Comment on Now that cars are like smartphones, we don’t really own them

• ArtificialLink@lemmy.ca ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  No it does not. Some models may. But mine does not. Also, as far as I understand you would have to have like a cellular connection or something for your car to phone home anywhere? And not only is that not a service offered on my car? . It would also mean someone has to maintain that device and ensure it’s communicating basically 24/7 . I mean who’s paying for the cell service. Is it running on 3G which is defunct now? If I even had one How can it phone home? I don’t understand.

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  • atrielienz@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Yes. A lot of cars and car manufacturers include. Telematics Control Unit (a Cellular wifi modem) in their vehicles.

    forbes.com/…/ford-steps-into-the-vehicle-telemati…

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    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      If people really cared about privacy and their cars and were serious about solving it, disabling the telematics control unit or the cellular modem would resolve this issue pretty quickly. None of the cars on the road today need internet connectivity to function.

      However, if they have built-in Google maps or navigation system, well that’s always going to be a privacy issue right? This is no different than having GPS and maps on your phone.

      Judging by the lack of tik Tok videos on how to disable your car’s cell modem, I’m guessing this isn’t that big of an issue for people.

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      • atrielienz@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Disabling it often bricks the car.

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      • atrielienz@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        …mozilla.org/…/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-pr…

        Here’s a better explanation than I can ever give on the privacy aspect of this and the data car manufacturers are collecting.

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    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      As these cards age out, the cellular standard that they support will be eventually dropped and then they won’t work. Just like owning an old cell phone.

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      • atrielienz@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        This has happened with 3G networked and older vehicles (OnStar has been a thing since the 90’s). People tried to unplug the OnStar hardware but they ran it through a CAN bus and it would disable the car (to prevent thieves from circumventing it).

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