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.
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That’d be getting covered immediately if it ended up in a car of mine
It’s tied to your ignition system.
Well that’s dumb as fuck. Return it is!
Agreed but it’s a common feature in a lot of cars and I’m assuming mandated in the state of California.
I don’t think they sell Renaults in Cali
You might be able to remove the corresponding fuse
I have a BYD Han, and the camera has a sliding cover, which has never been opened. Its crazy that you can’t cover it without the car complaining.
I’ve taken apart the screen bezel on my laptop to disable the webcam before -then covid happened. Now, i just cover the camera with taped paper. -I will never have one of these cars but if i found myself in your situation i wouldn’t be above using a hammer and screwdriver to remove the camera and dealing with the consequences after.
It is very creepy. Especially if there is no official way to disable the camera, so that it does not complain about the camera being disabled.
Check the privacy laws in your country. If in Europe, you can have the services disconnected. Looks like a Renault so sometimes cars manufactured in the EU will come built in with the ability to turn off the feature.
Car data privacy is the worst there is today and will get much worse with timd. Mozilla foundation put out a report recently
Thank you, I’ll look into that :)
break that shit with hammers
Wdym the car complains about it?
Its there to check if your drunk and or drowsy. So it can not allow the car to turn on if blocked.
A car shouldn’t be stopped by a camera
Wait till the 2027 gets the seat rectal probe to verify you by your large intestine. Also, they sell the data to health insurance providers.
“It” from South Park might as well be a reality.
Possibly NSFW
bwuahahaha possibly :)
Wait I thought we were talking about bad features…
Passenger airbag sensors already measure weight and send that data.
It’s to disempower you. All of this is to further disempower the masses.
Everything is a global conspiracy to people like you.
With reasoning like that, I guess nothing is ever a conspiracy to people like you.
History very clearly shows the myriad ways the powerful enact ‘conspiracy theory’ agendas, regularly. To not include these learnings in your worldview is folly. Epstein is a giant ‘conspiracy theory’ that’s sitting out in the open. The inaction to do anything about it is another one.
We have the so-called “conspiracy theories” proven into actual conspiracies on a daily basis, so-yeah, the chances of those theories being factual is extremely high. Thus, everything is a conspiracy.
Prove this one then, right now.
Oh wait, you think proof of some other one is proof on ALL OF THEM? That’s fucking embarrassing.
Yeah and the AI Power Grab mentioned by Bernie Sanders totally isn’t happening right before our eyes.
Bernie has repeatedly embarrassed himself on that issue and has proven he is too old to understand such issues.
Never mind the surveillance state run by fascists who want nothing more than a neutered population that lets them do what they want.
Or the fact that the world is building data centers on behalf of techbros that openly state that they want to control the entire population through limiting their access to information and rendering it a subscription
Or the manipulation of public opinion through 24h news cycles and infinite pundits online that pick and choose their words very carefully to make people believe what the news station owners want them to think (and I quote) “He’s telling them what to think. That’s our job.”/“This is very dangerous to our democracy.”
Or the petrochemical companies paying billions to super pacs and lobbying groups so that anti pollution laws don’t get pushed and the media circus doesn’t talk about how many spills there are, or why our air is becomic toxic, or why the things that climate scientists have been warning the world about are coming true one after another.
It’s aaaaallll just a “conspiracy theory”
Nothing to see. In the words of an amazon manager standing over a dying colleague instead of calling an ambulance “Lets not look, Get back to work”
the surveillance state
The “surveillance state” that creates EU laws that required this camera?
You just put out a bunch of random, unconnected things so yeah, you’re a dumbfuck conspiracy theorist and an embarrassment to logical thinking.
“Your insurance claim is denied, our algorithm says it’s 70% confident your eyes were dilated in a way consistent with taking alcohol. Also, here’s your court hearing date”
Put a sticker over it
The car complains, when I do that. Maybe there is some way around that, but I haven’t found one
Return the car. Complain to the dealership that the car complains when you cover the camera.
In my fantasy world, every single person who buys one does exactly that.
Then the car co either goes tits up, or it stops loading the vehicle full of spyware.
Same for smart TVs.
Maybe you could rig up something to have a small picture of yourself a few inches away from it
It depends. IIRC some laptops that come with face unlock feature use dual IR cameras to confirm the face is not a flat picture with a bonus of being indifferent to darkness. They need a staring minifig!
Haha, great idea
I’m guessing there’s a microphone as well? Most cars have then now.
Yes, the infotainment system even shows is as being constantly used, which I could disable by going through the android app list (infotainment is based on android) and disabling the built-in AI assistant
Need to be smashing them. Call up the dealer and scream at them. Do not buy new cars.
Still can’t believe we allowed this to happen. Well, I’ll be repairing old cars till I die I guess.
It will be used against you at every opportunity.
