You have probably heard about Tesla’s Sentry mode. It is an anti-theft feature that detects and monitors activity around a parked and locked Tesla. It will record activity and activate an alarm (including flashing the headlights) if a threat is detected.
The most interesting part of the sentence is ‘if a threat is detected’. A crime doesn’t have to have taken place, yet the car is on the lookout for suspicious activity, and recording events nearby.
In San Franciso last month, police towed a Tesla in order to interrogate its sentry mode camera recordings, because they believe it witnessed a murder.
Richmond Police will typically get a warrant to ask an owner to share their footage if the owner was parked near a crime scene, but for a more serious crime, or where they are unable to contact the owner, they will tow the car.
Sentry mode was originally created because there was a spate of Tesla break-ins, and the cars already had multiple cameras as part of their ‘self-driving’ capability. So Tesla thought, ‘Why not use the integrated cameras?’ Within the San Francisco Bay area there is a very high penetration of Tesla, and this in turn means that there is now a rich source of data and imagery available to the police. Which raises the question, who has access to your data and where is it stored?
Taking this point a little further, there are many places around the world where you should not carry cameras, and certainly not film. Airports, are often such a place, especially immigration and customs, but occasionally the facility itself. On an adventure ride some years ago we were told to remove our GoPros and turn off our phones when travelling through check points near China’s border with India. More recently Strava the fitness app has been criticised for inadvertently pointing to military sites, especially via their heatmap data.
Australia has banned Huawei from being involved in the implementation of its 5G software, and will be removed from the UK’s 5G network by 2027. Huawei is the world’s largest telecoms company. It also builds cars, under the AITO brand. It’s unlikely that Huawei would get an easy ride if they wanted to bring their tech laden and well regarded AITO M7 to Australia or the UK .
Tesla and Huawei are not alone in having cameras in their cars. More and more vehicles are using cameras and LIDAR, and while there are safety gains from utilising such technologies, there are also legitimate concerns at best about privacy and at worst about security. It is one thing to use the data for safety, but another to be used for allowing any law enforcement operation, and by extension a government department to have access to your data. That data of might not be limited to what has been ‘observed’, but might even include your browsing history or where you have driven. Today’s connected cars capture a lot of data.
Have you ever taken five minutes to look at your Google Timeline? It is a digital diary of ‘where have you been with your phone over the last 30 days?’ It is slightly unenerving and you’ll likely be shocked at the accuracy and detail of the data available. Of course, it’s just Google and that data is stored in the USA right?
Surprisingly Google has around 70 data centres around the world from Atlanta, Georgia to Taiwan, Mumbia, Sao Paulo and Kuwait. Tesla has multiple data centres including one in China. Tesla was also responsible for a data breach where 75,000 customers had some of their data leaked. It is also seeking to get a slice of the global data centre pie, currently dominated by Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta.
It’s important to note here that most companies will aim to hold their data locally, and the author is not saying your Tesla data is stored overseas. However just like the six plus page Apple End User Licence Agreement, it would be a rare person who reads the detail of the EULA for your connected car.
What is clear is that there is a lot more data being gathered by your car, and you probably don’t know how much is being collected, where it is stored, who has access to it and for how long that data about you and your surrounds will be kept.
©2024 Boost Auto.
Boost Auto is an automotive consultancy working in seven main areas.
• Sales Training
• Sales and Marketing effectiveness for brands and dealers
• Market Insights & Trends
• Business planning and facilitation
• Operational Effectiveness
• Get Ready Automations
• Go To Market strategies for emerging brands.
You can contact us at hello@boostauto.co.nz
Comments