Las Vegas Cybertruck Detonation Ignites Privacy Debate in EV Industry

Investigators with the Las Vegas Metro Police and the FBI have been analyzing an abundance of onboard data from the Tesla Michael Livelsberger detonated outside of Trump International Hotel to piece together his final days before the suicidal attack.Experts in data privacy say that the amount of information Elon Musk’s company was able to pull and provide underscores a problematic question, as cars become completely powered by computer systems like the CyberTruck.Your car now has endless amounts of personal data that could implicate you in a crime, uncover your dirty secrets, or even be sold to the highest bidder.“It reveals the kind of sweeping surveillance going on,” the executive director of Northeastern University’s Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, David Choffnes, said to Los Angeles Times.“When something bad happens, it’s helpful, but it’s a double-edged sword. Companies that collect this data can abuse it.”Most auto companies can collect reams of data on a vehicle’s location, where, and when your car travels to various locations. Manufacturers also have access to a user’s data from cell phones synced to the car, including contacts, call logs, and text messages.They also have the ability to do what they see fit with the information they collect on you.A 2023 Mozilla Foundation study found that nearly 75 percent of car manufacturers said they can share or even sell driver data. 84 percent of car brands boasted that they could share a driver’s personal data, and 76 percent said they could even sell it. “This is one of the biggest ethical issues we have around modern vehicles. They’re connected,” an auto analyst with Telemetry Insight, Sam Abuelsamid, said to Los Angeles Times.“Consumers need to have control over their data.”Authorities at Las Vegas were also provided camera footage from the charging locations that Livelsberger stopped at along his route.“I have to thank Elon Musk specifically for being able to capture all of the videos from the Tesla charging stations across the country,” one official said, according to the Hill. “He sent that directly to us. We tracked his movements through the Tesla charging station to Monument. Colorado, on December 30. On the 31st of December, the truck was charged in Trinidad, Colorado; Las Vegas, New Mexico; and Albuquerque and Gallup, New Mexico.”In the explosion’s immediate aftermath, Mr. Musk took to X and provided some of the first information regarding the incident.“We have [now]confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cyber truck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” he wrote on the social media platform where he is the principal owner.

Las Vegas Cybertruck Detonation Ignites Privacy Debate in EV Industry

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