Privacy

Bike

I bought a used Chevy bolt EV, for now I've pulled the onstar system fuse which kills the telemetry and GPS+cell antenna. No tracking with no power, it's my car and my battery so I decide what gets my power.

I'm not interested in letting any of these companies screw me over behind my back regardless of who is "less evil," but I've gotten so used to the convenience of EVs that I won't do without one.

I use my phone for navigation and music/podcasts and that still works just fine.

Might at some point look at a more sophisticated way of doing this like removing just the onstar module or terminating its antenna, but for now it's fine.

I had been actively looking forward to the Slate truck (even though I don't want a truck) for this reason - an EV with modern drivetrain but no BS electronics or telemetry. Unfortunately the price has gone from about $20K - a price appropriate for it's minimalist approach - to "below $30K" and it's not due out for another year, so who knows how it will pan out.

List of automotive connectivity module providers: https://www.evbusiness.net/ev-directory/automotive-lte-5g-module-manufacturers/

Find which one your car has. Then see if you can find a repair manual with schematics. Find where the cell antenna connects. Non-destructively disconnect it. This way your telematics won't be affected. It will just look like you're always in a cell dead-zone.

Edit: don't do this if it's a lease, a rental, or there's a loan on the vehicle. If you own it outright and it doesn't void the warranty, go nuts.

Well that's it, I'm just going to drive my 23-year-old 350Z Roadster forever. As a 90s computer geek, I would have never imagined that future technology would turn me into a classic car guy, yet here we are.

I miss the days when spyware was treated like a virus; now it's the norm.

None of this has anything to do with the car's powertrain. Regular internal combustion engine cars are just as bad as EVs in this regard.

The article is from 2023, it is likely several orders of magnitude worse now.

Imo, the sweet spot for reliability and unconnected tech is the mid 2000s to 2015ish. Good engine control, simple user interfaces with buttons, nice creature comforts, good fuel efficiency, and still good safety (generally)

I have a 2019 wrx that while I like it, I know the subaru telemetry is both significant and easy to access, there has been a number of articles about it published in the last year or two. There are opt out procedures through subaru but let's not kid ourselves here do you really trust them to do it? How do you prove they have stopped?

That said, your phone shares all that data already, it being shared by another device is not really much different than coming from one source.

(Edit: since some of you missed what I was trying to convey here, I was trying to point out that the exercise of securing your car is half the battle, yes you SHOULD do that, any reduction in data sharing is a positive thing. You should also be realistic about how much that actually accomplishes when you are also carrying your cell phone with you in your car.)

What I really don't like is the driver aids. My mom has a newer Mercedes suv and it is realllllllly intrusive. The auto brake function as awful, it auto does corrective steering. I am sure in an actual panic situation I would welcome it but I absolutely do not like it on normal situations. I also don't trust it from a cyber security situation.

I have a 2014 Chevy volt. Not a full EV, but used ones are affordable and the 3g cell modem no longer works.

We get 30-38 miles per charge depending on the outside temperature which covers most of our day to day driving. It will charge from a regular wall outlet (120v at 8 amps) in 12 hours. The ICE engine gets an oil change every 2 years since it gets rarely used.

This is a lose-lose-lose.

• New cars don't respect people's privacy.
• New cars cost more due to the extra camera/sensors/compute/connectivity necessary for tracking.
• Less people buy new cars due to increased cost and tracking. Instead drive older, more polluting cars for longer.

And all of a sudden data roaming costs isn't an issue anymore ;) Who pays the mobile subscription? Or do car manufacturers pay the telco's with a part of the data gathered ....

If you're going with another Ford, you should be good to get one as new as 2017, since that's the last year they used 3g cell radios. It can't report back since the network was shut down.

Fun fact, French auto brands are defacto banned in the US. You can’t insure them.

I have an older Nissan Leaf in Australia. While I'm sure the car is trying to send telemetry, it only has a 3G modem, and the 3G network has been switched off for all of Australia.

If you have a newer car, it may be possible to remove the telematics fuse and ignore the related DTC.

I suppose you'll have to settle for an e-bike, and even those are increasingly electronic. Maybe retrofitting a standard bike with an electric engine.

I don't own a car and am not a fan of most modern "features", but, I must say, I'm quite fond of adaptive cruise control. Setting a follow distance and just cruising for long drives is far better than pumping the brakes every 5 minutes for folks mucking up passing lanes or trucks attempting to overtake on lane-limited roadways. I bet if everyone used it, traffic snakes wouldn't be such a nuisance.

I'd rather never own a car, but if I needed one, I'd be hard pressed to sacrifice privacy for that sweet adaptive cruise. Of course, network connectivity isn't required, so perhaps there will eventually be options.

We need more development of open source cars

I bought a used Chevy Bolt, then disconnected the antenna to put a dummy load on the OnStar transmitter. Never told it my Wi-Fi password. It can’t connect to the Internet unless I park it next to a cell tower, unless I pay for OnStar, which I refuse to do. I only use CarPlay so it can’t even hope to use my phone’s Bluetooth tethering (not that it seems capable).

Fortunately, Chevy’s only OTA infotainment update was to remove the video player, so I’m not missing much. Unplug the power cord and drive.