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submitted 12 hours ago by beep@piefed.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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.

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[-] Faceman2K23@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 11 hours ago

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.

[-] bladerunnerspider@lemmy.world 21 points 9 hours ago
[-] Faceman2K23@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 9 hours ago

yet another reason why I dont like Teslas, or honestly any vehicles with onboard video recording and cellular connections.

[-] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 40 points 10 hours ago

I dont like being constantly monitored. I dont want to normalize the lack of privacy.

[-] crandlecan@mander.xyz 5 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

my phones are pin or pattern only

[-] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

I do a pass code, but yeah, no finger prints or shudders facial scans

[-] Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org 2 points 8 hours ago

Am i the only one using the simple slide up to unlock?

Some simple patterns code can be very quick to do, and not much different from a slide up, while still keeping most people out.

[-] Drusas@fedia.io 8 points 5 hours ago

Honestly, I would guess you're one of a very small minority, yeah. Because phones get lost, stolen, or confiscated by fascist "law enforcement" pretty commonly. Or someone you know picks it up while you're gone.

Most people like a degree of privacy. Even my grandma has a pin on her phone.

[-] Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Yeah I've noticed that most people are rather baffled when i say i have no passcode or anything on my phone.

I just find that the risk of any of the affirmationd things happening is low enough that it doesn't outweigh the annoyance that comes from entering passcodes tens of times a day.

But I'm not in the USA so risk profiles are slightly different.

[-] civilfolly@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago

I would suggest to start practicing to say goodbye to privacy, bank accounts, etc etc etc etc etc, when your phone is stolen.

[-] Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Bank account does have a passcode, mandatory. Steam as well. Privacy is kinda irrelevant, what's a random thief going to do with my messages or grocery list?

Good thing i have a phone that's not really marketable and thus not really tempting anyone to steal it.

But how likely is it that a phone gets stolen? Of course that might depend on a location, but locally that's an anomaly. So it's the old point of security feature itself becoming a bigger nuisance than the threat of whatever it's trying to protect me from.

[-] Prox@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

What happens when you wear sunglasses?

[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 3 points 5 hours ago

Believe it or not, straight to jail.

this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2026
247 points (98.4% liked)

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