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

blog.koenvh.nl

431–440 of 525 posts

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

#431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selfdriving taxis solves much of the 98% unused car problem.

They also create problems in terms of extra journeys as a private car will go from A to B, whereas a taxi goes from C to A to B to C. It's quite amusing as people try to come up with more efficient use of cars and typically end up reinventing public transport (e.g. buses, trains etc).

I doubt that's a big factor.

The big thing they do is to make a huge number of parking spots obsolete!

There will also be far fewer cars doing the same transportation work.

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

#432
post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they could charge you with a crime Doubt it. You'd be using a device you bought and now own, that didn't come with any kind of agreement/contract/etc to limit your usage. :)

I suspect that computer misuse / hacking laws could apply. I’m also certain that there will be small print if you bought it from a dealer.

The situation they're describing is it coming with the house they bought.

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

#433
post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safety is definitely a tricky tradeoff for me. If I couldn't work on the vehicle myself either way I'd have something newer, the combo of privacy and maintenance tip the scales for me (definitely an outlier though).

FWIW I'm the same, definitely sketched out by the thin pillars and lack of side airbags though. But I absolutely hate the GPS and presumably-always-on front- and rear-facing cameras.

I'm always keeping an eye out for an old Volvo, they've been ahead of the game on safety for decades.

I don't know when they first introduced side airbags, but in general I'd be very happy with a late 80s or 90s Volvo sedan or wagon, especially a diesel (mainly for reliability and ease of working on).

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

#434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Agreed. The false analogy just reduces the likelihood that a real dialogue starts because it’s faux boogie men.

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

#435
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you here. I have an 89 BMW (which is old enough to have an actual servo motor attached to the intake manifold for cruise control) and an 83 Land Cruiser (whose most advanced feature is that it controls its emissions using vacuum controlled pneumatic circuitry). I'm very glad I've put in the time to learn how to work on cars because I have zero interest in the tech direction of modern vehicles.

I love older cars and drove an early 80s Volvo until 2010 or so, but I also love side impact airbags, antilock brakes, and a car that mostly just “works”.

I wonder if the Franework model will ever apply to cars with modern safety. Probably not but one can dream.

I want an electric car. I also wish it was feasible to work on it.

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

#436
post #315

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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.

Except for those car machines

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

#437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah if the world went in the direction that prepper types seem to get wet dreams about petrol ICE cars would only be usable for a year or so - petrol has a shelf life, and you ain't running your own refinery. A lot of diesels can run off of any vaguely fuel-like liquid you decide to put in them, so I'm sure sufficiently knowledgable people would keep those running, machining parts for them etc. But electric vehicles…

You can make an ICE run on wood gas which is arguably more apocalypse proof than electric.

Generators can run on that to charge an ev that is also chargeable by solar panels, wind mills and water mills.

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

#438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I talk about this issue with friends and family I bring up how that report revealed Nissan was gathering info on sexual activity in their cars and can sell it to third parties. That usually gets people to start listening.

Was Nissan actually collecting this data? All I can find is that the privacy policy retained the right to it (some lawyer probably though about what happens if they accidentally record you getting frisky, and put it in there preemptively), but no evidence if it actually happened.

IMO if the privacy policy allows it, you should always assume it is happening.

The reason is with most of this stuff it’s impossible to verify. Even if you wanted to know what data is collected and how’s it’s used - you literally can’t.

Even opting out is based on trust. I mean, it’s all done in software. Nothing is physically removed and most of the time the data is still transmitted. You’re just hoping they don’t use it.

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

#439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it matter? We can split hairs over whether or not they are actually doing the thing they give themselves the rights to do, but that feels unproductive and disingenuous.

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…

Personally I don’t need proof.

Over the past couple decades I’ve been giving companies and our government the benefit of the doubt. And I’ve been burned every time.

Not only am I wrong, always, I’m extremely wrong. In fact the conspiracy theorists are often wrong too - they’re too lenient.

After Snowden, we should all understand that whatever the worst case scenario is, it’s probably worse than that. If you can think it, it’s probably happening. If they allude to it happening, it’s definitely happening.

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

#440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but the point is, this technology is a blocker for people who might otherwise be interested in an electric powertrain vehicle. If you want an old car without all this crap, you can get one. But it pretty much has to be an ICE.

You can convert any ice car to an ev. I takes time but is straight forward

Sure. Other than being extremely expensive unless you've got the skills and facilities to do all the work yourself, and have the time and money to get all the engineering certifications required to make it road legal.

If you can do it all yourself, it's only moderately expensive.

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