- 7 April 2023 11:16
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Tesla: a self-driving car or a Big Brother?
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Self-driving cars must have cameras capable of shooting at 360 º. But where does the recorded end? A Reuters scoop raises questions about privacy assured to anyone passing by a Tesla
The first to want to see clearly on the shooting that Tesla perform "for security reasons" was the German Privacy Authority, recognising the risk, for example, that within the scope of the cameras mounted on the cars of the South African businessman Elon Musk, we may end up with unaware pedestrians, who are not even advised, as the law requires, to walk in areas under surveillance. But not even China has ever trusted too much of what the US electric car sees and maybe eavesdrops, so much so that even though it has the Group’s main gigafactory, restricts the circulation of the American brand excluding it to sensitive areas, especially when the Communist Party meets in congress.
TESLA AND THE PRIVACY
That Tesla is a bit of a Big Brother also suggests the reconstruction made by Reuters, who interviewed several former employees of the company led by Elon Musk. So it turned out that between 2019 and 2022 in corporate chats footage from internal and external cameras to electric cars arrived.
PUBLICITY
In different situations, the screens and frames immortalized road accidents, such as that of a child on a bicycle hit by a car: the film, always read on Reuters, has become viral within the Tesla headquarters in San Mateo, California, in other stolen images you would see a completely naked person. Bouncing from chat rooms, some have even been graphically rendered as "memes", that is to say humorous cartoons, although the issue tears very few laughs. While Tesla is not directly responsible for the unprofessional behavior of its employees, on the other hand it will be called to answer why all this material is in its possession: where the "shot" endsand when it is trashed.
NO TWEETS FROM MUSK...
While Tesla explains that cameras inside and outside vehicles are only used for security purposes, with completely anonymous data, seven former Tesla employees explained that systems can easily identify even where customers live. «We could see inside people’s garages and their private properties», one of them explained. At the moment neither the company nor Elon Musk, who does not miss a chance to tweet, have commented on the story.
Read also: That fake video about autonomous driving that threatens to crash Tesla
Until now it was thought that the registration with the car turned off was activated only in case of theft or danger to the occupants of the electric car, but these testimonies not only dispel doubts in this regard, but they increase others regarding the sensors and the intelligent instrumentation of edge, from the seats that detect the number of occupants to what can record the brain of every car. Do the Teslas record the routes? The conversations of the occupants? Their images? More and more people are asking themselves these questions.
The cars of the future will need eyes and ears to move. As we read in The Verge, the external cameras are not only activated in case of theft, but are directly connected to the autonomous driving functions of electric cars. But the question is: who is listening? Because it is a moment that you pass from Big Brother to the lives of others...