I used to be on the engineering team that worked on the development of a similar camera. For what it's worth, at the time: there was no AI involved, we only used good old image processing algorithms. And the camera (all cameras, lidars, or radars on the car BTW) does not record anything. It treats images as they come. There's almost no storage space on the car for all the image data generated.

All this might have changed since then (especially the AI part) but I'm still relatively confident that car systems don't have the storage for all this data.

Additionally, since this is a European brand, I think it would be quite difficult to legally retain personal information like that. It was already difficult during the development phase.

I'm not saying they wouldn't be above ominous shenanigans, but it would be difficult.

As an insider of the automotive industry I can say:

• these devices are added due to regulations
• Yes. It is creepy
• functionality is computed and performed onboard the car, it doesn't rely on any connection to the outside to function
• however, it could very well be sending data back to the mothership. They are legally obligated to get your explicit consent as per GDPR law
• the software is completely closed-source and there is no chance we get any information about it. It's all private intellectual property. Actually, the Car manufacturers (in this case Renault) almost always requires all suppliers of such equipment to ensure there is ZERO Open-source code in the delivered product. Suppliers are audited to prove they have not reused any Open-source code, piece of code or libraries.

"what about the camera on your laptop"

God I hate these people. That camera has been covered by duct tape for years for very good reasons. A lot of them actually apply to a driver-facing camera in my car, coincidentally.

~~Btw OP, I think Renault has a contract with Palantir~~

Good to know, thanks!

It is actually creepy, privacy invading, and dangerous in some cases, I think about the guy who made a video working in the woods, simulating a chainsaw accident, and the car would not start because the driver is not 100% able due adrenaline rush visible on his face.

That said, it is a mandatory feature from EU made in 2019 for public safety, with an affiched goal to reduce road deaths. The datas would be anonymous, exploited for statistics and must respect UE rgpd. In theory!

In one hand I find dangerous to track and supervise a population, in the other hand I see way too much dangerous behaviors on the road, especially around pedestrians and bikers, and a system that would say to the driver "hey you fucked up here, don't do it again" would be nice.

Just an anecdote, an emergency brake system detected me walking and saved my life by breaking hard cause the driver was distracted (I was on a crosswalk), otherwise I would have been send to orbit.

break that shit with hammers

Log into your profile? On your car? Your car logs you in to a profile? What the fuck

This car also comes with a ChatGPT based AI assistant which has a cursed Microsoft's Clippy vibe, so it watches, listens to everything. Why would anybody want that?

Thank god for duct tape

It's creepy. And it may make me an asshole to say, but I'd never want an interior camera in the event of an accident. It makes the following court case so much more gray, since you now introduce the opportunity to say "they were on the phone, talking, listening to music, whatever" and shift what should be a clear cut case into something more.

It IS a cool feature but the privacy concerns kinda override any positivity I might have toward it. If it was completely offline with available source code, I'd be on board.

Destroy the ccd with a high powered laser pointer

Wasn't there some news a while ago that talked about how bad car companies handle user data?

Mozilla’s latest edition of *Privacy Not Included reveals how 25 major car brands collect and share deeply personal data, including sexual activity, facial expressions, and genetic and health information

[...]Says Jen Caltrider, *PNI Program Director: “Many people think of their car as a private space — somewhere to call your doctor, have a personal conversation with your kid on the way to school, cry your eyes out over a break-up, or drive places you might not want the world to know about. But that perception no longer matches reality. All new cars today are privacy nightmares on wheels that collect huge amounts of personal information."[...] (source)

Not sure if this was the one I was thinking about. There was also this revelation made by the German CCC (Chaos computer club, pretty famous) about Volkswagen and some leaked GPS data. Here is an English article about it. (There is also the German CCC video, but the English doesn't sound very good. It includes an interesting part where they show examples of how bad this GPS leak actually is. E.g. finding the cars of catering companies for important people.)

Criminals or spies could potentially use such data to create a detailed movement profile of the car owners. For foreign intelligence agencies, for example, it may be of interest to see whose cars are parked daily between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. near buildings belonging to the Bundesnachrichtendienst, Germany’s foreign intelligence service. Or those which are driven regularly to the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein. The Cariad data provided such information.

Btw. Any person who in the year 2026 response to privacy concerns with "I have nothing to hide" is a certified moron and shouldn't be trusted with anything. They also have so little imagination that it should make everyone sad.

And this is why I have 2 cars from the 80's that I refuse to give up. They're nearly 100% mechanical, carburated and with almost no necessary fuzes to run the two.

That spot looks like it could use some decoration. Might I suggest a nice piece of thick black tape?

I have a BYD Han, and the camera has a sliding cover, which has never been opened. Its crazy that you can't cover it without the car complaining.

Disassemble that fucking thing. Why do people tolerate this kind of shit?