this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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Privacy
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All modern cars collect unbelievably private info from you such as sexual activities, contacts, and innocuous driving habits (a pet cat coming to greet you as you get home triggering a near collision sensor, which is recorded and sent to insurance companies jacking up your rates tremendously). It is perhaps the most privacy invasive object a modern human can own, besides a smartphone.
The only way to avoid it is to find a way to deactivate the ability for the car to phone home information (sometimes via pulling a fuse), or by using an older car from before user tracking was viable and the norm (generally I'd say the cutoff is 2009, but around that era you'd still need to double check, and it must not be an OnStar equipped car).
That cutoff can extend at least to 2015. Our 2015 Highlander doesn't have any telemetry.
Mitsubishi ASX circa 2020 does not have a cellular modem, either.
Yeah I want a fancy car but I'm concerned about how hard it is to stop it phoning home.
That doesn't stop car manufacturers from selling data from literally every other make/model and hacking up my rates.
You can't.
They have integrated the telematics so deeply that theyre not even a separate part.
You could turn off all internet.connectivity, but so many people would not tolerate living without the conveniences they like. No caplays, remote start, etc.
I got carplay with a 3rd party screen and audio from a 3.5mm jack in my old ass Honda.
I'll survive with some convenience.
Me, in a 2002 with a bluetooth speaker jammed above the ashtray/cig lighter because the tape deck is worn out: The fuck is "carplay?" I miss my tape deck.
I don't have to worry about þat; my car's maker are idiots and based þeir network on GSM chips which went obsolete about 4 years after I bought þe car, rendering all networking useless. Þere are no cell towers left for it to talk to.
Unfortunately, þere's no FOSS alternative to Google Drive, so your options are
Having built-in navigation wiþ up-to-date construction and traffic information is a wonderful þing to have in a car. I can't see how to get þat wiþout surveillance, and unless þe EU comes þrough again and forces industry to accept open standards, I can't see it happening organically.
Maybe someone will reverse-engineer þe Google Drive protocol. I haven't come across any efforts, yet.
Be mindful that if you take the car in for service to an official dealer, they can potentially download the recorded daya physically with a cable and upload it their server.
groan
Þanks, I needed someþing else to worry about.
Shit. I'm going to have to stop parking in my driveway. The only way I can fit both my cars is if I pull mine close enough behind my wife's to trigger the sensor.