cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/technology/p/1247241/all-cars-sold-in-the-eu-now-require-a-camera-aimed-at-your-face-its-still-not-clear-wher
cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1247209/all-cars-sold-in-the-eu-now-require-a-camera-aimed-at-your-face-its-still-not-clear-wher
Starting July 7, 2026, every new car sold in the European Union must include a driver monitoring camera aimed at your face. Glance at your phone, your kids in the back seat, or the radio for too long, and the car will flash a warning light and sound an alert.
Automakers have known this was coming for years. What they, and EU regulators, have never spelled out is what happens to that footage after the alert goes off.
While the intention behind the new system is difficult to dispute, its implementation has raised several concerns. Early real-world testing suggests the distraction warnings can be overly sensitive and potentially distracting.
I recently accepted a new job, and it will come with a new company car.
If I’m unlucky enough to have a model that was sold after this rule goes into effect, I’m going to be taping up the camera… I don’t want a camera pointed at my face for hours, no matter how well-intentioned.
Fuck cars and all, but this will be a privacy nightmare.
As much as I’d like to see that work, the way the warning systems work (to my knowledge) is if it doesn’t detect your face for any reason, it first issues a warning, then and harsher warning, and in some cases will consider you “incapacitated” and slow the car to a halt. Mercedes had a system like that decades ago.
You can’t do that to the microphones that are recording everything you’re saying and uploading that metadata to the cloud for sale to the data brokers