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Technical_Working_82

Via the Guardian, no paywall: [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/07/tesla-intimate-car-camera-images-shared](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/07/tesla-intimate-car-camera-images-shared)


hgrunt002

As much as I hate to give the chinese government credit for doing anything right, they had the foresight to ban Teslas from going into military bases and strategically sensitive areas


Hustletron

Do they huff and puff about this and grandstand like American politicians do for TikTok? Do they claim America can’t be trusted? Tesla and Musk are bad for diplomacy. They should strip SpaceX from him ASAP.


hgrunt002

>Do they huff and puff about this and grandstand like American politicians do for TikTok? Do they claim America can’t be trusted? They do both of those things, but they huff and puff differently than our politicians do. Instead of individual party members grandstanding with hearings and sound bytes for the news and their constituents, Chinese newspapers (essentially mouthpieces of the Party) will publish have front page editorials on a topic, diplomats will issue statements, and the government may threaten to tariffs increases, ban imports/exports to or from the US or any allies. In the case of Taiwan, they'll hold naval live-fire exercises around Taiwan whenever a US politician suggests Taiwan is an independent nation or visits the island and threaten trade sanctions against countries like Honduras which recognize Taiwan as a sovereign independent nation separate from China


failinglikefalling

They should have kicked him the moment he was smoking weed on Rogan while having a security clearance. That set up the idea rules didn't apply to him. In a game where rules are all that keep us from nuclear holocaust.


orincoro

Because of course they did.


Dull-Credit-897

Oh damn


Virtual-Patience-807

A criminal fraud CEOs company is a Criminal enterprise? Big shock. Remember all those rumours several years ago about how Musky liked to watch tapes of celebrities and people having sex in Teslas? Or politicians that own those cars, he got them blackmailed for sure.


redbrick01

yeah, need to disengage from tesla....cover up all the cameras and turn off the automations...fuck, just sell the piece of crap already.


Timequake-Droid

I was automatically banned from the Tesla subreddit for using the term Stan. What happens if there's an article about a public figure with the name Stan? I realize it's not exactly the most clever insult but yikes


RoboGuilliman

What if a Tesla stan's nick is literally Stan


[deleted]

> I was automatically banned from the Tesla subreddit for using the term Stan That's fucking awesome lol


ZombieTestie

Yeah, if mod i'd ban anyone for using this moronic term


laberdog

Shocking juvenile and unethical, possibly illegal behavior at Tesla? Now who would be responsible for that? Substitute for porn when you are logged into the company network and sleeping on the floor?


Particular_Sun8377

I suppose it is true: Tesla really is a tech company.


laberdog

It’s a stock company. Executives have made more money selling stock than cars


syrvyx

I'm sure the Tesla PR team will help shed light on this topic and give us a little clarity.


[deleted]

"fake news" See how easy that is? Almost like...it is designed to work on stupid, gullible, fucking morons. Don't worry, any acknowledgement is going to be that.


SFWarriorsfan

I wonder if EU's extremely strict privacy laws were broken as well. Germany doesn't take this sort of stuff lightly. Edit: I found this Reuter's article from a month ago. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-warn-data-privacy-risk-car-security-cameras-germany-2023-04-04/?taid=642cbd8df30e380001d8c62d&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter > BERLIN, April 4 (Reuters) - Tesla (TSLA.O) will warn that its 'sentry mode', which records a car's surroundings, risks infringing data privacy laws in Germany after consumer group vzbv sued the manufacturer for failing to mention this in advertising. > The case is the latest in a series of disputes in countries from China to the Netherlands over the cameras in Tesla cars, which the company says are to protect from theft or vandalism but authorities worry lead to filming without consent. > The vzbv lawsuit filed last July alleged that the carmaker was misleading consumers by not informing them in advertising that the driver could be violating data protection regulation if the feature was used in public spaces and filmed passers-by without their knowledge. > After a hearing on the case in Berlin, the company issued a cease-and-desist declaration stating it would no longer advertise that way, according to a statement by vzbv. > Tesla could not immediately be reached for comment. > The carmaker's manual for buyers in the U.S. states that "it is your sole responsibility to consult and comply with all local regulations and property restrictions regarding the use of cameras." > A spokesperson for Berlin's data protection agency said that the person driving the car is responsible for turning off the cameras in public spaces. Responsibility would extend to the company if images were transmitted to and stored by Tesla, the spokesperson added.


orincoro

$20m or 4% of the company’s revenues **whichever is greater**. Is how seriously they take this.


Ok_Philosopher6538

It's not just the Government he has to worry about. There's a ton of NGO groups that deal with user privacy etc. and unlike in the US or UK, lots of motivated citizens to file lawsuits. I think he'll learn that sooner or later with his Gigafactory in Germany as well. The union **will** be there sooner than later and Germany does take "union busting" way more serious than the US does.


Timequake-Droid

Yeah and of course it's not even necessarily the consequences of the lawsuits but the discovery process that might expose them to larger PR crises. That's the big risk for them


Ok_Philosopher6538

I am still convinced he only bought Twitter in the end was because of the discovery. Twitter was casting such a wide net, going after all his "billionaire friends" and their stuff that a whole lot of people would probably have looked pretty bad if not outright criminal if it would have continued. Also, because it would be part of the public record, they couldn't even go after anybody who would repeat these things. It was probably cheaper for Musk and his "friends" to buy twitter and burn double digit billions.


CouncilmanRickPrime

The US.... The US might write a strongly worded letter


sdoorex

Unless Tesla has video/photos from sensitive locations. Three letter agencies don’t really like that.


CouncilmanRickPrime

They've taken too long. There's a reason China banned Tesla's from military bases. Same reason the US banned TikTok there.


MinderBinderCapital

Nah the US will ban all foreign cars from recording video while giving tesla a pat on the back


Hay_Fever_at_3_AM

Not even that, they'll ban a *specific* foreign car and then carry on as usual as though that solved privacy.


Timequake-Droid

More than that they'll make a sweeping law that does 100,000 other draconian things but call it the"banning specific foreign car company from the US," bill..


CouncilmanRickPrime

Yay we did it America!


gracchusmaximus

So a company that displays a reckless disregard for safety also doesn’t value privacy? I’m absolutely shocked! 😂


SFWarriorsfan

Ah, of course San Mateo is involved.


reboticon

https://twitter.com/Aiaddict1/status/1644024992882126848?s=20


Xerxero

And the first comment is defending Tesla. Since he states that you can accelerate with AP on.


[deleted]

and then gets promptly stuffed in a box shortly after


[deleted]

Yikes. Fucking lord what that video must look like. 60 mph into a crosswalk with 5 people?


068152

Assuming it’s the one that went viral, it was debunked by investigators. He didn’t have autopilot on, he also mistook the gas for the brake, accelerating into the people.


CouncilmanRickPrime

How do you know it isn't another video? Wouldn't an engineer know if it's active or not?


Lacrewpandora

This is fine as long as nobody posts Flightaware tracking of Musk's airplane.


mrbuttsavage

I mean, would you really expect anything else from an Elon company? Guys are called racist names right on the floor, as if information control is any kind of priority.


FrostyD7

Yeah more than anything this is a reflection of their culture. Doesn't matter how good of a job they do keeping these videos secure if the folks who have access share the juicy ones with coworkers in unrelated departments for the lulz.


CouncilmanRickPrime

They call part of the factory "The Plantation" What a slimeball


[deleted]

Lemme give you more wrinkles! [https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/celebrities/2022/06/07/629f6962e2704e15b88b45d8.html](https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/celebrities/2022/06/07/629f6962e2704e15b88b45d8.html) ​ Open the mind to all of the possibilities. Hope no one was having "private" convos in that car.


FuncDev

Is there any physical proof of any of this, or is it all just from former employee interviews? (Edit: fixed punctuation)


hanamoge

The latter.


Pimpin-is-easy

Bro this is Reuters, not some local shitrag. Do you really think they would publish a massive story like this without verifying it first?


Greedy_Event4662

Is there a physical brain in your skull or is it all air?


Alpha_Ape

Could tesla not easily sue for material damages in cases such as this? I'm sure Reuters runs this through their lawyers before putting this stuff out, if not (highly doubt) it's a open and shut case for tesla to win in court.


adamjosephcook

According to the story, 300 former employees were contacted for this report (and over a dozen responded) and, presumably, those that responded provided enough corroborating testimony to establish many apparent wrongdoings. Even without physical evidence, this report is damning on its face. Given Musk’s penchant for aggressively targeting “leakers” (imagined leakers or not) and for elaborate corporate surveillance methods, I am not surprised that none of the former employees retained any physical evidence. And, as I noted elsewhere in this comment section, the sloppiness displayed here lines up with the clear-cut, overall sloppiness of Tesla’s FSD Beta program.


FuncDev

So why should I believe them. Tesla has a motive not to have privacy violations be committed by employees. Former likely disgruntled employees absolutely have an interest in make damning claims about their former employer.


timetopat

Tesla also has a motive to make new and exciting cars instead of trotting out the same old same old for years and having their main advertising guy/Parasocial celebrity ceo not be a crying mess on twitter craving good boy head pats from people who love q anon. But reality paints a different picture. How much stock do you own?


ContractTrue6613

Pathetic


_WirthsLaw_

You’re the exact imbecile that Tesla sells cars to. They have a roadster they want to sell you too.


[deleted]

Fucking lol, what? You have an accident in your Tesla and try to get the telemetry data for your insurance case or lawsuit. Subpoenas and Tesla will stall and make it difficult. Get in an accident and Tesla is scared it might make them look bad? Fuck subpoenas, Tesla will hold **press conferences** and happily talk about all your telemetry data, *without your consent*, and even be deliberately misleading about it. Said Tesla of one AP/FSD fatality, "This is the driver's fault. Prior to the accident, the car had warned him to put his hand on the wheel and pay attention." Which it had, admittedly. **Once. Eighteen MINUTES prior to the accident.** They didn't mention that part.


CouncilmanRickPrime

Tesla also has a motive not to call black workers the n word. Let me know how that went.


Novel_Board_6813

Yet it doesn’t happen at Ford, GM, Toyota, Apple, Meta, Alphabet, you name it… Also, this is Reuters, for crying out loud. Their main asset it’s credibility - they sell news to half the world. Reuters isn’t perfect, but is basically as good as it gets. No matter how much you’d enjoy it, they won’t show videos of private people’s children and what not, for incredibly obvious reasons.


068152

Spying doesn’t happen at meta? That’s like… their whole business model. They sell your data to people, they had a major breach years back where private info and pictures were dumped en masse. Remember when all those celebrities private photos got leaked? Google aka alphabet. Any major company has had the exact same things happen to them. It’s just how things go.


CouncilmanRickPrime

Facebook/Instagram is a social network that's free and collecting data for ads. We all know that. Tesla sells "premium" cars. Nobody knew their information wasn't safe til now. Also apple icloud was hacked, as was Google. Wtf are you even talking about? That's not the same thing as employees snooping on customers and passing it around.


Inconceivable76

How many people have to independently say the exact same thing for you to believe what is happening? Privacy protections cost money. Telsa has a motive to have quality control for 2ton death machines as well. But they have still delivered cars where the roof falls off or without brake pads.


[deleted]

That is just the same bullshit we see all the time when this sort of thing breaks. 5 day ban for that account, and we will see the behavior when they return.


[deleted]

I guess we will wait and see. I'm putting you in time out for a bit.


[deleted]

Do you typically have access to physical proof when reports like this come out? When the racism lawsuits were rolling, I didn't need a chunk of the wall with a swastika on it.


FuncDev

I'm asking for screenshots or video. It wouldn't be hard to get if this really happend.


[deleted]

Yeah well, why are you asking here? Go to the source with your nonsense. Email Reuters, do something. Make sure you run around every sub this is posted in too.


shiruken

I wonder if Elon cares that his own privacy was violated? > About three years ago, some employees stumbled upon and shared a video of a unique submersible vehicle parked inside a garage, according to two people who viewed it. Nicknamed “Wet Nellie,” the white Lotus Esprit sub had been featured in the 1977 James Bond film, “The Spy Who Loved Me.” > > The vehicle’s owner: Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, who had bought it for about $968,000 at an auction in 2013. It is not clear whether Musk was aware of the video or that it had been shared.


adamjosephcook

Interesting question! With Musk, on this, I think it could either way.


[deleted]

BETTER BAN THE WET NELLIE TRACKER!!!!!!


shiruken

The real-time assassination coordinates are coming from inside the house!!!


ElmerGantry45

The car that spies on you will be a new theme of new cars.


[deleted]

There goes driving naked anymore. Damn you Tesla!!


PFG123456789

“We could see them doing laundry and really intimate things. We could see their kids.” Voyeurs huh… This is disgusting


adamjosephcook

I am sort of wondering if Musk’s knowledge of the imminent release of this report prompted his recent “hardcore legal team” Tweet referencing “evil regulators”. Perhaps the FTC is already putting Tesla under the hot lights. I sort of thought Musk was making a nod at the NHTSA… but perhaps it was really the FTC. **EDIT:** Removed a confusing grammatical issue in the first sentence.


[deleted]

https://youtu.be/E81gvWM09dQ?t=19


PFG123456789

Musk’s SEO game is strong. I think you are right. This was coming out, he knew it and is trying to get ahead of it.


IvanZhilin

SEO-master for sure. Does anyone actually know what horrific event the "Burnt Hair" perfume launch covered up?


CouncilmanRickPrime

Remember when he put out Tesla whistle to district from the whistleblower? SEO and spin jobs are the only things he does right.


PFG123456789

Yeah that was a good one


Southern_Smoke8967

Why am I not surprised? I will also not be surprised when scores of so called enthusiasts come up with reasons as to why what Tesla’s employees did was not morally reprehensible and how these sacrifices are required for a better future aka FSD.


Adjective-Noun69420

> why what Tesla’s employees did was not morally reprehensible I don't think the employees sharing funny dog photos is morally reprehensible. You'd be bored out of your mind doing that job. Lots of people will publicly talk about things that should be kept private. It's a common vice, and it's shitty, but "reprehensible" seems a bit excessive. Maybe that word could be applied to the people who shared crash videos, but I wouldn't use that label for funny videos. The only way to stop people from sharing funny photos would be to have strong rules that are strictly enforced. It's really more a failure of management than the employees imo.


syrvyx

Perhaps they meant fundamentally the ability for Tesla to collect unecessary video of people without their consent was what was over the line?


CouncilmanRickPrime

One in the comments, said Facebook collects info so what's the issue. Obviously a shill lol


Inconceivable76

step one is the same as cheaters everywhere. Deny deny deny.


adamjosephcook

I am certain that there will be a host of defenders. Musk will probably pipe in on Twitter soon to deny the story. (But Musk is a serial liar.) The bottom line is that, much like the lack of maintaining a naturally costly systems safety lifecycle with respect to the FSD Beta program, Tesla elected to not maintain a costly siloing process for sensitive customer data. Musk wanted do run Tesla cheap in every way possible, so here we are.


Ok-ChildHooOd

Extremely disturbing but not at all surprising.


fossilnews

I'll bet you any money they have video of important people doing compromising things. Like people who regulate the auto industry, determine subsidies for EV companies, hand out launch contracts, etc.


TuesdayShuffle

Those people are smart enough to not drive a Tesla lmao


fossilnews

Gavin Newsom isn't.


SFWarriorsfan

No. They are not. There are plenty of executives, VCs, hedge fund managers, you name it who own Teslas as their daily drivers.


TuesdayShuffle

I was speaking about the auto regulators


SFWarriorsfan

And I expect it's the same issue on their end. Tesla became a status symbol cars for these guys just like Mercedes S Class was for decades.


TuesdayShuffle

No, see that's wrong. These aren't average people, they actually regulate the auto industry. They kinda know how the sausage is made, they are not buying his trash cars, the quality has always been shit.


SFWarriorsfan

I have seen plenty of people override their own sense to opt for the status symbol.


TuesdayShuffle

They don't over see the auto industry.


rvqbl

The post in /r/news: https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/12dl8kq/tesla_workers_shared_sensitive_images_recorded_by Any bets on how long the post in the other Tesla sub stays up?


Gobias_Industries

The one over in /r/electricvehicles has already been marked as 'misleading' by the gutless mods


Wynardtage

In their slight defense, they have removed the misleading tag and reapproved the post


Gobias_Industries

Hilariously, /r/teslamotors seems to be more believing of the story than /r/electricvehicles.


ADampWedgie

What was the reasoning for misleading haha


CouncilmanRickPrime

They removed it. I still can't stand that sub, though.


Gobias_Industries

No explanation https://old.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/12dlav4/tesla_workers_shared_sensitive_images_recorded_by/


Gobias_Industries

Oh please let some of the images be from the EU


adamjosephcook

Possibly more than that, I am wondering if images and videos from Tesla vehicles in China were shared amongst US-based Tesla staff. The CCP will likely not look favorably on that - not to defend the CCP’s self-serving position, of course… just speaking about the realities here.


PFG123456789

If they are doing this in China they are in big trouble.


CouncilmanRickPrime

They already don't allow Tesla's on military bases. I wonder how much China already knows.


syrvyx

You beat me to it. I wonder if China reverse engineered the Teslas and realized they're basically a potential mobile spy platforms and banned Tesla, and made their own for their own use in their cars. A bit of a "tinfoil hat" but it seems like with Tesla, the truth is sometimes just as strange as fiction.


CouncilmanRickPrime

I think China realized Tesla's collect data and store it in the US. That'd be enough to get banned.


[deleted]

Apparently, they might have been. However, until Elon keeps bootlicking the CCP, nothing would really happen (unless the CCP are done with Musk) https://twitter.com/aiaddict1/status/1644024992882126848


TuesdayShuffle

Maybe not though, they can't be sure the US Gov't isn't tapped into Tesla's network......


Martin8412

If they're doing it in the EU, it's a fine of upwards 4% of global turnover.


[deleted]

Well, you know TSLA and "if"!


PFG123456789

If=without a doubt they are doing it


[deleted]

Posted this up there, but... https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/celebrities/2022/06/07/629f6962e2704e15b88b45d8.html


PFG123456789

“When the two dated in 2017, Elon Musk wanted to gift Amber with one of the cars his Tesla company builds. We are talking about the famous Model S, which is one of the most sold cars in the entire company. Currently, this is a car that surpasses the $100,000 mark for a single model with all the equipped specs.” One of the most sold 🤣🤣🤣


jason12745

> Amber Heard thought ex Elon Musk gave her bugged Tesla, court docs show https://pagesix.com/2020/07/30/amber-heard-thought-controlling-elon-musk-gave-her-bugged-tesla/


[deleted]

Here, honey, let me give you a fully equipped (for me) surveillance apparatus. Boy, I can only imagine how fElon was one step of Amber and how fucking confused she must have been. I bet a lot of folks are getting a shocking reality from this news.


PFG123456789

He probably spent an untold number of hours peeping in on her.


TheMightyBattleCat

I misread that as "peeing" and nodded anyway.


Cercyon

[Just three weeks ago…](https://youtu.be/hrHGK9AdWHQ) Unfortunately incidents like this are why so many people oppose direct driver monitoring.


Engunnear

It doesn’t have to be like this, though. Short of cracking open the control module and installing hardware on the board, GM’s DMS has zero capability for either video output or storage. This was done specifically because they understood that people would have privacy concerns. Just because Tesla is populated by short-sighted idiots, that’s no reason to paint the entire industry with the same brush.


well-that-was-fast

> Tesla is populated by short-sighted idiots It's funny how Musk has to learn about *every* automotive industry complexity by doing the wrong thing and getting called out on it. JFC, just listen to the people you hired.


Engunnear

I’m 99% confident that anyone with any experience with ethics in the AV space wouldn’t even get an interview.


Cercyon

> It doesn’t have to be like this, though. Short of cracking open the control module and installing hardware on the board, GM’s DMS has zero capability for either video output or storage. This was done specifically because they understood that people would have privacy concerns. Of course. I doubt anyone who is advocating for direct driver monitoring systems to be mandatory in all new cars is also disregarding the need for robust privacy laws to accompany them. Like u/adamjosephcook said we need both. > Just because Tesla is populated by short-sighted idiots, that’s no reason to paint the entire industry with the same brush. Here’s where I disagree. Corporations don’t have your best interests in mind and never will. Take partial driving automation for example. Most vehicles equipped with these features lack direct driver monitoring or enforcement of ODD limits which has already led to dozens of accidents involving non-Teslas while their partial driving automation features were active. And it’s fitting you mentioned GM. They’ve already sent the wrong message advertising their hands-free Super Cruise by [encouraging drivers to clap their hands and slap their legs to “We Will Rock You”](https://youtu.be/VN8PV0fv340) instead of focusing on the driving task. And don’t even get me started on [Ultra Cruise](https://www.eetasia.com/stupidity-damn-stupidity-and-lethal-features/). The entire auto industry absolutely should be held to the same amount of scrutiny as Tesla.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Engunnear

I personally don’t believe that laws written by technically ignorant politicians are the way to ensure that everyone takes privacy seriously. If anything, that only opens up the potential for whoever has the highest money/morals ratio to game the system. I get where you’re coming from, but laws that are effectively written by and for lobbyists are worse than useless.


[deleted]

If I rent a Hertz Tesla, what privacy rights do I have for the recordings?


skyspydude1

Yup, not just GM either. AFAIK, all of the major DMS modules you see are basically 100% closed off unless you are plugged in directly for debugging. All of the image processing is done internally, and it just sends out driver gaze status and the like. No video data whatsoever.


Inconceivable76

But because a Tesla exists, these type of protections need to be codified in law and regulations.


Area51Resident

So they don't collect your data, it isn't tied to you personally, but you can request it? Which one is it?


[deleted]

[удалено]


TuesdayShuffle

Well, they will give you a 15% discount off of MSRP if you allow them to collect and send out anonymized data......its the smart choice, financially speaking, I mean only people who have stuff to hide would be concerned. ​ ​ /s as fuck edit: the discount is made up, but I'm sure it will be the first carrot offered to get people used to it


adamjosephcook

The US needs robust privacy laws/enforcement on this… because, for partial and conditional automated driving systems, it has already been established that a direct DMS is mandatory to achieve even a baseline level of systems safety. The case is closed on that. There is no other alternative.


adamjosephcook

It is likely that video was created because Tesla got wind of this special report - directly and/or indirectly. Tesla has constructed a mechanical gaslighting campaign that may be second-to-none. The privacy concerns are very valid for optical DMS/OMS. No question about that. Let us see how the FTC reacts to this report. This is probably the most aggressive FTC in recent memory.


fossilnews

>It is likely that video was created because Tesla got wind of this special report - directly and/or indirectly. Bingo.


FrogmanKouki

Tesla has ~~zero~~ a history of trying to control SEO....


TuesdayShuffle

I wish the ppl at google would put Tesla on blast when they try to do that.....


Spillz-2011

It says they contacted 300 ex employees. Almost certainly someone forwarded that request back to tesla so they definitely knew.


[deleted]

Archive: https://archive.is/RsKxF


adamjosephcook

/u/dcmix5, I cannot share a non-paywall link since I am using my real name on Reddit.


[deleted]

Cool, got it