Comment on How to opt out of the privacy nightmare that comes with new Hondas

• IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Personally I’d call that a safety issue. A few years ago my wife and I were driving a rental car that was rear ended on the highway by a drunk driver. The impact caved in the left rear wheel and spun us 360 degrees across 3 lanes of the highway. Within a few seconds of coming to a stop an OnStar person was talking to us, asking if we were ok and confirming our location.

  We had no clue ahead of time that the rental car had one of these services, but at that moment we were very happy it did. I honestly have no idea about the privacy ramifications, etc. but having been through that experience I’d think long and hard about disabling it outright. I do take my privacy seriously, but I’d have to weigh that against the safety of me & my family in that kind of situation and disable it only as an absolutely last resort… Just my own personal $0.02 on the matter.

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  • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I think my car only came with a free trial for that service, I think you needed to pay after a certain amount of time. Cell phone works well enough for me.

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    • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      You assume you’ll have the ability to reach and use your phone

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      • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I estimate that the probability of injuring my arms and that no one else is around to call for help is low enough to not worth the monthly subscription.

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      • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        You’re not alone on the road.

        It’s incredibly unlikely that you’d be in such a bad accident that you couldn’t call for help; while simultaneously being isolated from the public to the point nobody saw your accident and started calling ems/police before you could.

        That’s not to say it doesn’t happen; but I definitely wouldn’t be worried about it.

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    • ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Playing devil’s advocate, in a crazy accident you may not be able to get to/reach your phone, or even be responsive. If you use the personal assistant function on your phone, it’s no different than using OnStar, in terms of privacy.

      All of this said, last I heard OnStar was pretty expensive for the average household income. I don’t have it, and I don’t worry too much about it.

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  • cyborganism@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    With how everybody and their mother have smartphones in their pockets, I wouldn’t be too worried.

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    • 0x0@programming.dev ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Depending on the crash you could be unable to reach for the phone.

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      • cyborganism@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        No! I mean everybody else! Someone else is going to call for help.

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      • aniki@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Don’t make life choices based on outliers

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  • 0x0@programming.dev ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    A hammer is great for hammering nails… and heads.

    Humans, eh?

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  • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    OnStar never knows where you are. It only knows where YOUR CAR is.

    Think about it and decide whether your car’s privacy is worth the cost.

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    • barsquid@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Oh, true. Luckily I never go anywhere in my car so none of my positional data will correlate with the car’s.

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• JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  My car microphone stopped working

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