Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
Since Tesla started handing over keys to its long-awaited Model 3 last week, details about it have continued almost daily. This week, the web site Electrek.com reported the Model 3 includes a driver-facing camera just above the rear-view mirror.
That creeped a lot of people out. So far Tesla hasn't officially commented on the inward-facing cam, or why it's there.
But here's the basic theory:
It's just one of several sensors throughout the car that will enable the Model 3 to drive itself once the software becomes available. And the interior camera is not actually recording anything right now. Rather, it is built in to the car for when Tesla activates it to enable more evolved levels of self-driving.
According to Electrek, once the car is enabled to do most of the driving itself, the camera is likely to be used to monitor the driver's attention levels in case the car needs to the driver to take over.