The Expert Podcast

So you may have seen this news going around. I want to hear what you all, as car enthusiasts, think about this. Tesla owners have been losing their vehicles to police impounds due to crimes they had nothing to do with. How this is playing out is that Tesla's, like some other vehicles, are not the only cars that have exterior vehicle monitoring. These systems watch around the car using cameras, even when the car is turned off. Some manufacturers call it 360-degree visibility, some call it monitoring mode, and some call it Sentry mode.

What happens is there are cameras outside the vehicles, in mirrors, door handles, and certain parts of the car that monitor what's going on around the vehicle. This way, if somebody bumps into your car in a parking lot and you're not there, you know who it is. If someone tries to break into your car, you know who it is. If someone scratches your car with a key, you know who it is. These monitoring systems are very convenient, so you know what's happening, and in some vehicles, you can even watch it from your phone.

Just like a Ring doorbell camera, if there's a crime committed in view of one of these cameras, that becomes evidence. So, if there's a major crime—somebody gets robbed, assaulted, or something really bad happens in a parking lot or on the street—the police, as part of their investigation, will look to see if there were any Teslas around. If there were, they will contact the owner and say, "We need your car because your car has evidence. It's got a recording of a crime."

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As of right now, the police need the whole car. They can't just plug in something and download the video because they don't have that technology yet. So, they tow your car, and because it's a criminal case, they may need to keep the car for evidence. The lawyers need to inspect it, validate it, and also, as you know, the Fifth Amendment of an accused person gives them the right to cross-examine their witness. This doesn’t just mean asking the witness questions; it means if the witness is technology, you have to be able to evaluate it, inspect it, and have a forensic scientist go through it.

So, they may need to keep the car so the defense can verify that this was a correct recording. How long is your car gone for? Who knows. And they don't give you a rental car. It's not like the dealership where you bring it in for an oil change and they give you another car to drive. This is a car out of your hands, and it's not just Tesla. Tesla is the one that's most prominent, but many cars, even some minivans, have 360-degree cameras that look around the car for parking.

What are your thoughts on this as an automotive enthusiast? Is this a good thing to have in cars? What's the solution, and what's the answer? If you own one of these, how do you keep this from happening to you? You don't have any control over it. You don't know when a major crime or event might happen near your car that you had nothing to do with, and now your car's gone.

With Ring doorbell cameras, this has been happening for years, but not having your Ring doorbell camera doesn't change your life. You can go get another one and put it on your wall. But Tesla, as a vehicle, is your way of getting back and forth to work, the store, or wherever you need to go, and losing it could be a serious problem for you.

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