Your Driverless Cab Is Spying on You
Your Driverless Cab Is Spying on You
你的无人驾驶出租车正在监视你
One afternoon this past summer, a self-driving Waymo pulled into a parking lot in San Mateo County, California, and stayed there until the police arrived. Local cops had gotten a 911 call from Waymo staffers—humans, it should be said—who were viewing the car’s passengers through cameras installed inside the vehicle. It looked like two teens were shooting a black handgun out the window of the vehicle, playing with it and drinking between shots, a police report said. 今年夏天的一个下午，一辆自动驾驶的 Waymo 汽车驶入加利福尼亚州圣马特奥县的一个停车场，并一直停在那里直到警察赶到。当地警方接到了来自 Waymo 工作人员（必须说明的是，是人类员工）的 911 报警电话，他们当时正通过安装在车内的摄像头观察乘客。据警方报告称，当时看起来有两名青少年正从车窗向外射击一把黑色手枪，他们在射击间隙玩弄枪支并饮酒。
The story has a happy(ish) ending: The gun was shooting water-filled Orbeez, not bullets. But the incident drew attention to Waymo’s surveillance system. The cars are equipped with automated tech that can flag the presence of a firearm inside, the company said. 这个故事有一个（还算）圆满的结局：那把枪发射的是水弹（Orbeez），而不是子弹。但这一事件引起了人们对 Waymo 监控系统的关注。该公司表示，这些车辆配备了自动化技术，可以标记车内是否存在枪支。
The outsides of self-driving cars are studded with cameras, which help them “see” the world around them. (Most also use other sensors, including radar and lidar.) Less appreciated are the cameras inside the vehicles, which companies say are essential to keeping riders safe and enforcing their rules. Earlier this year, Waymo said it used its cabin cameras to do both after some California passengers, many in their twenties or older, reported that Waymo employees suddenly took over the vehicles’ intercoms mid-ride to make sure they were old enough to ride on their own. (One 35-year-old told WIRED he thought his backpack sent up red flags.) 自动驾驶汽车的外侧布满了摄像头，帮助它们“观察”周围的世界。（大多数车辆还使用雷达和激光雷达等其他传感器。）人们不太关注的是车内的摄像头，公司称这些摄像头对于保障乘客安全和执行规则至关重要。今年早些时候，Waymo 表示其车内摄像头发挥了上述两种作用，此前一些加州的乘客（许多人在二十岁或以上）报告称，Waymo 员工在乘车过程中突然接管了车辆的对讲系统，以确认他们是否已达到独自乘车的年龄。（一位 35 岁的乘客告诉《连线》杂志，他认为自己的背包引发了警报。）
Still, robotaxi privacy policies can be broad. They suggest that footage captured inside vehicles can be used for many innocuous and commonsense reasons—to check cleanliness between rides, to detect lost items—but also to improve their products or services. These catch-all terms could cover many uses. Experts say that in the US, few clear rules govern this sort of surveillance, especially because riders often must agree to lengthy “terms of service” printed in minute fonts before they use ride-hailing apps. That leaves riders to trust that the companies are handling their information responsibly. 尽管如此，自动驾驶出租车的隐私政策可能非常宽泛。它们暗示车内拍摄的画面不仅可以用于许多无害且合乎常理的原因——例如在行程间隙检查清洁度、寻找丢失物品——还可以用于改进其产品或服务。这些笼统的条款可能涵盖多种用途。专家表示，在美国，几乎没有明确的规则来管理此类监控，尤其是因为乘客在使用打车软件前，往往必须同意用微小字体打印的长篇“服务条款”。这使得乘客只能寄希望于公司能负责任地处理他们的信息。
“We are being essentially abandoned by our lawmakers when it comes to consumer privacy and what companies can do with information after they’ve collected it,” says Matthew Guariglia, a senior policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where he works on surveillance and policing issues. His advice? “Just because you’re alone in the car doesn’t mean you’re alone in the car. You should behave as if there’s a jumpy person in the front seat.” 电子前沿基金会（Electronic Frontier Foundation）的高级政策分析师马修·瓜里利亚（Matthew Guariglia）表示：“在消费者隐私以及公司收集信息后的用途方面，我们的立法者基本上已经放弃了我们。”他在该基金会负责监控和警务问题。他的建议是：“仅仅因为你一个人在车里，并不代表你真的‘独自一人’。你应该表现得好像前座坐着一个神经质的人一样。”
In general, robotaxi companies including Waymo, Zoox, and Tesla say that human staff view interior cameras only when needed. All say personal data, including recordings, may be sent to law enforcement or regulators. (A Waymo support page says that government agencies seeking data “are directed to follow valid legal processes in making such request.”) 总体而言，包括 Waymo、Zoox 和特斯拉在内的自动驾驶出租车公司表示，只有在需要时，人类员工才会查看车内摄像头。所有公司都表示，包括录像在内的个人数据可能会被发送给执法部门或监管机构。（Waymo 的一个支持页面称，寻求数据的政府机构“必须遵循有效的法律程序来提出此类请求”。）
But that doesn’t mean the interior cameras aren’t on and working. Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina says the company uses “automated technology to support our teams in identifying potential violations.” A 2025 patent held by Waymo describes a system in which vehicles’ interior camera systems conduct automated “predetermined ride checklists” before, during, and after rides. (Ilina did not say whether that system is in use.) 但这并不意味着车内摄像头没有开启和工作。Waymo 发言人朱莉娅·伊琳娜（Julia Ilina）表示，公司使用“自动化技术来支持我们的团队识别潜在的违规行为”。Waymo 持有的一项 2025 年专利描述了一个系统，该系统的车内摄像头会在行程前、行程中和行程后自动执行“预设的行程检查清单”。（伊琳娜并未说明该系统是否已投入使用。）
Zoox’s website says its interior cameras “record the entirety of your ride.” This sort of personal data can be used to help operate rides, but also to develop and improve Zoox’s product. The company—owned by Amazon—says it might record conversations between riders and its support employees, but that it doesn’t save recordings. Zoox spokesperson Whitney Jencks said the company had nothing more specific to share about its privacy policies. Zoox 的网站称其车内摄像头会“记录您的整个行程”。这类个人数据不仅可用于辅助运营，还可用于开发和改进 Zoox 的产品。这家归亚马逊所有的公司表示，它可能会录下乘客与支持人员之间的对话，但不会保存这些录音。Zoox 发言人惠特尼·詹克斯（Whitney Jencks）表示，公司没有关于其隐私政策的更多具体信息可以分享。
Online documents for Tesla’s Robotaxi service say a green indicator shows up on the vehicle’s central touchscreen when the camera is activated. Riders can opt in to sharing in-cabin video and audio with the company through a toggle menu in the “data and privacy” section of its app. The documents also say riders in the company’s “early access” program automatically opt in to data sharing. The company didn’t respond to questions for this story, including whether that early access program has technically concluded. The company opened its Robotaxi app to the public in a handful of Texas and Florida cities in early September. 特斯拉 Robotaxi 服务的在线文档显示，当摄像头激活时，车辆中央触摸屏上会出现一个绿色指示灯。乘客可以通过其应用程序中“数据与隐私”部分的切换菜单，选择是否与公司共享车内视频和音频。文档还指出，参加公司“早期访问”计划的乘客会自动加入数据共享。特斯拉未回应本文的置评请求，包括该早期访问计划是否在技术上已经结束。该公司于 9 月初在德克萨斯州和佛罗里达州的少数几个城市向公众开放了其 Robotaxi 应用程序。
Cameras inside robotaxis make plenty of sense. “You need some kind of check on what people do in a car with no driver,” says Justin Brookman, who directs technology policy at Consumer Reports. “People are going to have sex in Waymos if there are no cameras.” (Media reports suggest that the cameras don’t always stop them.) 自动驾驶出租车内的摄像头非常有意义。《消费者报告》技术政策主管贾斯汀·布鲁克曼（Justin Brookman）表示：“你需要对人们在无人驾驶汽车里的行为进行某种监督。如果没有摄像头，人们会在 Waymo 里发生性行为。”（媒体报道显示，摄像头并不总能阻止这种行为。）
But the law hasn’t yet fully contemplated what companies should be able to see, save, and use. “These vehicles are relatively new, so there are no expectations around what’s appropriate,” Brookman says. “There should be some check in place.” 但法律尚未充分考虑到公司应该能够看到、保存和使用哪些内容。布鲁克曼说：“这些车辆相对较新，因此对于什么是‘适当的’还没有形成共识。应该建立某种制衡机制。”
Auto companies don’t have the best record on data privacy. 汽车公司在数据隐私方面的记录并不光彩。
In 2023, Reuters reported that groups of Tesla employees had, over several years, shared sensitive videos and images captured by owners’ cars. Shared recordings reportedly included a video of a man approaching a car while naked, and a violent collision between a car and a child on a bike. Tesla boasts that its years-deep repository of data from personal vehicles gives it an edge in developing autonomous vehicle software, and its privacy policy says camera recordings are kept anonymous. But former employees told Reuters that the system easily revealed where the images were recorded, which could have allowed them to link recordings to specific owners’ garages or driveways. 2023 年，路透社报道称，多组特斯拉员工在几年间分享了车主车辆拍摄的敏感视频和图像。据报道，分享的录像包括一名男子裸体接近汽车的视频，以及一辆汽车与一名骑自行车的儿童发生猛烈碰撞的画面。特斯拉吹嘘其多年积累的个人车辆数据存储库使其在开发自动驾驶软件方面具有优势，其隐私政策称摄像头录像保持匿名。但前员工告诉路透社，该系统很容易显示图像的拍摄地点，这可能使他们能够将录像与特定车主的车库或车道联系起来。
Earlier this year, General Motors paid California motorists nearly $13 million in penalties after the company was found to have sold driving data to brokers and eventually insurers without their consent. 今年早些时候，通用汽车在被发现未经同意将驾驶数据出售给数据经纪人并最终流向保险公司后，向加州驾驶员支付了近 1300 万美元的罚款。
“My big concern is that automakers love to collect data,” Guariglia says. “With autonomous vehicles, there’s even more data to collect. And the more data they collect, the more they’re going to [be tempted to use it].” “我最大的担忧是汽车制造商热衷于收集数据，”瓜里利亚说。“有了自动驾驶汽车，需要收集的数据就更多了。他们收集的数据越多，就越会（受到诱惑去使用这些数据）。”