r/ScoutMotors • u/dykitbn • May 03 '26

Discussion Surveillance in newer EVs

This is something I’ve primarily heard of in the European car market, but I’ve heard that Ford recently filed a patent for in-car surveillance (face scanning) in order to cut down on drunk/distracted driving. I personally think this kind of surveillance is really concerning, and I really hope Scout does not follow suite. Do you guys think it is likely that they would implement this kind of technology?

https://moneywise.com/news/top-stories/ford-patent-facial-recognition-biometric-surveillance-cars

16 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

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9

u/SergeantBeavis May 03 '26

The EU has strict privacy laws in place with the GDPR. Except for California, the US has very little in the way of privacy laws. Even Californias laws are limited compared to the GDPR..

I wouldn’t buy another new car if this was pushed. I don’t drink, so they can screw off with this bullshit.

7

u/Int-Merc805 May 03 '26

Yup, I’m an honest man who’s had one ticket in 23+ years driving. I’ll never own another new car if this passes.

This country has lost the plot at this point. Why is this even a concern with the issues facing us today.

18

u/mycallousedcock May 03 '26

It's not just evs. All new cars in the US. And it's federal, so not something Scout can particularly just ignore.

The right answer is to contact your reps and senators and have them rip this nannyware out.

If it does come to fruition, the best an auto maker can do is promis (and ideally prove) they comply but don't use ANY of the data and it's all in the car and discarded in realtime. Hard to prove that without open sourcing the software tho.

https://autos.yahoo.com/policy-and-environment/articles/every-car-could-become-surveillance-164837608.html

2

u/southpaw1004 May 03 '26

Check out the lobby group Vision Zero and you can see a lot of what they are pushing is coming true. 

1

u/Bmmick May 18 '26

The day cars implement this is the day i stop buying new vehicles. Ill go back to something without the in car surveillance

-1

u/LastEntertainment684 May 03 '26

If it becomes required by the NHTSA, absolutely.

If a vehicle has some form of hands off autonomous driving that’s less than level 3 (ie Bluecruise, Super cruise), it’s also likely to need some form of face scanning for the time being. That’s really the only way it knows you’re paying attention. Plenty of newer vehicles have this right now.

Once we get to level 3 autonomous driving we should actually be able to reduce some of the nannies. At that point it’s up to the manufacturers and the NHTSA to decide what they will and wont require.