I was considering buying a Chevy Bolt lately to use as my daily commuter but found out it collects a lot of data and phones it back. It’s hard to do research on what kind of EV I could buy that doesn’t collect your location data so I’m hoping someone here might have some good suggestions.
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No such animal exists. They’re all rolling data collection machines.
I drive a bolt. To somewhat minimize the GM evil, I don’t have the GM app installed and I didn’t give the Bluetooth connection access to anything but Apple CarPlay. Of course if you’re a real privacy purist, you don’t have a smartphone and don’t use Bluetooth anyway.
If you want a car with privacy, you’ll have to buy an old car without a computer.
If you want a car with privacy, you’ll have to buy an old car without a computer.
Or you could just get a bicycle and be free
Cars have been required to have computers since 1996.
Computer - yes, in the technical term. Traditional car ECUs don’t gather data, GPS, driving habits, etc. and phone home though. Also, as another user said, the regulations starting in 96 were for OBD2 ports. Cars already had computers before then.
In addition, the issue is arguably less the collection of data, and more the ability for the car to actually send that data somewhere.
Yep. You want the car to collect telementry data for help in diagnosing issues as needed. That’s not at all the issue, and nobody would be mad if the companies treated the data with respect.
Unfortunately that’s not going to happen unless legislation forces it to.
E: sp
Don’t pretend you don’t understand the distinction between what was mandated in '96 and what we currently have
It’s not my fault people don’t know what computers are.
Right, so you’ll keep pretending that the computers in cars in '96 are the exact same as what’s being talked about just because you’re a pedantic twat who can’t admit you’re wrong?
Only if you promise to keep getting really worked up about it.
Yes, trembling in my boots at the sheer anger here
Edit: lol was it you who went and downvoted all my recent comments?
See? Now you’re paranoid, too.
I wonder if anyone has tried “jailbreaking” their EV’s and running custom OS’s on it to get rid of the spyware.
Would most likely void the warranty, but still.I’m holding out for Carbuntu or Carch to be a thing. Or maybe Carian.
“I use Carch btw.” Yeah, that’ll work.
And likely void the insurance policy too.
Probably not. You can modify cars pretty extensively and insurance doesn’t care. As long as it’s road legal, which is a very low bar in most states. There have been ECU mods forever and those are still covered.
Locking your keys in a car and calling Pop-a-Lock voids everything afaik, so probably. But still is an interesting spot, possibly sweet.
This is a great question, and as far as I know, the other answers are correct, you’re not going to stop any modern vehicles from publishing at least some information.
Aptera nominally seems to be more focused on consumer rights than other ev companies, but I can’t even tell if they’re in full production yet and also they’ll probably still record at least location and safety statistics.
I know a guy who sticks with his older firebird because it has zero microchips. He’s coincidentally an addict illegally overstaying his visa and missing a lot of teeth, plus the last three repairs cost more than the car is worth, but no gubbermint is going to find out he drove to Fresno.
We will find out.
Speaking of Aptera, they’re not yet in full production. They’re currently about a year or so out.
This video I found talks about where they’re at.
Haven’t they been a year away from production since like 2009? I stopped following their developments at some point because it had been long enough back then.
They did have some unreasonable promises when they first started.
But now they’re making their production intent cars. These are like 99% similar to what the production line will look like.
They’re looking to have done all or most of their crash testing and safety tests before this time next year. If the planets align, there might be actual cars delivered to customers some time in 2025.
I posted this when the same question got asked on site-that-shall-not-be-named:
I bought a Suzuki Swift. As best I can tell, there is no GPS or cellular radio. Higher specs come with GPS but I think still no cellular.
The NZ privacy policy is very good but is really only referring to service information and the website.
The global privacy policy is still mostly focused on service/dealer information and the website, with a note that they might receive medical information if one of their vehicles is involved in a crash.
The infotainment system (at least this one) comes from Directed Electronics, who again have a privacy policy that appears to be focused on using the website and directly selling things.
There is a section in the manual about ‘Vehicle Data Recordings’ which says that “these data are exclusively technical” and appears to be a reference to fault codes and crash black-boxes.
There is a Suzuki Connect app that has a privacy policy, which appears to include the ‘usual’ speed/location/mileage/braking/acceleration, but not the more ridiculous stuff like audio or video, and also says it won’t be sold.
Of course, they’re not available in the US. You might be able to get one from Mexico? Not sure about legality.
Can someone explain exactly how a car is a privacy nightmare? Like what data does it collect and how does it transmit it? Does it have GPS? Is it recording audio somehow? Is it transmitting over cellular data? Verizon, T-mobile? Who’s paying that data bill, Toyota?
I just don’t get it.
My RAV4 has Android Auto, but I don’t have a Toyota app on my phone or anything so how would toyota get stuff from my phone?
Here’s a useful link from Mozilla that details some of the carmakers doing some shady stuff with their models. In a nutshell, these cars have a GPS transceiver, microphones, and cameras to monitor your location, hear your conversations, and even see who’s in the cabin with you. Usually this info can be sold to third parties like insurance companies, cities, advertisers, and more. They can even give the data to law enforcement with few limitations if any. There could be a bunch of other ways this data could be exploited.
Usually these cars have some basic cellular modern to transmit the data but I wouldn’t know how much the carmakers pay for the service.
Mozilla Foundation did some investigating and put out a report, https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/
Look into what it takes to disable that “feature”. Brief web searching just now showed me that at least on some vehicles, you can locate and disable the modem either by pulling a fuse, or disconnecting antennae.
Polestar seems to have a very well written and simple privacy policy.
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