silly. It could be boiled down to "no camera borne cars" which necessitates no self-driving cars.
And if they don't want our self-driving cars I don't want theirs.
> And if they don't want our self-driving cars I don't want theirs.
Not about this particular example but we know that’s not how it works; people buy whatever is cheap so not wanting something on invidual level works if you are strong and willing to spend 2-3-4-n x the money, but in general people will just buy. In the 80s many people said it about Japanese cars and yet everyone bought them eventually because cheap and good. Even in China, where many people have the old hate against Japan (far stronger than your feelings most likely as the Japenese did horrible things here), they still drive Toyota etc and they see the issue with that but it’s cheaper than German and better than Chinese, so what can you do.
I don't see how it silly. Autonomous cars are going to be a game of information. I don't think it is in any nations interest to give that information away. If autonomous cars, artificial intelligence or any other technology is going to be as big as people say (or even just as big as computers, software and information is these days) then it's going to be a large part of the future wealth of a nation. Just like oil or even regular car manufacturing is today.
Also I think you severely overestimate the subtlety of Chinese propaganda.
I kind of agree. Whether or not you disagree with their strategy of blocking foreign tech companies, it's lead to an explosion of major chinese tech companies.
Europe doesn't have a Google, Facebook, or Amazon, because the major US companies got there early enough to dominate the entire market. I wouldn't necessarily say that that's a good result for those countries.