What companies pitched were ultra-smart, AI-driven vehicles that make people inside and outside of the cars safer. But in addition to reports that the cars are becoming a frequent impediment to public safety, the always on-and-recording cameras also pose a risk to personal safety, experts say. A new report from Bloomberg reveals that one of the companies behind the self-driving cars that are operating in San Francisco, Google-owned Waymo, has been subject to law enforcement requests for footage that it captured while driving around.

This is not the self-driving future we were promised – but it is the one that surveillance and privacy experts have warned about.

“I see this as a perfect natural extension of automotive surveillance where for years we’ve had growing numbers of features that are turning our cars into policing tools,” said Albert Fox Cahn, an anti-surveillance activist and director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.