Why are govts like this suddenly? All in a arms race against privacy?
this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2026
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Because late stage capitalism, lobbyists pushed legislators to allow data collection so that it can be sold to insurance companies who also lobbied so that they can charge more for premiums.
Every company makes more profit.
We don't live in a democracy anymore.
Not suddenly. It's been going on at least as far back as 2001. Probably more. It's generally not the gov't either as the gov't is mostly driven by moneyed private interests like large corporations. They always push in different ways to get more power to make profit. Get rid of a regulation, make new regulation, get a subsidy, limit rights to resist some abuse, etc. Sometimes it's just more obvious that others in general, or it's in an are we personally pay attention to, and we're like WTAF.
Control, why else?
I am never buying a car built after 2016
Why 2016 specifically?
2018 makes more sense, that's when backup cameras were mandatory so since they were putting in a screen manufacturers made every car have an 'infotainment' center and with all of that processing power comes logging and other privacy invading features.
Really I don't go past 2008 myself. That was a cliff car manufactures went off after the sub prime mortgage fun fun time.
Naaaaah, my 2016 RAV4 Hybrid is balling. Back up camera, 360 sensors, remote start, heated seats, medium screen with buttons and knobs instead of touch, push start, stick shift, and the best part: no wifi on-board (through my phone only). Cars peaked right here.
I have a 2016 outback. No android auto... But I'm in the same boat. Backup camera. Sensors self driving no wifi no forced updates. Etc.
I don't need anything more.
Praying for our cars to survive at least another 15 years, bud 🙏
I daily a 1985, how boned do you think I am?
You got another 15-20 years before parts are basically unobtainable with out three arms and a kidney in cost :P
Drunk driving is one thing but it will also judge how tired you are? Driving tired is dangerous. Unfortunately a huge portion of our economy runs on people working too many hours at too many jobs. A huge invasion of privacy with all sorts of knockon effects.
For the people who think they will disable this. You won't be able to without also disabling your car and voiding your warrenty.
A car warranty lasts like 2 years. I can't afford a car less than 2 years old.
One of the few upsides to Hyundai 10 year warranty may not be perfect. But it pretty much makes sure the car at least goes vroom the entire time.
Well now see, now I'm at a cross roads. On the one hand, fuck privacy violations.
On the other hand, fuck drunk drivers.
I guess in the end, my logic is that this will barely be used to detect drunk drivers, and FULLY used to track you in real time.
So lets all fuck over their technology by making nothing but right turns for 8 hours. Just a massive small circle. For 8 hours, every day.
Then it will be assumed their tracking is broken, and they'll waste time figuring out whats broken.
If we all do this, every day, in electric vehicles powered by solar chargers, then we'll save the world!
Or… leave the tech sitting at home reporting a pre-recorded route over and over.
How are you going to leave the tech at home when the tech is the car?
i got the idea from this movie about this bus that had to speed around a city, keeping its speed over 50. and if its speed dropped, it would explode. i think it was called The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down.
I never understood with that one why they didn’t just put it up on blocks; it was reading the speedometer, not even GPS.
Guess it wouldn’t have made for as good a movie.
They only found out about it once the bus was in motion. It's pretty hard to get that set up on a moving bus.
Reminder that this requires all vehicles be SOLD with the tech. It says nothing about what happens to it after purchase.
Just pull the fuse for the onstar radio. It can log all it wants locally.
They prevented that from working years ago. Now it's usually on a critical circuit that you can't just disable.
Where there's a will, there's a way.
Every technical hurdle they put up, is defeatable.
Every time they make the wall higher, we make the ladder longer.
There will come a time where there will be a privacy-conscious choice and that might require flashing the infotainment system.
We're getting closer to one of Cory Doctrows stories. I can't find a direct link, but its on this page under the name "Plausible Deniability"
To be perfectly blunt, no not every hurdle is defeatable. To even consider that to be true is fucking retarded. There is a point where your option is to deal with it or use something else.
Modifications can be made illegal, hardware can be made unobtainable legally outside of vendor contracts, real time motion data to insurance can be mandated, etc.
Even if you go out of your way to bypass everything you can The simple fact is, at some point you WILL be pulled over or get into an accident. And at that point if the powers that be decide what you did breaks a law then your still fucked. Or that you broke your insurance contract with your modifications.
Just because you can do something doesnt mean you can get away with it if caught. And everyone's caught at some point. You either end up in jail or uninsurable and monetarily fucked.
guess its time to buy the 1995 ford then?
Why the actual fuck would you buy a Ford. Literally the worse conceivable option.