Tesla & Guardian Mode: When You're Unintentionally Filmed!

It's a lukewarm summer evening when I'm sitting in a quiet garden on the side of the road and letting the day come to an end. The guest garden is well staffed, and across the quiet side street, children play in a playground. The temperature is pleasant and the city is cooling down. People walk on the sidewalk everywhere. They laugh, have fun and enjoy the hours of the day at dusk. So far everything has basically been very idyllic, especially peaceful. No unusual occurrences. Except for one little thing. Maybe it's a job-related thing, but I notice "too many" details from my environment. It's not always pleasant for me, but I have to live with it. Just like that moment when I noticed a Tesla.

The car is empty, but the vehicle is still active. This activity can be clearly seen from the headlights, which flash slightly at regular intervals. Of course I ask myself why the car lights up every now and then and try to recognize any connections or regularities. And actually, the car's flashing appears to have a cause!

The electric car flashes as soon as a person passes close to the vehicle. This is not unusual, as people are constantly crossing the street here and have to weave their way onto the sidewalk on four wheels between the metal blocks parked on the edge. Logically, each of the people passes quite close to one of the parked vehicles.

This is also the case with the Tesla. I'm wondering why the Tesla flashes when a person approaches and I'm given the solution quite quickly using the internet. A solution that makes me ponder: the flashing of the Tesla signals the so-called sentry mode of the car. Tesla officially informs about this mode:

Guard Mode is a feature that allows you to capture suspicious activity around your Tesla when it is parked and locked in certain locations. When suspicious movements are detected, your vehicle responds based on the severity of the threat.

Source: Tesla

Tesla responds to “threats”

I do the self-test and approach the parked Tesla. I also just walk around the car without touching it. The result is obvious: the lights of the electric car react and a kind of red eye appears on the black display in the vehicle and the message: Guardian mode!

The Tesla reacts. Well, is the Tesla reacting to me because it knows that I am going to write this article and therefore could be a threat? At least physically, I never posed a threat. I just walked around the vehicle without (consciously without!) touching it. I had no cobblestone, iron rod, or portable EMP emitter with which I could damage the car.

Nevertheless, over the course of that evening, the many people were classified as a threat. Basically it's okay, the vehicle is a little paranoid, but we should all be able to live with that. Or not? Unfortunately, there is a small detail in the guardian mode of a Tesla that many people have already noticed unpleasantly.

This mode doesn't just flash the headlights briefly. The mode can also activate the car's cameras to record the environment. At least they can store video files locally, provided a USB drive is properly connected and configured accordingly. If you are interested in exactly how this works, you can watch the following video:

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Legal?

Personally, I was irritated, at least at first. A vehicle (potentially) records the environment in which I represent the “main work” because I walk around the car. In addition, I see no reason why this recording should be covered by the freedom of panorama. And as my subsequent research turned out, there are actually some unanswered questions.

First of all, we have to be clear that Tesla does not take 640*480 VGA coarse pixel recordings in and around the vehicles. The vehicles are equipped with various cameras, some of which can analyze objects up to 250 m away (even while driving). It is also a combination of wide, main angle and telephoto cameras. These can be found both towards the front and on the flanks at the front and rear, as well as at the rear of the vehicle.

Tesla itself speaks of “Eight cameras and powerful image processing enable 360° monitoring of the vehicle’s surroundings with a range of up to 250 m.” ( compare ). These cameras are used not only for analysis and driving support, but also in guard mode. At this point the question arises as to how security concerns and data protection are related. In fact, this data protection problem has been discussed several times in the past, but there is no precise case law to date.

As early as June 2019, the futurezone stated that the Tesla monitoring mode was not legal in Austria. According to the article, problems arise with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and thus with the Austrian legal situation. futurezone writes:

“Such video surveillance in public spaces for private purposes is not compliant with the GDPR,” explains Lukas Feiler, data protection expert at the law firm Baker McKenzie, to futurezone.

Source: Futurezone

However, Tesla's guard mode itself is not generally considered illegal, but rather it is the video recordings that are saved. Without video, the mode is supposedly problem-free. Standard from October 2020 also looks This article is called “Data Protection Violations: Tesla Electric Cars Banned from Driving in Europe” and addresses the same issue.

And Tesla, in turn, is probably aware of the problem and shifts responsibility to the vehicle owners. In the description that when using cameras, the sole responsibility lies with the vehicle users to comply with all local regulations and property restrictions. It is also not sufficiently clear whether this exclusion formula is sufficient.

Tesla and the Berlin police

The topic of Tesla, data protection and surveillance became more explosive in June 2022 when (false) information appeared on various websites that the Berlin police would deny Tesla vehicles access to police premises. The reason is the comprehensive monitoring options.

We have contacted the Berlin police about this and can clarify that there is no such ban. Originally it was the first internal employee information sent out about this problem, which also ended up in the press. This employee information was provided in anticipation of a final, authority-wide regulatory situation that is individually tailored to the respective property, which also takes into account the ongoing development of IT in motor vehicles. Since this is still being reviewed, the employee letter will initially have no effect and will only serve to raise awareness. There is currently no general entry ban for certain vehicles.

In principle, and previously, there was a ban on sound, photo and film recordings in all security areas of the Berlin police if there is no official requirement and they are likely to violate security-relevant interests. Until the result of this is available, as before, everyone is responsible for ensuring that no corresponding recordings are made, whether with a smartphone, a camera or by the automotive IT that monitors the environment Etc.

So here too we see that it is not fundamentally clear how strong the invasion of privacy or data protection in general is by the guardian mode of Tesla vehicles. As long as there are no clear judgments regarding use, it would be advisable not to save the recordings.

For my part, at least, I accept it with a smile when a Tesla lights up as soon as I approach the vehicle. I smile and do an extra lap around the vehicle, during which I make faces. #Foreveryoung

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