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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I’ll just buy a second-hand 2011 Skoda Fabia. Compact car that just works and doesn’t spy on you. Though I’d rather buy the LPG version of it because it costs 86 eurocents/liter here.
I fckn hate these laws that force so much tech into new cars under the guise of safety. Not only is it a massive breach in privacy (I don’t care if the car manufacturers claim they don’t use this data for identification, I won’t belive them), but it also makes small cars way more expensive, comparatively. Fck this sh*t, cars have been becoming obnoxiously expensive and forced BS tech like that just makes everything worse.
I’m cool with just not driving. Fuck you, car manufacturers. If I can’t feasibly live a lifestyle on public transit I’ll buy the oldest shittiest shitbox on Earth and drive it until it fucking explodes.
I’m desperately holding on to my Ford Ranger for this exact reason. Obligatory Fuck car manufacturers.
Required in the EU and will be required in the US soon. BYD’s big export market is Australia which doesn’t require them yet but they’re mandatory to get a good crash safety rating.
Renault and a lot of BYDs use Android as the software os, so probably it’s Android doing the facial recognition (and also probably the attention eye tracking) and that’s onboard.
Renault has a dashcam function that records from the built in cameras, but you have to plug in your own USB drive, so the upside of memory price-fixing is it’s probably not worth it for Renault to spend $300 to store the data now.
So it’ll be possible to root the car through an OBD2 port, theoretically.
Your concern is definitely justified. This is creepy as hell.
It’s an EU decision. It will be coming to many more cars as it will be mandatory from July 2026 for all newly registered vehicles. Renault 5 is simply one of the first new cars to feature it.
According to the same law, it is illegal to use the system in a way that can identify the person, it may not save biometrics, and it must function in closed loop without sharing the data. It’s looking for things like head nodding or looking away from the road for more than 3.5 seconds while driving over 50 km/h. The camera is likely using infrared lighting as it should also work at night.
Anyway. According to the manual, it can be disabled by double tapping a button on the steering wheel or through the touch screen menus, though it will default to being enabled everytime you start the car as per the legal requirement.
If you cover it with tape, wear a mask or drive somebody else’s car in which you don’t have a profile saved, it will simply use the last previous profile and show an icon in the dashboard as a warning that the function isn’t working.
Thank you for the clarification!
I wish, Renault and/or the salesperson would communicate clearly about the camera. It’s way creepier when there is just a camera looking at you without having the context of it being required and which privacy requirements it has per law.
Interestingly, if I disable the function and then cover the camera, a warning still appears. I don’t know if that’s due to a weird implementation by Renault or a thing implied by the law
Monthly subscription for safety features coming soon 🔜
Find and disable the antenna used by the cars electronics.
The car complains when the camera is covered. At a minimum that means making annoying sounds every time you drive anywhere, at worst the car doesn’t let you drive. You can’t just dismiss this, it’s going to happen more and more, and they will be increasingly hostile to your workarounds.
So disconnect the speaker and the noise should stop
Break the camera? Remove it? Scratch the lens?
In a few years, this might brick your car. Have fun paying to have it towed to the dealership. User-caused damage isn’t covered under warranty by the way.
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Why does everything have to suck so much…
Because the people making these laws aren’t handled appropriately.
Removed by mod
You have to log your profile into your car?? Fuck everything about that!
My car has profiles for seat position, mirror position, radio settings etc but it’s just Driver 1 and Driver 2 and you select with a button.
You’re basically trying to convince a medieval peasant that your so-called “antibiotic” potion can cure their disease but is definitely not witchcraft. Good luck wit dat!
You don’t login, the car recognises you and adjusts settings such as the seat position to the way you like to have it without you having to do it manually, it’s a convenience thing.
I’m the only one that drives my car. I don’t need spyware to adjust the seat for me.
I have a 2019 Edge that has preset seat settings. They’re on buttons on the door where you can set your seat configuration up with the seat adjustments and such, hold down the button 1, 2, or 3 to save it, and when you turn the car off it shifts to default. So when you get into the car, push your number and it just adjusts everything for you.
It does not need to scan your face or identify you in any way. It’s a button next to the door unlock.
Yeah, that’ would’ve been the way to do it before cameras were added.
It probably also does steering wheel height, aircon temp etc.
If the manufacturer is required by law to have a camera to monitor driver fatigue then they’ll make use it for other things like this.
Is it conveniently connected to the internet and sending data about you to anywhere beyond your control?
Depends on the car. I think Tesla’s are always connected, but other brands you have to put a SIM card in so you have a choice.
I get the concern, I wouldn’t want to be monitored constantly by a 3rd party, but in this case I think it’s just for safety (monitoring driver fatigue) and convenience.
Some of these dorks out here would fr be supportive of a “smart” camera in their toilet looking straight at their hole/s. “I have nothing to hide, its just videos of me pooping”
When the hole is opening an algorithm decides if its a fart/diarrhea/shit and adds the right amount of water to the bowl. Also the right amount of toilet paper rolls out.
When your session is over it ejects you from the toilet so we have maximum toiletefficiency.
People will call it toiletmaxxing.
I pictured it more like the system Rick had where it just analyzes his stool for abnormalities but that is way more accurate. And by the “correct” amount of tp, way too much, because its made by charmin
“what about the camera on your laptop?”
My personal laptop does not have a camera, and my work laptop has a physical camera blocker.
In many states any information not disclosed by the seller is grounds for you canceling the deal. But you would have to look that up for where you live. Or there’s black tape, but then you’re still paying for a camera you didn’t want, aren’t using, and weren’t told about.
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.
Wait I thought we were talking about bad features…
“It” from South Park might as well be a reality.
Possibly NSFW
bwuahahaha possibly :)
anybody that doesn’t think its an issue is an idiot
