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.
The thing is, these are nearly always voluntary features. Just because you gain the ability to check lock status and lock the doors from your phone doesn’t mean you lose the lock button on the fob. Teslas are just about the only exception there lol
As for the coat thing, I don’t do it because I’m accustomed to it, I used to lie in snow piles in jeans and a t-shirt as a teen.
But the annoying part is having to run downstairs, put on shoes, etc. My car takes about half an hour of running the engine to get the ice off the windscreen and the cabin warm enough for my toddler (did you know that thick coats or onesies are bad for safety while driving? I did not, but my ex does and she’s the kind of person to tell CPS I’m not keeping our child safe enough.) On an average winter morning that means I should be out of the door and starting the car the minute after I wake up. Kindergarten mornings are not fun in the winter. Difficult enough to wake up when it’s pitch black outside.
But anyway, the reason I’m now looking at those old Range Rogers besides some of the comfiest seats in the world is that they have a preheater as standard equipment on diesels for those years so I can either program a schedule or use the remote if equipped, which works for me since I currently live in a detached home not the nth floor of a large commie block where signal might be an issue. I don’t think my neighbours like me idling the car for half an hour on a cold morning either, the preheater is much quieter and uses less fuel so there’s less exhaust gas too. Plus I get to start the engine when it’s already warm, rather than worrying about whether my timing chain will make it through the winter.