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.
Can you put tape over the camera?
Or disconnect it? What happens when it no longer functions? Will I need to fix this to get my car to run again?
I bet the system would sound an alarm if you did that.
Unplug the alarm speakers.
There’s probably a fuse for the system. Unless it’s integrated in the whole media system.
It’s a safety system, so it’s unlikely to handled by the media unit, which honestly just makes it harder.
Score one more point for fucking bikes, Jesus…
Now about all those CCTVs
I get so tired of bikes being brought up every time a car is mentioned. They’re not at all an option for me or anyone who lives near me, and millions of others.
Are you also tired of being told that you are the one person responsible for choosing to live in a location that necessitates driving a car, or do you reckon it might be good to be told that a bit more, then?
I’m asking first, because I wouldn’t want to tire you any more, just because the world hastily on its way to hell in a hand basket, what with climate change, and all the disastrous knock-on effects that follow from it.
I hope you have a pleasant commute.
I’m not who you replied to, but this is a stupid take.
My area doesn’t have public transit to speak of, its semi-rural small town, and everything is in another town, so I’m forced to drive. Everywhere around here is like this. I explicitly do not have the option to move to a more urban area because I live in a very low cost of living area, which means very depressed wages, and I genuinely cant afford to move, much less live somewhere with walkable infrastructure or decent public transit, without better wages first. Because no, getting rid of everything and starting over isn’t an option, nor should it have to be.
And I didn’t choose to be here in the first place, either. When you are born into a very low cost of living area, you often get stuck there or can only move somewhere even further behind, because wages are so depressed you can’t save enough to get into a better area. The only way you get out is if you can land a good job before moving, which is insanely difficult, since remote work usually scales to the local wages, and who can afford to travel for in-person interviews?
Just move is easy to say when you can bring home more than you pay in bills, or have enough in savings to cover a few months until you find work or whatever, and its really easy to say when you already live in an expensive area. But its not actually a practical option for many of us.
So idk about that other person, but yes, I’m fucking tired of being told to just move if I don’t like how things are. Condescending out-of-touch bullshit, is what it is.
Lots of people arrive to the US with the clothes on their backs, not even speaking the language and manage to not only survive but thrive
If you want excuses you will always find them
I have had 2 uber drivers in the US who were recent immigrants… Less than 2 years… Had plans to stay 3 more and return back to their countries to open businesses…
Lol yeah, like I wanna live like a refugee in my native country. And I’m wrong somehow for not being OK with that?
Get fucked with that shit, friend. I’m not willing to gamble what little I have on possibility, better infrastructure or not. Its not like that would change the regime I’m under or anything.
Username fits Apathy will get you nowhere
My 2021 car has this. it has no cellular data connection or significant internal storage and the camera just has what I assume is a very basic neural net that looks for signs of distraction. like the eye tracker modules some phones and laptops have. These are low-res greyscale IR cameras usually.
I’m OK with it, and it’s helped me out a few times, though I know some cars are more aggressive and beep at you just for looking at your own mirrors.
Some cars however have full time cabin recording that you dont have much control over, and some do have full time data connections that could theoretically send some kind of snapshots on events, but they arent going to do full time video streaming or uploading large video files.
I dont like being constantly monitored. I dont want to normalize the lack of privacy.
my phones are pin or pattern only
Iphone SE’s didnt have face unlock but still use the IR camera to scan your face every second.
Just because you don’t use it doesn’t mean it’s not being used on you (apologies for breaking it to you)
Apologies for not using Apple products
Oh nah no need to apologise, their products haven’t been good for decades. Merely making a point about how tech can be entirely hidden from the user
I just learned about internetless TVs that build mesh networks until one TV is found that can access the internet… that sounds like infiltrating a WiFi network and should be illegal.
Edit: it’s not true, I learned today after being downvoted into oblivion 😭
