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

⁨312⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨boem@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/10/car-right-to-repair/

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Comments

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  • ominouslemon@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Friendly reminder: Mozilla studied 25 car brands and NONE of them passed the privacy test. Mozilla even said that cars are “privacy nightmares”.

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    • ArtificialLink@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I mean this is gotta be on the newest Internet connected cars right? Cause like aint no way my 2017 ford focus has that many “privacy issues” it doesn’t even have android auto lol.

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      • atrielienz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Has what’s called a Telematics Control Unit. And that thing phones home. It’s basically a wifi modem.

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      • NotSoCoolWhip@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Nope, still a privacy nightmare

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    • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Notable was (I believe) Nissan, who included a clause about tracking your sexual activity.

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  • stopthatgirl7@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Car companies really seem to be going all-in on technofeudalism. It’s definitely not the industry I would have expected.

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    • andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Here’s the reason: it’s not the industry that’s the problem. It’s the system surrounding the industry.

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  • reksas@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    “you will own nothing”

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    • FaeDrifter@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Collective ownership of communism gonna start looking a lot less scary to everyone when they own nothing anyway.

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      • reksas@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Communism would be nice economic model to try, but i wonder if its possible to setup in such a way it wont become mockery of itself like how russians did it. At least if hypothetically there was some kind of revolution after people get enough of current exploitation, most likely horrible people would worm into positions of power using the chaos and it would turn out like soviet union eventually. Peaceful and well though plan would be more resilient to corruption, but in current world even serious talk of such things gets shot down immediately.

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  • Repelle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    One of several reasons I really want to do an electric conversion of an old car rather than buying a new electric car.

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    • Pxtl@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I’m not sure how feasible that is. Batteries are heavy, and take up space, and there’s only so much room under the hood for battery modules. It might work for a short-ranged car - maybe 100km range.

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      • Repelle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        You’re not wrong about those things being issues, but also people do electric conversions all the time, there are shops that specialize in it and premade kits you can buy for it. Low range is certainly a very common outcome, but I don’t have big range requirements for most of my driving. Plus, I love taking on projects that are way over my had and muddling through them somehow. It’s how I learn best.

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      • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        This is actually a not uncommon swap and some companies have even started selling kits to do it on certain vehicles.

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      • ikidd@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I have my shopping list together to convert an old Kia Rio to electric for 100 km range, it’s about 400lbs of lifepo batteries and a 200lb motor. So slightly more than the cratered ICE motor I’d be taking out.

        But yah, if you want to drive across the country, convert an SUV or light pickup for the room to keep the batteries, and remove everything weight wise that you can to compensate.

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    • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Renault Twingo, the original one with the eyes

      Would sell like hot cakes in Paris

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    • helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I’ve thought about this also but that’s insanely expensive and older cars are very unsafe by comparison.

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      • Repelle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I no longer have a family don’t particularly care about personal safety, but there are a lot of cars that aren’t too old which are still quite safe and lack all the connectivity crap.

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  • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’m pretty happy with my 2007 pickup truck. Not sure I’d be interested in a new one even if I could afford it. I consider even the automatic windshield wipers to be too fancy for my taste and would rather have the traditional ones. Connecting my car to the internet is out of the question.

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    • dorkage@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I’ll die before I give up my automatic wipers! Thankfully my 2004 and 2013 VWs have it and don’t lock me out of features like new cars.

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  • Beelzebob@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’ll just stick with my 94.

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    • ikidd@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I’m a modern man, I have a 98. Well, and a 77, though carburetors are black magic still.

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      • Beelzebob@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I’ve said the same about carbs, all I see is screws and black magic.

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      • nutsack@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        carburetors are fine if you’re not a pussy

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  • phx@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    This seems more about repair notifications target than the repairs themselves. Personally, so long as the technicians in the shop aren’t locked out by proprietary controls from diagnostics on-site, I couldn’t give a damn if the dealership is getting the wireless “notifications” or not.

    My dealership tells us about lots of things we “need done”. I take the vehicle to a trusted mechanic who either does the work or tells me when they’re full of shit

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  • autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Nathan White, CitySide’s general manager, said his staff warns car shoppers that features like those requiring wireless transmission don’t work on new Subaru models sold in the state.

    Subaru crippled its technology over a state law intended to let people share their car’s wireless repair information with any service shop — not only the authorized dealer.

    The Massachusetts law, and a similar one that Maine voters approved in a landslide this week, show our desire to influence what happens to the reams of data our cars collect.

    The Massachusetts and Maine laws could let a car owner send an in-dash warning about worn brake pads to a service shop of her choice to schedule repairs.

    Joshua Siegel, a Michigan State University engineering professor, said this isn’t a simple task and that car manufacturers are doing a reasonable job in trying to comply with the spirit of a first-of-its-kind law in Massachusetts.

    At CitySide Subaru, White hopes that automakers find a way to let car owners provide remote vehicle maintenance data to any service shop.

    The original article contains 907 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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  • Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Isn’t mercedes doing subscription heated seats etc?

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    • ArtVandelay@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That was BMW who tried it

      businessinsider.com/bmw-scrap-heated-seats-subscr…

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      • phx@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        And they gave up on it, at least for now, because not unexpectedly it was a terrible fucking idea

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    • WheelcharArtist@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      No

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    • ultra@feddit.ro ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That was BMW. Mercedes was even worse: they locked full acceleration behind a subscription

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      • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        BMW already dropped it, it was that popular.

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      • crystalmerchant@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        whatttttt

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  • danhab99@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Unpopular opinion.

    I’d like to have the choice not to “own” these kinds of things. I’ve felt this since I was young and I heard about the 3rd version of the iPhone. If these things get upgraded and get better every year and I’m “supposed to” upgrade every single time then it makes sense to just lease these things.

    And now with electric cars being basically on the same upgrade schedule but half the speed, why would I own an electric car for 8 years when next year the new electric cars save like 10x more for me. It wouldn’t make sense.

    Phones get an upgrade every year, and in 3 years your phone might become ‘invalid’ and you have to upgrade. So just borrow the phone from the maker and get an upgrade easier.

    Unless you actually want to own your things, go for it! It’s a free market and you should be able to buy your phone in its entirety just like you could buy a car 10 years ago in its entirety. This choice should be easier is all I’m saying.

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    • dandi8@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You're not "supposed to" upgrade every year, that's the point. You should be able to use a 5 year old phone if you want to.

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    • Melpomene@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      We already have a strong lease market in many places and that works great for many people. The issue for me is not the availability of leasing, but the asssumption that my purchase of a vehicle nonetheless entitles the manufacturer to collect massive amounts of data on my in-car habits without my knowledge, which they can then provide to anyone they damn well please.

      Even leasing, I doubt anyone expects to have thier call logs and texts stored for law enforcement's later use, bug there was a story recently suggesting that some of them are actually doing that.

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    • TORFdot0@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      A car lease is an option. Always has been

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    • milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I agree a rental/service economy is good for some things. I think the main complaint here is the way companies manipulate these products for their benefit not for the customer, and often in underhand ways (hence all the privacy issues). That happens with ‘owned’ products too, but the owner has more control to make of it what they want.

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    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      EV cars sold today aren’t that much better than 4 years ago. In fact, electric cars are basically a car. Surprising I know. But they are on the same 7-year model lifespan as any other car model.

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  • nutsack@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    in the future there is only one company and it is not possible to own anything

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    • bingbong@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      AmaMetAppleSoftGle™

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