this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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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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[–] FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works 7 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Thats it. That is all it fucking needs. But we can’t have that.

I share your pain.

I want an elec car. That is, if I could ahve one without spyware. Which I cannot, because enshittification.

Combustion cars are problematic in so many ways. But an older one is the only way I can avoid surveilance on wheels.

Think about what the mfg can glean from your car GPS! Or what they can infer and sell. You can figure some real intimate things about ppl that way. Give me your car GPS info. I will tell you where your kids go to school. I will tell you your economic class. Whether you just got cancer, b/c all the sudden your car is going to an oncologist office a lot. Whether you went to an abortion clinic last month. Whether you're having an affair with a co-worker. It's almost endless.

I've read claims that some car co's now make more money from your data than from selling you the entire ass car.

This should scare the shit out of everybody. But it does not seem to.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

What is scary is how many lemmings don't realize all that data is tracked on your phones. So driving some 30 year old shit box doesn't prevent anything.

[–] FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 17 minutes ago

Yeah, and even more, all the data that's tracked by the car FROM your phone when you pair the phone and the car. Modern cars will scrape contacts, pictures, call logs, messages, locations, anything they can get off phones, and send it back to the car co as part of their profit-from-your-data ecosystem.