Hello people, my family recently bought a Renault 5 e-tech. The car itself is great, but there are some aspects that creep me out, especially the driver-facing camera. We didn’t actually know that such a camera existed before we bought the car, it was only mentioned as the car was given to us.

The cameras official purpose is to see, if you are tired and paying attention to the road, by some “AI magic”, I suppose. You can also let it scan your face, so that you automatically get logged into your profile.

I personally think, that that is kinda creepy, especially as there is no visual indication if the camera is currently recording and no official way to disable the camera hardware-wise. When it is being coverd, the car immediately complains about it.

When talking to friends or family about it, I got one of two reactions: equal concern, or “nice feature actually”, “what about the camera on your laptop?”, “you are way too paranoid”, “I have noting to hide; it is only me driving being recorded”.

I have also seen such cameras in other cars, BYD for example.

What do you think, is this creepy or am I too paranoid? Does anyone know where the actual data is processed, on device or on some cloud server? Do you have any experience with such cameras? I couldn’t really find any information about it on the internet.

  • Shamot
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    1 day ago

    This feature is mandatory in all new cars sold in the European Union since 2024

    • 1984@lemmy.today
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      1 day ago

      I bought a new car from 2023, looks like I really dodged a bullet.

      Its just insane how used we are now to being on camera everywhere. Even in our own cars???

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        9 hours ago

        What’s insane is how many libertarians drive drunk, texting, or stoned, putting a massive burden on insurance, healthcare, families, and >30,000 deaths a year.

        So yeah, you might get recorded jerking off while driving.

    • ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip
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      17 hours ago

      There is no requirement to use it though. So blame the manufacturers if it’s hard to disable it.

      • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        Honestly, if I were a young high school student looking for a career path today, and I was interested in automotive repair? I would seriously consider starting up a mechanic’s shop specializing in ripping out all the spytech from personal automobiles.

        • Matt@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          No it isn’t, just look up how to hook up a laptop to an EDR for your specific car.