The Australian Electric Vehicle Association (AEVA) is urging the Federal Government to strengthen privacy protections for connected vehicles, warning Australia's current framework has failed to keep pace with increasingly data-hungry cars. Car companies often transmit Australians' voice recordings, cabin camera footage and detailed trip histories offshore or into the cloud; AEVA says this data shouldn’t leave the car. Australians are being warned their connected cars pose a serious privacy risk, but so far, no-one in power has offered a real fix. Now the Australian Electric Vehicle Association (AEVA) says it's stepping up where government has stalled. The consumer advocacy group has handed the Federal Government a detailed set of policy recommendations aimed at overhauling what it calls a weak, outdated system for protecting driver data. You can read the policy paper here. The numbers behind the push are significant. By 2035, an estimated 95 per cent of new vehicles sold in Australia will be internet-connected. Nearly 70 car brands sold locally trace back to just 12 overseas jurisdictions, raising fresh questions about where Australians' voice recordings, cabin camera footage and detailed trip histories actually end up. We previously reported on major car brands like Toyota, Kia and Tesla collecting and sharing personal data from drivers, which is often through connected car services, which requires owners to pair their smartphone with a car. At present, connected car owners are protected by little more than the decades-old Privacy Act 1988 and a voluntary code from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), rules AEVA argues simply have not kept pace with what a modern vehicle can see, hear and transmit. AEVA National President James Pickering says the current approach is failing drivers. “Consumers nationwide continue to be let down by insufficient data privacy legislation,” he said, adding that policymakers have the power