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Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

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Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The solution must be legislation that limits all of: data collected by cars and cameras, data shared among third parties, and placement of cameras without informed, specific, continuing public consent. Americans will give away any and all material and immaterial rights to validate their illusion of comfort and security. This will not happen barring a complete audit/revamp of the state

Yet even those who aim to remake the state change their tune when they become the state.

It's true. We need an american lenin. Or at least a stalin.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#282
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Leet Babe” is not even the right number of letters. Doesn’t seem like “leet” would even be in her generation’s vocabulary. Are you trolling? Very rich get vanity numbers? Where is there evidence of that?

Bothered to check it? It's not literally the letters "leet babe", it's in "leetspeak" as the parent said: "Ghislaine Maxwell's Social Security Number (133-78-4883) is recorded in U.S. law enforcement documents, such as historical NYPD files, as part of her official identification and background records". 1337 84883 --> LEET BABBE in leetspeak. It's a stretch, but to be fair, apparently they already had no problem get…

I did check but did not find the reference. What exactly are you quoting? I do not see that in any of the parent comments. I also doubt Maxwell was well versed in leetspeak. She was a career socialite.

Getting visas and documents under different names is not anything other than garden variety use of aliases. All kinds of people who are not mega-wealthy do this, legally and illegally. I am specifically questioning the ability of ultra-wealthy choosing SSNs. I had never previously seen this assertion.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. Want to update the firmware in the computer? Sure but you'll need to unscrew the driver's seat, unscrew the desktop PC sized ECU, unscrew its four pencil-thick battery connections, unplug its 27 connectors, unscrew the 50 screws in three slightly different sizes holding the top cover on, remove the heatsinks, unscrew the eight screws holding the motherboard in, and desolder both the 144-pin 68HCxxx chips that d…

Surely there's a parallel EPROM somewhere in there you can bake with a UV light and program.

No, it's all on-chip.

There's a big custom chip made by GEC Plessey that has a small flash chip beside it, but it's totally undocumented. They also make the custom chips in the door, window switch, and seat outstations. I found some very very general documentation about them but nothing enough to start picking the firmware apart.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need viable, safe, comfortable alternatives to driving everywhere.

I live in the pacific NW and feel that we do largely have those but people don't know about them or don't want to use them. For example, the easiest way for me to get to Portland/Seattle/Vancouver is by far the train. In none of those cities would I recommend driving as public transit is better in almost all cases. I live in a medium sized city and even here we only drive about once a week. So it is totally possible…

Most cities have alternatives to driving simply because they geometrically have to. When I say there should be viable alternatives to driving everywhere, I mean small, rural towns as well.

I live in a well-connected, medium sized city in the North East, without a car. My parents live in a very rural town about 300 miles away. I can walk from my apartment to a local train, and then from there get to an Amtrak that will take me to 30 miles from my parents house. While I could technically bike that, that is quite the hike to make after 300 Amtrak miles. Especially fearing for my life sharing the road with distracted drivers.

There is no reason for there to not be regular bus service from the city that I get off Amtrak in to the larger town between my parents and the station, and between my parents smaller town and the larger one. In a modern, developed nation I would be able to make that trip entirely by transit and walking.

And by "modern" I mean as of the 1860s, because back then it was connected by train!

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are also increasing your risk of death or serious injury. New cars are far safer in a collision than cars made 15-20 years ago.

Are they though? Have there been any major breakthroughs in the engineering that make a 2026 car more structurally secure than one from 2011? I thought the main improvements were made in software, like lane assist and whatever else. But my assumption is that you need to go back considerably more than 15 years ago to see vehicles that are meaningfully less structurally safe.

An example is airbag safety. With modern airbags, they have more sensors, and are able to inflate faster, causing less whiplash, etc.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars in in such large numbers that it isn't a big deal to get a bulk deal with each provider seperatly. Though maybe Kazakhstan isn't worth covering at all, I'm not sure what their economy is like.

It was quite complicated for our company since our fleet was in the <50k in size. I worked with specialized trucks.

Complex and a big deal are different axis. I assure you the deals are complex. They are just normal and doable at that scale.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#287
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As you mentioned, electric bicycles flatten terrains (so do wide gear ranges), and jackets neutralize climate. There seriously isn't anywhere that is inappropriate to cycle. The only major limiting factor for people feeling comfortable biking everywhere is the threat of violence due to people driving cars.

Without studded tires it’s very difficult to ride a bike on snow or ice.

Have you ever tried on snow ? Many bikers roams winter Finland and Russia without studded tires.

Avoiding the ice is a great advice indeed, with or without those tires.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#288
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the only solution unless something radically changes. For me, I will never own a car with any kind of screen on the dash.

You can do that just be aware that you will eventually be spending more than just buying a new car just to keep the current one in good repair. Car collectors get around this because they use have a different car as the daily driver, and their collected car is repaired and only used in parades and such. You are also turning away a lot of the advances in electric vehicles. Paying for gas in your old car, could be more…

> You can do that just be aware that you will eventually be spending more than just buying a new car just to keep the current one in good repair.

I'm pretty sure you haven't run the numbers on this assertion. That would be essentially impossible.

Average new car price in the US is near $50,000:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2025/10/13/ave...

The absolute cheapest new cars in the US are around $24,000:

https://www.cars.com/articles/here-are-the-10-cheapest-new-c...

$24K buys you an astonishing amount of maintenance! Unless you're talking doing a restoration on a collectible car, it's basically impossible to spend that much.

I like old cars so I know. I drive one car from the 70s, one from the 80s, two from the 90s, one from the 00s and one from 2010s (pre-screen era). All those cars put together I haven't spent $20K in maintenance over the last decade.

If a new car makes you happy and you can afford the depreciation, get one. But if the criteria is saving money, get an old car and maintain it forever.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Well not "our" creation since only a few oligarchs control most of the companies that engage in this. They're just looking after their interests and kinks. It's the suckers that accept it, which are hundreds of millions, that allow this hell to be created, and continue to not do anything about it, when they're not even supporting and voting for them.

What would you suggest people do about it?

What did they do in 1789?

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#290
post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bothered to check it? It's not literally the letters "leet babe", it's in "leetspeak" as the parent said: "Ghislaine Maxwell's Social Security Number (133-78-4883) is recorded in U.S. law enforcement documents, such as historical NYPD files, as part of her official identification and background records". 1337 84883 --> LEET BABBE in leetspeak. It's a stretch, but to be fair, apparently they already had no problem get…

I did check but did not find the reference. What exactly are you quoting? I do not see that in any of the parent comments. I also doubt Maxwell was well versed in leetspeak. She was a career socialite. Getting visas and documents under different names is not anything other than garden variety use of aliases. All kinds of people who are not mega-wealthy do this, legally and illegally. I am specifically questioning the…

> I did check but did not find the reference. What exactly are you quoting?

I mean man, I didn't ask you to search for my verbatim quote (it's an one-off llm answer). Search for her SSN. You can google it, it's here on the first page under "'Application Info" for example:

https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01653...

Also in meta pages about the documents:

https://github.com/rhowardstone/Epstein-research/blob/main/i...

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