Why you shouldn’t park future Hyundais next to Joel Beukers

Fitness guru Joel Beukers shouts often and loudly. This is to get yourself fit for the gym. But in the future he’d better not do that when there’s a Hyundai around.

Every year Hyundai holds an ideas competition for its employees, the Ideas Festival. In 2023, creative ideas began to emerge again, but also some that were frightening.

H-SOS from Hyundai

This year’s theme was “Technology with Heart that Changes the World.” One of the award-winning ideas was H-SOS. Simply put, it is a system that constantly listens to the environment.

Explosions or screams

As soon as the car hears an explosion, a gunshot or a person screaming, it starts recording images and sounds and can turn on the hazard lights and sound the horn.

The Hyundai also contacts the police directly, informs the officers of its location and sends them the video and audio files it has. The idea is good and now comes the but…

Security issues

First of all, there are all kinds of privacy hooks and eyes. Second, the car could be wrong. When Joel Beukers is around, a scream can mean something completely different than danger.

Thirdly, there is always the problem: who has access to all the data and who could access it? Hackers, for example, or a government that likes to keep an eye on dissidents.

Privacy issues at Tesla

Tesla, for example, has already had several data protection problems. It turned out that employees could view camera images of people. And the Netherlands is also stopping the so-called sentry mode.

A Tesla identifies thieves or vandals with cameras that respond to specific events. This was criticized in the Netherlands because innocent people are sometimes filmed against their will.