The expectations of privacy in driverless cars

Do riders in autonomous vehicles think that they are in a private space? Here's a fascinating story from California where an robotaxi was redirected from its intended destination and, instead, delivered its misbehaving passengers to the police.

The 15-year-old passengers were riding in a driverless autonomous car around San Mateo Monday afternoon. The teens drank alcohol inside the Waymo taxi and shot Orbeez beads with a toy gun toward other vehicles.

A Waymo employee, who was remotely monitoring the car, tricked the unruly teenagers, authorities said. The employee told the young passengers that the Waymo was having mechanical issues and needed to stop.

Unknown to the teens, the employee had also called the San Mateo Police Department to report that a gun was firing from the car.

Here’s how Waymo tricked unruly teen passengers in San Mateo

Is that OK?

Kids shooting (albeit fake) guns out of cars is bad. I've no problem with the long arm of the law feeling their collars.

But what sort of reasonable expectation of privacy do you have when you jump into a driverless car?

If you have a blazing row with your partner while sat in the back of a black cab, the driver's going to hear, right? There's no privacy expectation although you might rely on their discretion.

Take a phone call and arrange a drug deal, the driver might turn you in to the police. They're not a confidant, are they?

Kiss someone you shouldn't and you accept the risk that the driver might both notice and care.

But when there's no driver, there's no risk of your privacy being invaded is there?

Nine former Tesla employees told Reuters that Tesla workers shared customer videos and images recorded by in-car cameras between 2019 and 2022.

Tesla Workers Shared ‘Intimate’ Videos Recorded By In-Car Cameras

Ah.

I don't know how Waymo was alerted to the problems in the car. Perhaps someone called them and reported the numberplate. Perhaps the car heard raised voices and sent an alert. Perhaps Waymo just regularly drops in on all its customers.

Rummaging through Waymo's various privacy policies eventually leads to this rather ambiguous page which describes how they monitor the inside of their vehicles.

Our autonomous vehicles are equipped with an advanced suite of sensors – including cameras and microphones – that act as the 'eyes and ears' of our Waymo Driver.

Cameras inside the car

Cameras are a way for us to make sure that your trip goes smoothly. Among other things, we may use cameras to:

• Make sure that cars are clean
• Find lost items
• Provide help in case of emergency
• Check that in-car rules are being followed [Emphasis added]
• Improve products and services
• Promote safety and security [Emphasis added]

Our Support team may review video under certain circumstances, including after an issue is brought to our attention. Occasionally, in more urgent circumstances, Support may access live video during a trip.

Microphones inside the car

The microphones inside the car are only on during voice calls with Rider Support or when you actively choose to enable microphones inside the car.

To me, that sounds like riders' voices aren't automatically sent back to the mothership. Indeed, they're at pains to say:

Waymo vehicles also have a number of sensors, including our audio-detection system used to detect police and emergency vehicle sirens. Waymo has implemented technical and procedural safeguards designed to limit the collection of any human voice data from these microphones.

So there is some acknowledgement of privacy - for our voices at least. Meanwhile, passengers are all watched over by machines of loving grace or, at the very least, fallible humans with prurient interests.

About a decade ago, people were theorising that a driverless cars would one day deliver to you a rider who died on the journey. I don't think that's happened yet - instead, we have cars watching what what we do. Silently judging us picking our noses. Examining our body language for signs of stress. Tracking our breathing patterns and heart-rates to ensure we aren't going to cause damage to the vehicle.

Not listening though. That would be a step too far.

Besides, who needs to use a microphone when you've got a high-resolution camera backed by AI?

Just as I finished writing this post, a story broke about how a Waymo pulled over and called the police on riders who had "ghost gun". The company said it alerted the authorities after detecting a terms of service violation.

Of course, it didn't say how it detected that!

I also find it curious that in both cases, the alleged perpetrators were juveniles. Maybe children have less of a right to privacy than adults?

I guess when you ride alone, you ride with a snitch.