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.

The dashboard of an renault 5 e-tech. The camera mentioned in the post is in the A-pillar.
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[+] -8 points 5 months ago (26 children)

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

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Its the bro dozers that endanger us, not the 01 civics. Ban large trucks or require special licensing for any vehicle over 3500 lbs to drive. Almost No one needs a truck for daily use. 95% if people could did a brz or miata and be completely fine. If theres kids, a small 4 runner or a wagon would suffice. If theyre farmers, then they can use trucks only for towing or hauling. Limited mileage per year otherwise.

    Also I sound like a European here. I'm not. And I own a truck. I only use it for work and towing.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (15 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.

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  • [–] -5 points 5 months ago (14 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

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (7 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.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    The failure of IIHS’ small overlap test

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (5 children)

    What is that and what does it mean?

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    They run a car into something that only crunches a corner. Simulates a tree, telephone pole, or guard rail collision.
    Uneven force application is much harder to safely accommodate, and it's also a more representative crash test, since more crashes happen in that manner than full width head-on collisions.

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  • [–] -2 points 5 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago* (4 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.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (3 children)

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

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (2 children)

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

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

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

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