Yep. You're right. This is why I put a piece black electrical tape over the rear-facing camera in my Model Y.

Does that mean you have no backup camera now?

No. They have a rear-facing camera that shows the interior of the car and then they have one that is located above the license plate.

If you don't opt in, they shouldn't have the data to release. At least until they swap it to an opt out quietly.

Right. Should.

But given Tesla's history of skirting other legal rules, and their history of releasing driver data from autopilot accidents, I would expect the opt-out to operate more as "we record anyway and then delete it after the fact if you opt out and we don't need the data to protect Tesla."

~85% of cars have EDR (event data recorders) which are always recording locally.

NHTSA requires cars with EDRs to record 15 specific attributes. They’ve also considered making EDRs mandatory, but basically didn’t bother since the vast majority of cars already have them.

You need an EDR to implement ADAS features, and some of those are becoming mandatory.

The only thing opt-in is remote data sharing.

Or worse, "can't use this feature without allowing data collection".

They do not. They release their analysis of the data in question.

Like how they blamed the "gore" death on the driver for not having his hands on the wheel?

The data showed that the "hands on the wheel" alert preceded the crash by 8 minutes.

Tesla will absolutely use any data you send them to attack you, especially if you have the bad taste to die in their car with autopilot active.

What data did they release from any accident? If you're going to keep spamming the comments of this thread with claims that Tesla releases the data it collects, you need to support those claims.

Tesla has never released the data from an accident. They only release their assessment of the data to authorities and authorities have decided whether to communicate that to the public.

Tesla's public statement as posted in their blog:

> The driver had received several visual and one audible hands-on warning earlier in the drive and the driver’s hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds prior to the collision. The driver had about five seconds and 150 meters of unobstructed view of the concrete divider with the crushed crash attenuator, but the vehicle logs show that no action was taken.

https://www.tesla.com/blog/update-last-week%E2%80%99s-accide...

This is from March 30 2018 (the accident occurred on March 23). The NTSB and Tesla dissolved the commitment to investigate in parallel as a consequence of this premature release of data in an attempt to exonerate themselves.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/12/17229518/tesla-ntsb-autop...

It's also quite telling that part of Tesla's statement to the press at that time included of the following:

> Mr. Huang was well aware that Autopilot was not perfect ... yet he nonetheless engaged Autopilot at that location

The NTSB report didn't come out until Feb 11, 2020.

https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20200211.as...

Tesla absolutely intentionally released log data on their own.

EDIT: "If you're going to keep spamming the comments of this thread" This was both unnecessary and untrue. With this comment, I'm up to a grand total of two comments in this entire article's discussion thread.

Last I checked, releasing a summary of selective data points from a vehicle's recording device is...releasing data.

Tesla may not release all of the data (and it's clear from their selection of data that they do not), but they definitely do release some data.

Indeed, Tesla's release of data is worse than nothing, because they only release data that slanders the deceased drivers when autopilot was the cause of the crashes in all cases.