VW faces AI privacy issue capturing pictures from vehicles
The Volkswagen Group is planning to use sensor and image data from its vehicles to improve the training of its ADAS safety systems.
However using images captured from inside and outside VW and Audi cars for its AI development raises significant privacy issues and risks opposition.
Starting in Q4, the company will send images to the cloud to improve its AI models and download the results to vehicles to improve safety. These will include images inside the car of drivers and occupants for driver monitoring, as well as images of the environment around the vehicle that wil include pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.
It will also include environment sensors, as well as the direction of travel, speed, and steering angle. Information on weather, visibility, and lighting conditions also plays an important role.
“The continuously improved driving functions enhance driving comfort and contribute positively to overall traffic safety. High-quality data from real traffic situations are central to this continuous optimisation of powerful assistance systems. The basic prerequisite for their processing is customer consent, and all data protection regulations are observed,” said the company.
Initially, models from the Volkswagen Passenger Cars and Audi brands equipped with the E3 1.1 and E3 1.2 architectures have been technically enabled for image data transfer. This includes the all-electric ID. model family from Volkswagen, as well as new models from Audi: Q6 e-tron, A6 e-tron, A5, and Q5. Both brands plan to start the project later in 2024.
Other Group brands plan to gradually join the initiative and prepare their product portfolios accordingly.
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VW already uses anonymised swarm data for the generation of high-resolution maps and to help with help vehicles with lane guidance in areas without road markings. Precise driving instructions and hazard information, which can be narrowed down by local weather, are also possible.
However the AI update will tap into the cloud platform run by VW’s software company, Cariad. This connects to the vehicle’s onboard computers via a specially developed data interface and enables secure data transfer to a protected area.
“Customer consent is the fundamental prerequisite for the transfer and processing of data. This consent can be given in various ways and will be individually designed by the brands, for example, as an option in the customer’s own profile. Consent can be revoked at any time,” says VW.
VW says interested parties can view the recording conditions and data protection declarations online and request further information.
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