In a development that’s shocking many but we saw coming a mile away, police in the Bay Area of California have started seizing Teslas as evidence for criminal investigations. The reason why is the video footage the EVs capture while they’re driving and sitting parked. That means owners lose the use of their ride for weeks months at a time with zero compensation.
Armed road rage turns into a vicious police chase.
That might sound unfair, but this sort of thing has been going on with business’ surveillance cameras and could happen to you if authorities realize you’re running a dashcam. Hopefully they wouldn’t load your whole vehicle onto a wrecker and haul it away like they’re doing with Teslas, but it’s still an infuriating possibility.
As covered by the San Francisco Chronicle recently, police in San Francisco, Oakland, and other cities in the area have been getting warrants from judges to seize Teslas, towing them away as evidence in murders, robberies, and other crimes.
But the Sentry Mode feature on Teslas, which record things happening around the car as it sits parked, can record all kinds of interesting things, including crimes in progress.
A police sergeant interviewed for the article admitted that many times he and his fellow cops don’t need to tow a Tesla. An owner might just consent to have the video needed downloaded from the car, making a warrant unnecessary.
But sometimes they can’t find the owner or that person isn’t willing to cooperate, making a warrant their final option to exercise. The sergeant even acknowledges how extreme it is to seize and tow away an entire vehicle.
Just like how the San Francisco Chronicle article points out, more cars in the future will come with embedded cameras which store recordings in the vehicle structure instead of on an external third-party dashcam. In other words, this problem will spread to other brands and affect many more people.
It’s a brave new world and more cameras on cars seem to be complicating everything.
Image via Tesla
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