By Tesla’s Ability to Track the Cybertruck Bomber Points to an Orwellian Future for Motorists
by
In its breathless coverage of how Tesla and Elon Musk “helped crack the Cybertruck explosion case”, the Telegraph inadvertently reveals a stark truth that should alarm anyone concerned about fundamental civil liberties. The report lauds the role of Tesla’s data in the investigation, noting how the wealth of information transmitted by the vehicle allowed “Tesla employees and investigators to establish the cause of the explosion and where the vehicle had travelled from”.
It goes on to explain that “using information from Tesla’s charging stations, police were able to retrace the car’s journey from Colorado to Las Vegas”.
Then comes the slippage – the part that, until now, no mainstream media organisation has been prepared to say out loud. It should give us all pause.
For years, those of us raising concerns about the implications of such technology have been dismissed as “conspiracy theorists”, “right-wing reactionaries”, or “disinformation pedlars”.
Yet here, in black and white, is an admission of a profound shift in how mobility – freedom of assembly, freedom of movement, the right to the city, freedom to roam – is being reconfigured at the interface between digital technology and the Big State in what are still (albeit nominally) liberal democracies:
Just a few years ago a vehicle’s manufacturer would have been of little help to law enforcement, particularly once a vehicle had rolled off the production line. However, advanced modern vehicles are able to provide a stream of real-time data that can prove crucial to police investigations.
