Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

blog.koenvh.nl

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 525 posts

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#391

Post by kasey_junk »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #382
brookst wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s for sure cause for alarm, but it is a different alarm than if you gad broken into my computer. I’m not a fan of the “they did something bad, so we might as well pretend they did something worse” line of argument. It strikes me as dishonest.

In 2024 to assume a company is not exercising virtually all the rights you’ve given them when you agreed to their terms and services - especially when they stand to make a ton of money doing so - is wild to me. These companies do not get the benefit of the doubt. I do not need proof to assume they are selling us to the highest bidder when they explicitly outline it in their terms and services and have done it time an…

Has Nissan sold this data time and again?

Or are you again presenting an assumption as fact.

I think assuming a company is selling your data is a completely fair one. But it’s also completely fair to ask that people don’t use language that implies factual knowledge to represent those assumptions.

If only to make your argument better you might evaluate your comments and see how your language is weakening it.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#392

Post by kasey_junk »

Mordisquitos wrote: post #370
dghlsakjg wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It comes down to intention. The charitable read is that they are notifying you of the possibility that the car’s data collection may unintentionally include sexual activity. E.g. your car was recorded as having a rocking motion while parked. The other read is that they are intentionally collecting sexual activity data for nefarious purposes. The first is the lawyer drafting the release being overcautious. The se…

> The first is the lawyer drafting the release being overcautious. The second is a corporation being evil. How was the hypothetical overcautious lawyer able to independently come up with such a specific scenario, which would require intimate technical knowledge? I believe your are missing a third option, which is a synthesis of both. This is that the engineers reported that their sensor data could be used to collect…

I’ve been in conversations many times where lawyers chose language about a product that the product couldn’t do and there would be no reasonable way to do it technically.

The language is usually in response to specific precedents or jurisdictions where surprises happened to someone else.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#393

Post by graycat »

The more such evidence about new cars means the more I'm glad I got a used car, a 2001 GMC in good condition!!!

Car makers: For some people your new cars can't compete with your 20+ year old used cars! Right, 20 years of changes resulted in big steps backwards.

In general avoid obscurity and complexity. And instead emphasize the KISS principle -- keep it simple silly!

Suggestion: For SUV models with a door in the back, some have just one door and a hinge at the top. Instead have the long common two doors, one with the hinge high and the other, low. That way, can actually have a "tailgate picnic party" and reduce the number of times a head hits the door.

And there is a problem: Please return to the old round headlights, two for low beam and two more for high beam. They gave better light, didn't have a plastic covering that got cloudy, didn't have the current obscure way to replace a light that failed, and were easy to understand and aim and cheap to replace.

I know, the old lights were cheap. But also remember, they were better!!!

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#395

Post by xnx »

pdonis wrote: post #206
rcpt wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right. Because my e-bike is of negligible danger to others. But cars kill tens of thousands every year. Speed limits and red lights being on the honor system isn't working. Luckily technology, like the little GPS tracker in the article, can fix it.

> Speed limits and red lights being on the honor system isn't working. Speak for yourself. I don't need a nanny monitor in my car to drive safely. Nor do the vast majority of drivers. There are about 150 billion cars in the world. Only a very tiny fraction of them kill people. And punishing all the people who do drive responsibly because of the mistakes of the tiny fraction of drivers who don't is getting things back…

> There are about 150 billion cars in the world.

This is wrong by ~100x.

"There are about 1.475 billion vehicles on Earth in 2024.": https://hedgescompany.com/blog/2021/06/how-many-cars-are-the...

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#396

Post by callalex »

aagha wrote: post #315
Someone wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the GPS and eSIM that comes with most (all?) new cars All. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECall : “eCall (an abbreviation of "emergency call") is an initiative by the European Union, intended to bring rapid assistance to motorists involved in a collision anywhere within the European Union. The aim is for all new cars to incorporate a system that automatically contacts the emergency services in the event of a ser…

It's crazy the EU passed this and collecting someone's IP address or assigning them a random UUID is considered a GDPR violation.

Quite the opposite! Since people can have faith that they are protected by GDPR, they can have machines that actually work to help them, instead of hobbling them out of fear of being exploited.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#397

Post by bbradley406 »

rglullis wrote: post #263
KineticLensman wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rural southern England here. Public transport is non existant where I live. You need a car if you want a life. I lost my driving license for medical reasons and have spent two years without driving. I am really conscious of what a car means in terms of having a social life, working, etc. If I was younger, I would have had to relocate

Tell that to the Amish. Car dependency is something that we've learned, not the natural state of things.

The Amish ride in horse-drawn buggies and hire private car drivers for longer trips.

I'd rather not go back to the days of horses as the primary means of transportation though.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#398

Post by wslh »

afh1 wrote: post #25

The scary part is not the GPS installed by the fleet company that previously owned the car, which in all likelihood was just forgotten there, but the GPS and eSIM that comes with most (all?) new cars and that in most (all?) new cars cannot be disabled. Apart from privacy concerns of your data being used or sold by the car vendor, government outreach is also a concern. There was a bill announced in the US for all new…

I am new to the car/data show, is an eSim really installed on cars around the world? Or is it an Amrican thing? Thinking for example on Europe data regulations.

If so, this is a good fit for a class action.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#399

Post by sampo »

afh1 wrote: post #25

The scary part is not the GPS installed by the fleet company that previously owned the car, which in all likelihood was just forgotten there, but the GPS and eSIM that comes with most (all?) new cars and that in most (all?) new cars cannot be disabled. Apart from privacy concerns of your data being used or sold by the car vendor, government outreach is also a concern. There was a bill announced in the US for all new…

> There was a bill announced in the US for all new cars to be equipped with "driver impairment" tech which was called a "kill switch".

In addition to de-banking, they can also de-car you.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#400

Post by DennisP »

snowwrestler wrote: post #351
djbusby wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bild your own electric in an old style body? Fun, if nothing else.

I’m honestly amazed there are not more conversion kits. Pull the IC powertrain and gas tank, replace with battery and electric motor. It’s obviously way harder than it seems or I think a lot of folks would be doing it.

I think the main issue is that it takes a lot of engineering from the ground up to make an electric car with good range and performance. Maybe if batteries get significantly better, then conversions will get more popular.
Post reply on HN