Automatic license plate reader cameras are controversial enough when law enforcement deploys them, given that they can create a panopticon of transit throughout a city.

At the Defcon hacker conference today, security researcher Truman Kain debuted what he calls the Surveillance Detection Scout.

The DIY computer fits into the middle console of a Tesla Model S or Model 3, plugs into its dashboard USB port, and turns the car's built-in cameras—the same dash and rearview cameras providing a 360-degree view used for Tesla's Autopilot and Sentry features—into a system that spots, tracks, and stores license plates and faces over time.

If a large group of Surveillance Detection Scout users were to combine their license plate recognition data—a feature that Kain has purposefully left out of the software—the system could create a crowdsourced version of the same powerful surveillance provided by commercial automatic license plate reader systems, whose use by police has been banned in some states.

"I’d be able to see everyone across the US, thousands of cars on this Surveillance Scout network," Kain says.

(Kain says it's far harder to link license plates to actual names, and he doesn't intend to include that data in his tool.)

Following Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' swift move to count Tesla vehicles as part of its vehicle fleet in the European Union, FCA CEO Mike Manley believes the company will not face any fines this year or in 2020.

Automotive News Europe reported Wednesday on Manley's comments during a conference call about FCA's second-quarter financial results.

The Tesla deal saw FCA pay an incredibly large sum of money to stay compliant with the most recent EU emissions regulations.

Manley also said the automaker will avoid future fines as it introduces more electrified models and new internal-combustion engines that are more fuel-efficient.

Specifically, he was referring to mild-hybrid versions of the Fiat 500 and Jeep Renegade on the horizon, along with PHEV variants of the Renegade, Wrangler and Compass.

Combined, Manley said the company expects the electrified vehicles to make up 5% of the automaker's sales mix in Europe.

If there's one car that's got everyone buzzing these days, it's the Porsche Taycan.

It's a new battery electric vehicle from the German automaker, a production version of the Mission E electric concept we first saw in 2015.

Deliveries of the car start for some lucky customers before the end of this year, and that means Porsche is starting to open up about the new car.

Ars has an in-depth look at the tech inside the Taycan in the works, but you'll have to wait until September and the car's official launch before we can share that with you.

In the meantime, though, a few more details have emerged about the car thanks to a new video from the Fully Charged crew.

Tesla’s P100D: I got 99 problems, but not being able to go really fast ain’t one

Getting to test the upcoming Porsche Taycan EV ahead of anyone else is pretty awesome.

But what could make it even cooler?

Being given the chance to beat the ever-loving heck out of the thing... for science.

Jonny Smith of The Fully Charged Show on YouTube was recently given the chance to test the Porsche Taycan's launch-control repeatability.

For the test, Smith smashed the accelerator and sent Porsche's first all-electric car to 124 miles per hour more than two dozen times.

Despite the abuse, the time difference between the fastest and slowest runs was only 0.8 seconds.

Infiniti -- Nissan's luxury division -- officially started selling cars in North America on November 8, 1989, which means the brand's 30th anniversary is right around the corner.

In celebration of that milestone, the automaker is releasing an Edition 30 lineup of five special-edition vehicles.

The Edition 30 lineup includes specially trimmed and equipped versions of Infiniti's Q50, Q60, QX50, QX60 and QX80 models.

Each example will feature a black-on-white color scheme with white paint, dark chrome trim for the grille and rear garnish, black side mirrors and a dark finish for the wheels.

In addition to the visual touches, every Edition 30 model will also feature the ProAssist safety suite as standard.

The package is a sort of greatest hits of "world's first driver-assistance technologies" Infiniti has brought to market over the last three decades, including Intelligent Cruise Control, the Around View Monitor, Backup Collision Intervention and Predictive Forward Collision Warning.

When we think of the next generation of fleet operations, most attention is given to the concept of autonomous vehicles.

Tesla founder, Elon Musk, famously claimed that the company’s cars would be “fully autonomous” by 2017 (a fact which has yet to pass), but that year, one of the motor industry’s main proponents of autonomous vehicle technology said that “true autonomous cars will not happen within the next decade.”

As a result, it is more productive for future-looking fleet managers to consider the cutting-edge technology which can help fleet-based operations compete now, instead of replacing the concept of a human driver.

Today’s emergent fleet technologies are, for the most part, focused instead on empowering drivers and fleet managers to work more efficiently.

Computer processing through algorithms or machine learning, along with data storage advances, have opened up possibilities that seemed unimaginable even just a few years ago.

This ability to collect, analyse and process huge volumes of data has spawned on demand services that enable us to watch TV, stream music, order a taxi, or book a hotel room on our phones or online almost instantly – and it has increased expectations of what should be possible for both consumers and mobile workers.

Proterra has authorized shares to raise $75 million, a new round of funding that would push the electric bus maker’s valuation past $1 billion, TechCrunch has learned.

The company authorized the sale of 10,857,762 shares at a price of $6.91 in a Series 8 round, according to a securities filing that was obtained by the Prime Unicorn Index, a company that tracks the performance of private U.S. companies, and reviewed by TechCrunch.

If all of the shares are issued, the company’s total valuation would be $1.04 billion, pushing it into “unicorn” territory, according to Prime Unicorn Index.

Efforts to raise capital come as the company explores an IPO, according to a report last month by Reuters that said Proterra had hired underwriters from Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

Prior to this August 2 filing, Proterra had raised a total of $551.77 million in funding from investors that include G2VP, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Constellation Ventures, Mitsui & Co. as well as BMW i Ventures, Edison Energy, the Federal Transportation Administration, General Motors’s venture arm and Tao Capital Partners.

Proterra produces electric buses for municipal, federal and commercial transit agencies; it has a line of electric buses, hundreds of which have been sold, that can travel 350 miles on a single charge.

I mean, sure, it has the Super Trofeo series, but compared to its main rival Ferrari, the folks from Sant'Agata keep things mostly on the streets.

That could change though, according to a report published on Thursday by Autocar.

The reason that could change is the major revision to the top classes at Le Mans and consequently the rest of the World Endurance Championship (WEC).

The insanely expensive and technologically demanding LMP1 class is going the way of the dodo bird, and the folks from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) are planning to replace it with a new hypercar class -- a type of car that Lamborghini understands and is well-situated to compete with.

If Lamborghini does choose to compete in the WEC, it'll have to fend off some truly wild offerings from rival companies like Aston Martin and even Toyota's Gazoo Racing.

To keep those competitors at bay, it seems likely -- based on comments made by Stefano Domenicali -- that the company would model its efforts on the one-off SC18 that it built for a customer rather than create a model from scratch due to resource constraints.

As automakers gradually dipped into more tech-laden systems, some got it right, and some did not.

After numerous complaints, Ford has settled a class-action lawsuit surrounding its MyFord Touch infotainment system.

Law firm Hagens Berman said in a release on Tuesday that the automaker will pay $17 million, and both owners and lessees are eligible for compensation.

Specifically, the litigation surrounds the system equipped in 2011-2013 Ford and Lincoln vehicles.

The infotainment system was notorious for being unresponsive, crashing and freezing while driving.

Compensation amounts will be based on how often an owner or lessee needed to service their vehicle for an infotainment system repair.

General Motors' ignition switch recall was one of the biggest and deadliest to hit the market in decades.

The fix for it has been out for a long time now, but the owners of the affected vehicles aren't giving up on getting the General to pay for its mistake.

A large part of that effort has been directed at suing GM for the difference between what customers paid for their recalled vehicles and what the vehicles are worth now.

Unfortunately for the consumers, a federal judge in a Manhattan court on Tuesday ruled that the vehicle owners couldn't seek damages from GM for lost value, Reuters reports.

US District Judge Jesse Furman specifically cited the plaintiffs' lack of fair market value information for their vehicles as a reason for tossing out their claims.

It would make it nigh-on impossible for a jury to accurately assess the amount of damages for which GM would be liable.