With how everybody and their mother have smartphones in their pockets, I wouldn’t be too worried.
Comment on How to opt out of the privacy nightmare that comes with new Hondas
IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 8 months agoPersonally 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.
cyborganism@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
0x0@programming.dev 8 months ago
Depending on the crash you could be unable to reach for the phone.
cyborganism@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
No! I mean everybody else! Someone else is going to call for help.
nyan@lemmy.cafe 8 months ago
That depends a lot on where you drive. I’ve been in situations where, if I had hit a moose, there would have been no one around to call for help except the moose (assuming it had survived the collision, but they often do if it’s a smaller vehicle). That stretch of road didn’t get many passers-by on snowy Sunday nights in January. Maybe a half-dozen vehicles an hour. Combine that with poor visibility, and it could have been a long time before someone noticed and called for help. Fortunately, I never did have an accident along that stretch.
Of course, if you’re only driving in built-up areas or along major transit corridors instead of in awkward parts of northern Ontario in the middle of winter, your chances of having someone call in for you are much higher.
aniki@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Don’t make life choices based on outliers
0x0@programming.dev 8 months ago
A hammer is great for hammering nails… and heads.
Humans, eh?
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.
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.
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.
bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
You assume you’ll have the ability to reach and use your phone
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.
bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
I’m not saying it’s worth the monthly subscription, but it is not too hard to imagine the scenario where you get in a car wreck and you get knocked out
Telodzrum@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Low probability, high salience. Know the difference.
PsychedSy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
I just take rentals for vacation.
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.
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You obviously don’t live or drive in a semi-rural area at night with larger wildlife that tends to dart across the road in front of cars. All it takes is hitting a deer or javelina hard and going into a ditch.
bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
I’m not saying you should live your life in fear of that. But it is not too difficult to imagine these kinds of scenarios. It happened to me once lol
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.