this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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Hello people, my family recently bought a Renault 5 e-tech. The car itself is great, but there are some aspects that creep me out, especially the driver-facing camera. We didn't actually know that such a camera existed before we bought the car, it was only mentioned as the car was given to us.

The cameras official purpose is to see, if you are tired and paying attention to the road, by some "AI magic", I suppose. You can also let it scan your face, so that you automatically get logged into your profile.

I personally think, that that is kinda creepy, especially as there is no visual indication if the camera is currently recording and no official way to disable the camera hardware-wise. When it is being coverd, the car immediately complains about it.

When talking to friends or family about it, I got one of two reactions: equal concern, or "nice feature actually", "what about the camera on your laptop?", "you are way too paranoid", "I have noting to hide; it is only me driving being recorded".

I have also seen such cameras in other cars, BYD for example.

What do you think, is this creepy or am I too paranoid? Does anyone know where the actual data is processed, on device or on some cloud server? Do you have any experience with such cameras? I couldn't really find any information about it on the internet.

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[–] manuremy@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I'll deal and keep fixing my 2001 lil Japanese car until it really gives up. I might even get a whole "new" motor in. If after all that it's imposible to buy another old, pre-2000 car, I won't bother. Fuck them. The lights are too bright and unsafe, the screens are unsafe and now these cameras and all? Ew. If you can't fix it yourself in your garage with basic tools and some beer, you don't own the thing.

[–] quips@slrpnk.net -1 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

Then you are significantly sacrificing your safety. Please get a car made at least after 2013, preferably 2016, if you value your life.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 hour ago

Can you be more cryptic?

[–] jjlinux@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Why exactly? What does a post-2016 car do, safety-wise, that a 1998 Honda Accord can't?

[–] FinalRemix@lemmy.world 1 points 55 minutes ago* (last edited 54 minutes ago)

It'll have shitty sight lines and require a backup camera because of it.

[–] manuremy@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Trust me, the level of elder care in my country, that's the least of my worries. I also don't want to burn into a crisp inside an electric car that won't open it's doors once it sets on fire.

[–] quips@slrpnk.net -1 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

Do you have people who count on you? Who love you? Whose lives would be changed were you gone? If so, consider them when you consider your personal safety.

I wasn’t talking about electric cars, just any car made after 2013-2016 ish

[–] magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

What specifically would a newer car have my 9th gen civic wouldn't?

Two things I know of that mean anything are collision detection/prevention and blindspot sensors.

The ladder of those things can be added aftermarket.

[–] quips@slrpnk.net 1 points 49 minutes ago (1 children)

It won’t fail the small overlap crash test, but some years of the 9th gen civic are okay

[–] magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 44 minutes ago* (last edited 43 minutes ago)

2013 survives it, I really doubt they made much a change because that was that gens second year.

[–] jjlinux@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

You keep saying that. We'd like to know what are the factors that lead to thinking that anything pre-2013 is not safe.

[–] quips@slrpnk.net 1 points 48 minutes ago

The failure of IIHS’ small overlap test

[–] manuremy@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 hours ago

Yes, I got people. But we all agree that we get the time we get and dying with your boots on is a whole lotta better than suffering slowly for years.