Black tape ought to solve it, if not a pair of wire cutters.

I think it's unacceptable and indicative of this dangerous path we are headed down as whole. There's already been a few write ups on how cars are the most privacy disrespecting "devices" out there, which is wild considering we have smartphones.

With the driver facing camera we have no control over it also has complete access to our travel data, probably knows exactly who we are in the car with, records all our private conversations etc. etc.

It's so tiring to hear people defend this as if privacy is a thing of the past and anyone advocating it is being dramatic.

I fckn hate these laws that force so much tech into new cars under the guise of safety. Not only is it a massive breach in privacy (I don't care if the car manufacturers claim they don't use this data for identification, I won't belive them), but it also makes small cars way more expensive, comparatively. Fck this sh*t, cars have been becoming obnoxiously expensive and forced BS tech like that just makes everything worse.

I'll just buy a second-hand 2011 Skoda Fabia. Compact car that just works and doesn't spy on you. Though I'd rather buy the LPG version of it because it costs 86 eurocents/liter here.

I'm cool with just not driving. Fuck you, car manufacturers. If I can't feasibly live a lifestyle on public transit I'll buy the oldest shittiest shitbox on Earth and drive it until it fucking explodes.

Required in the EU and will be required in the US soon. BYD's big export market is Australia which doesn't require them yet but they're mandatory to get a good crash safety rating.

Renault and a lot of BYDs use Android as the software os, so probably it's Android doing the facial recognition (and also probably the attention eye tracking) and that's onboard.

Renault has a dashcam function that records from the built in cameras, but you have to plug in your own USB drive, so the upside of memory price-fixing is it's probably not worth it for Renault to spend $300 to store the data now.

Your concern is definitely justified. This is creepy as hell.

It's an EU decision. It will be coming to many more cars as it will be mandatory from July 2026 for all newly registered vehicles. Renault 5 is simply one of the first new cars to feature it.

According to the same law, it is illegal to use the system in a way that can identify the person, it may not save biometrics, and it must function in closed loop without sharing the data. It's looking for things like head nodding or looking away from the road for more than 3.5 seconds while driving over 50 km/h. The camera is likely using infrared lighting as it should also work at night.

Anyway. According to the manual, it can be disabled by double tapping a button on the steering wheel or through the touch screen menus, though it will default to being enabled everytime you start the car as per the legal requirement.

If you cover it with tape, wear a mask or drive somebody else's car in which you don't have a profile saved, it will simply use the last previous profile and show an icon in the dashboard as a warning that the function isn't working.

Monthly subscription for safety features coming soon 🔜

Find and disable the antenna used by the cars electronics.

You have to log your profile into your car?? Fuck everything about that!

"what about the camera on your laptop?"

My personal laptop does not have a camera, and my work laptop has a physical camera blocker.

Some of these dorks out here would fr be supportive of a "smart" camera in their toilet looking straight at their hole/s. "I have nothing to hide, its just videos of me pooping"

anybody that doesn't think its an issue is an idiot

Wait till the 2027 gets the seat rectal probe to verify you by your large intestine. Also, they sell the data to health insurance providers.

"Your insurance claim is denied, our algorithm says it's 70% confident your eyes were dilated in a way consistent with taking alcohol. Also, here's your court hearing date"

In many states any information not disclosed by the seller is grounds for you canceling the deal. But you would have to look that up for where you live. Or there's black tape, but then you're still paying for a camera you didn't want, aren't using, and weren't told about.

Fucking hell.

I'll be sticking with 2015 and older for as long as I can.

I'd just cover it or break it 🤷

Nope. Take it right back.

It will be used against you at every opportunity.

That’d be getting covered immediately if it ended up in a car of mine

It's to disempower you. All of this is to further disempower the masses.