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Privacy policy regarding vehicle data

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widodh

Model S 100D and Y LR
Moderator
Jan 23, 2011
6,861
2,840
Venlo, NL
Does anyone know what Tesla's privacy policy is regarding vehicle data of the Roadster and the Model S?

Both vehicles are/going to be equipped with tracking and they will sent data back to Tesla Motors.

As a European I'd rather not have my data stored on servers in the USA, I prefer servers in the EU.

Has there been any statement about how and what they are going to store? Is this data anonymised?

I'm more then willing to submit data back to Tesla for further research, but I don't want all my rides to be stored at Tesla with the risk of leaking.
 
This is an interesting point. At some point in the future various governments will want to implement a road taxing policy based on your usage of the roads as indicated by GSM, or from onboard data recording, and this certainly applies to EV's as tax regimes wont like the fact you're not paying enough tax.

What bothers me is that since 2002 most EU cars have by law to record a certain amount event data that can be accessed by the authorities or insurance companies in the event of a serious accident, and certain other scenarios…

Many car manuals allude to this fact in a very small way with a passing reference to theses 'black box recorders' - usually buried somewhere deep in the manual in a brief sentence on page 321 etc.

For example, below is a scan from the 2006 manual for an Aston V8 Vantage. This seems to have been pushed through as law without many people realising it, but the authorities will argue that if you don’t do anything wrong then what do you have to fear and besides it could be advantageous to you in the event of a serious accident. But its kinda big-brother monitoring too.

If you're worried about this level of data recording - run an older vehicle, or wrap foil around the GSM device (!) or do such things as blitz the ECU which is probably illegal etc etc .


You can read up some information on the US side of EDR's here :-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_data_recorder



AMdatarecordingclause-1.jpg
 
I don't have a problem with such data being stored. Like I said, I'd love to submit data back to Tesla for analysis and improvement of their cars.

I just want to know what the privacy policy is going to be. Is my data being stored on US based servers? And what do they store? For how long?

Do they record and store all drives I undertake or do they collect the data, process it and remove if afterwards?

In the current state of Tesla, being a young company, I think they simply store all the data and deal with this later.
 
Very good question. Similar questions have come up before. (e.g., Roadster GPS)

Does Tesla have a privacy policy printed anywhere?
I didn't find one during my search.

With the Roadster I don't car that much, but with the Model S being a high-volume car I do care.

I get that they need data for analysis and improvement. I just want to know what they collect and what they do with it. If I don't like it, I can opt out.
 
At the very least, Tesla should make this an explicit opt-in rather than an opt-out. I'd rather explicitly be told (once, at the beginning of my ownership of the car, via some wizard on the touchscreen) as to exactly what data Tesla would be collecting and be given a chance to selectively opt-in for certain forms of data - say, I'd be okay with data on folks buckling in or not but, not okay with where I take my car.
 
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This is opt-in on the Roadster. Mine was delivered with the gsm turned off and the Tesla Rep explained to me as he took me through the systems how I could utilize it if I wanted to. (I leave it turned on permanently).

This from the manual:

Service data recorders in your vehicle are capable of collecting and storing diagnostic information about your vehicle. This potentially includes information about the performance or status of various systems and control modules in your vehicle such as motor, accelerator, or brakes. To properly diagnose and service your vehicle, Tesla Motors and service facilities may access vehicle diagnostic information through a direct connection to your vehicle.
 
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This is opt-in on the Roadster. Mine was delivered with the gsm turned off and the Tesla Rep explained to me as he took me through the systems how I could utilize it if I wanted to. (I leave it turned on permanently).

This from the manual:

Yep, me too. I've been trying to figure out why everyone is getting so twisted up about this & was going to find my customer paperwork this evening before responding. I'm pretty sure I initialed a paragraph giving Tesla access. And I'm glad I did.
 
Yep, me too. I've been trying to figure out why everyone is getting so twisted up about this & was going to find my customer paperwork this evening before responding. I'm pretty sure I initialed a paragraph giving Tesla access. And I'm glad I did.

Just checked my own car - GSM is 'ON' and UK cars are, apparently, supplied with this option enabled by default. I do not know whether this changes by territory, or what the actual Tesla Policy is. But I'm kinda glad it is 'on'.
 
I'm definitely in favor of sharing performance data with Tesla - the collective info that all the 2012 model S's could provide will definitely be super valuable for future power train development.

To make it a perfect deal for me, Tesla should:

- Tell me exactly what is being collected (without weasel words) and how it will be used. For example, I assume that GPS tracks are not uploaded. But, if I knew what it'd be used for, I'd be fine with altitude (from the GPS), attitude/inclination (possibly from the air suspension system, load level (maybe the suspension knows this too?), outside air temperature, whether it's raining or not, sunroof open/closed (and other aerodynamic hints)
- Allow me to access my own data (in detail) -- yes, I realize we'll likely be able to download logs from our vehicles. Bonus points if they document the format for us.
- Provide me feedback on how my vehicle is performing, and how I'm doing as a driver (am I being friendly to the battery? Motor?)

When Tesla reaches "big 3" size, we'll see if we still trust them with our data :).

/Mitch.