this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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Privacy
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Fatigue detection is a real thing that doesn't use the type of AI that people think of when they hear that word today most often. It's not language based but instead it's able to recognize faces and posture, tell where your attention is focused, and recognize signs of fatigue like head drop, eyes closing, and attention drifting from the road.
It, along with other attention based driver safety features, are real and effective and can be done on device with a computer with less power than a modern cellphone.
It is, however, at least a little creepy. It's made a lot more so by it not being disclosed upfront with disclosures and full user awareness. It should be explained by both the website, the car manual, the salesperson and the car itself exactly what it's doing and where any video data is being sent. It's probably processing the video locally and at most sending telemetry about which driver just sat down and such, but 1) you might not want that 2) unless they actually tell you that you don't know.
It's not paranoia to want an explanation and appropriate assurances, or for it to be in your control. You don't need to assume it's the worst case for that to be true. It's probably a real safety feature with a couple of quality of life features taped on so people can see it do something, since you don't really see a passive safety feature. But without actual communication you don't actually know that.
We are all assuming the worst case because it's most likely based on historical data. There is no way to justify this while ignoring other actual safety issues like headlights. Pretty sure not being blind while driving is an actual issue, but since it doesn't rape privacy and civil rights, they'll just ignore that.
You're literally quoting a part of a sentence to seemingly disagree with. Specifically a sentence that's saying that you don't need to believe it's nefarious for it to be reasonable to want privacy and assurances of privacy.
They seemed on the fence about if they were being paranoid or if they were justified in feeling concerned and it was as bad as it seemed.
I'm saying it doesn't matter what you believe their intentions are, it's not paranoid to have concerns about the camera in your face. You can short circuit questions about the technology or their reputation and go directly to resolving that discomfort however is most suitable to you.
There are at least two cars owned by members of my family that I am aware of that have a fatigue detection, and neither of them use cameras. So I’m firmly in the creepy camp.
That's pretty fair. I know the cameras can be more effective, particularly in situations where the driver may be using lane centering or something, but I'm not sure I could be fully comfortable regardless.
I see the safety benefits of having this, and I would appreciate knowing that the car would blast a loud sound every time my eyes shut off from sleepiness so it will never happen, but this must be 100% open source no exceptions so it can be verified that it doesn't spy on you.
Yeah, I can see the safety benefits but I'm honestly not sure how I would feel about it. My current car has a variant but the camera is mounted on the outside, and it notices lane drift and changes in responsiveness to curves. It's basically an extension of the collision/lane centering/automatic windshield wiper (weirdly) systems.
I'm okay with that because it's not looking at me, but at the road, which I expect the car to do. Even if it was verified to not be sending anything anywhere I can honestly say I'm still very unsure about just being passively on camera like that.
Thank you for the excellent response!