In Europe, this is mandated by law. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECall
In Spain they soon will require V16 [0] too. Originally it was just a flashing light but then it was improved to use mobile networks to send an emergency call to authorities. And proving, that technically, it is possible to have something like ECall without deep integration into the car. No need of having always on connection to the network, enable on emergencies only. Thus no remote hacking of SIM/base band possible…
This uses the LTE-M network, which is pretty cool. It doesn't do anything until you turn it on.
The $100 thing is kind of a standard that a European court just established in a Facebook data leak case! In the case of full location data, it would need to be a lot more though. Yes, that might bankrupt the company. They should have thought about that before they illegally stalked nearly a million people then put their highly sensitive data on the Internet. If I did this to one person, I'd probably (and rightfully)…
Ugh, I would love to see more companies bankrupted. How much more dynamic the economy might be if all of Volkswagens assets were put up for bid at government auction. Adbusters magazine (credited with spurring occupy wallstreet with a solid meme campaign) tried to get inertia going around revoking corporate charters, stop acting like we don't have power, corporations are borne into existence by acts of government, we…
Governments aren't powerless to revoke corporate charters. They're powerless to implode the livelihood of large chunks of their electorate.
A dynamic economy is great on paper where you don't have to worry about disrupting the lives of tens of thousands of people. Call that a political moat.
Dangerous as hell. Imagine there’s a runaway truck behind you and you can’t speed up to avoid or at least soften the collision because of some government enforced handicap. It would also give local governments a power they never had before: To directly control your behavior in the moment, with no judicial control or oversight. No, thank you.
Interval cameras (checking your speed over a length of road, using ANPR) are very effective at slowing traffic in the UK. Although you still get people in expensive cars driving 20mph faster than others; maybe undeterred by fines, or using false plates. The system can tell you if there was a runaway truck (at your time and location), so an appeal should be easy for that uncommon situation.
That "should" is doing a lot of work, and it is not always easy to convince a bureaucratic system that it has made a mistake.
I pulled the DCM fuse on my GR Corolla. I can confirm that it disabled the microphone. One of these days I might get around to pulling the car apart and popping in a resistor in place of the antenna.
heh I have the same car. was thinking of doing the same.. but like mentioned earlier I want that valet setting feature and stuff. tough choice.
I'll never trust some rando working at a valet to treat my GRC right. I've seen too many dashcam horror videos of even people working at dealerships failing at manual and safe rev temps.
We need a way to disable vehicle telemetry. No, a software switch is not enough. We need to be able to physically unplug the cellular modem entirely and have the vehicle work with 100% functionality (barring features which inherently require cellular connectivity like turning the heating on remotely) Car manufacturers' features are mostly useless anyway thanks to Android Auto/Apple CarPlay
In Europe, this is mandated by law. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECall
AFAIK ECall uses a voice call with data encoded on the audio channel. This is not what telemetry does, it should be doable to leave the voice channel and disable any data connections. (But it's probably very hard to check for someone who has no background in emebedded systems). Plus, in theory an emergency call can be done without even using a SIM card, right (if network allows)?
Many EVs have a sensible amount of buttons, and you generally don’t need the touchscreen for driving or much else for that matter. I can even keep driving while the whole system is rebooting. Around here (where we have many immigrants and some odd practices) I’ve seen people with a towel hanging over their screen while driving, to protect it like a dust cover I guess. The one thing you might argue I do need from my s…
I can even keep driving while the whole system is rebooting At least you're still acknowledging the abysmal state of modern cars by including this statement. Why on earth would anyone expect otherwise from a car?
if you are ever in the middle of highway (especially if you are traveling with loved ones) when your EV suddenly reboots you will understand why one does not expect shit to work… the anxiety is unlike most thing one can experience… I think 100% reverse of your comment but talking from a different real experiences. EVs are computers on wheels, expecting them to work during reboot is not unlike expecting vim to work du…
Devils advocate here If this made it more expensive, because having cars that are physically different is harder, would you prefer that? Why can't I simply not care that I don't get something I've not paid for and there's a doodad in the car that's capable of it? If the alternative is having to buy that feature or pay more for a car that doesn't have it, that sounds like a bad outcome.
It's a question of ownership. If I see fit to modify something I own, as has always been done, why am I not free to utilise a particular piece of my purchase? If I'm not free to do so - then do I actually still own my own product? Or is it now a lease? Why should the era of rebuilding your car simply end? There are already safety regs you need to comply with. The average hotrod modifies a considerable proportion of t…
I think you're talking about something related but not discussed here, which would be making car modifications illegal. Let's say BMW make heated seats an optional extra, which it already is. What if they also install them in every car because it's cheaper to have one build, and subsequently are able to sell them more competitively - none of that would require making it illegal for you to get the seats working yourself.