Saw this on the HN front page a couple days ago long thread (200+ comments). This study checks out with what people are actually seeing in the wild.
- Most US brands ship with built-in trackers. Lexus and some European cars have none in the vehicle itself, but the companion apps pile on 20+ trackers anyway. Tesla phones home hard no matter what the settings say.
- Opt-out is mostly theater. People pull fuses, unplug the modem, or stick a 50Ω terminator on the antenna. Dealerships and OTA updates can still re-enable stuff.
- No telemetry can mean higher insurance or just getting denied: insurers already buy this data. State Farm / Tesla-style “discount for monitoring” is the soft version of the same thing.
TL;DR: cars are smartphones on wheels with none of the controls you'd expect, and the data is useful for way more than navigation (and not for the user/owner)...
Saw this on the HN front page a couple days ago long thread (200+ comments). This study checks out with what people are actually seeing in the wild.
- Most US brands ship with built-in trackers. Lexus and some European cars have none in the vehicle itself, but the companion apps pile on 20+ trackers anyway. Tesla phones home hard no matter what the settings say.
- Opt-out is mostly theater. People pull fuses, unplug the modem, or stick a 50Ω terminator on the antenna. Dealerships and OTA updates can still re-enable stuff.
- No telemetry can mean higher insurance or just getting denied: insurers already buy this data. State Farm / Tesla-style “discount for monitoring” is the soft version of the same thing.
TL;DR: cars are smartphones on wheels with none of the controls you'd expect, and the data is useful for way more than navigation (and not for the user/owner)...