The Tesla Cabin camera has big privacy issues: consumer reports

Tesla ‘s new room (no. 7 in the illustration above, from manual) tracks you, sending images and videos along with the data back to the company. Consumer reports are not worried about this and have some privacy issues. All this and much more in Morning change for March 24, 2021.

1st Gear: Privacy concerns as opposed to what you get in a Cadillac

The newest Teslas have something called a “cabin room” that monitors the driver to see if the person is being careful. This is a critical part of Level 2 driver assistance systems such as Tesla.

While these cars can do a lot to drive you on a road, there are tons that I can’t do. The car will be regularly forced to hand over control of the driver, and if a driver does not pay attention during one of these transfers, things can get extremely fast. Having a camera in the car to keep a digital eye on drivers is logical.

The problem with the Tesla system is that it transmits real images and videos, and that video can be dug later, as Consumption reports Details:

Tesla driver-oriented camera located above the rear-view mirror inside Model 3 and Model Y the vehicles – which the car manufacturer calls “cabin rooms” – are stopped by default. If drivers activate the cab, Tesla says it will capture and share a video of moments before an accident or automatic emergency braking (AEB) activation to help the automaker “develop future safety features and software enhancements.” , according to the Tesla website. Tesla did not respond to CR’s email request for additional information about its in-car monitoring systems.

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John Davisson, senior advisor at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), says such closed-loop systems do not have the same privacy issues as a system that records or transmits data or videos.

“Every time a video is recorded, it can be accessed later,” says Davisson.

Want videos on how to drive a Tesla in Tesla’s hands? No, not really. Tesla claims it will do nothing wrong with the data, but Consumer Reports notes that there is nothing to stop Tesla from doing some nonsense. Tesla is encouraged to do rude things with the video, really, like using it to blame drivers, not to protect them:

Instead, he says [Kelly Funkhouser, CR’s program manager for vehicle interface testing], Tesla seems to use cameras for its own benefit. “I have already seen Tesla accuse the driver of not paying attention immediately after the news of an accident while a driver is using autopilot,” she says. “Now, Tesla can use video footage to prove that a driver is distracted rather than addressing the reasons why the driver was not careful in the first place.”

There is nothing stopping Tesla from using all this new consumer data “for other commercial purposes,” as Consumer Reports explained. There are also several privacy issues, in the sense that passengers in the car do not necessarily agree to be registered and even accepting drivers may not be aware of all the data collected by Tesla.

My immediate thought when I saw this was that CR must be biased. Cadillac also has a camera that tracks drivers using its Super Cruise driver assistance system. As it turns out, the Cadillac system is much more secure in privacy Consumption reports has:

A GM spokesman says vehicles equipped with Super Cruise driver assistance technology have a camera that works with infrared lights to determine the position of the driver’s eye and head. (This includes the year 2021 Cadillac CT4, CT5, and Climbingand the future 2022 GMC Hummer EV.) If Super Cruise detects distraction or damage, it will trigger an increasing number of warnings to alert the driver. The system does not capture images, store information or share image information with GM, the carmaker told CR.

In general, it seems that if you need a room in the car, making sure you are alert at all times, even if your car takes control until everything goes wrong, the whole system itself is broken.

Second step: Park your ram outside, because there is a recall of the risk of fire

Do you have a strong Ram? Remove it from your cavernous garage, as Car news warn:

Stellantis recalls more than 20,000 heavy Ram diesel trucks worldwide for a problem that could cause a fire in the engine compartment.

Affected vehicles include Ram 2500 and 3500 2021 pickups and 3500, 4500 and 5500 chassis cabs equipped with a 6.7-liter Cummins turbo diesel engine. In the US, the recall covers approximately 19,200 vehicles. It also covers an additional 685 vehicles in Canada and 223 in selected North American markets.

One document submitted to US regulatory authorities for vehicle safety, the carmaker formerly known as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, said the vehicles “may encounter a fire in the engine compartment that results from an electrical short circuit in the intake air heater relay, which may result in a vehicle fire,” whether the ignition is on or off. torn off.

Be thankful that you even have a garage big enough to fit in there with a heavy ram, I think.

Third stage: the new brand of Chinese trucks called “tank”

Why get confused? If you launch a new brand of truck, go ahead and name it the way you want people to think of it: an indestructible mass of crushing steel. That’s what the Great Wall did Reuters reports:

China’s Great Wall engine will launch a new independent brand for its off-road vehicles, said President Wei Jianjun, as carmakers watch new segments as sales in the world’s largest car market grow.

Wei said that the Great Wall, the largest pickup manufacturer in the country, intends to launch the “Tank” brand during Shanghai Motor Show this year in April.

If the Great Wall made any sense, it would provide a real tank at the top of the model range.

Step 4: Fiat cuts the toilets

Stellantis seeks to reduce costs, and that strikes Fiat workers where it matters: their bathrooms. Fiat factories cut toilets and clean towers as well Reuters reports, an unwise move during COVID:

The reduction in costs at Fiat plants in Italy has led to reductions in cleaning services and the number of toilets available to workers, according to the unions.

Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, the new group formed in January from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group, said production costs at factories in Italy are up to four times higher than in the factories of the car manufacturer in France or Spain.

Tavares said the carmaker would not cut jobs and shut down factories, but promised savings of more than 5 billion euros ($ 5.94 billion) a year following the merger.

A good way to look like a terrible boss is to mess with the toilet situation.

Speed ​​5: Having an algorithm for a manager is dehumanizing and leads to strikes: study

There have been an explosion of strikes by concert drivers in China, and a new study indicates a clear problem: their managers are algorithms. A new detailed study on the technology site the rest of the world exposes it:

Earlier this month, dozens of drivers for Chinese e-commerce giant Meituan took to the streets of Linyi, Shenzhen and Tongxiang to protest a new policy that reduced the amount paid for delivery. The demonstrations are part of a increasing reaction against Chinese e-commerce companies over how they treat their workers. Although there were fewer protests in 2020 during the pandemic, strikes in China involving delivery drivers increased almost fivefold between 2018 and 2019, according to an estimate. In January, a driver caught fire in Taizhou City to protest unpaid wages.

A new study by Harvard researcher Ya-Wen Lei found that the way Chinese companies manage gig workers – operationally, legally, even down to the technology used – can make them more likely to feel that a strike or a protest is their only recourse. Lei ‘s research, published in American Sociological Review end of last month, suggests that the way in which technology platforms treat their workforce may fuel work disorders and may appear as a number of countries consider giving gig workers more rights than traditional employees.

Who could have guessed that being run by a faceless and carefree computer would make workers feel that strikes were their only recourse?

Reverse: Good oil spills don’t happen anymore!