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Comment by JohnFen | Hacker News Reader

This is true. But for me, personally, the increased safety measures aren't worth the cost of having to put up with the data collection.

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My car is from 2013. It’s got more safety features but I don’t think it has any way to report data about me. You could consider getting something that age, when the time comes.

around 2010 just about every car started to come with an embedded cellular modem. If your car offers any sort of remote start, SOS or concierge functionality, it's infected. And car companies have been caught selling driving data to insurance companies. Ugh.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/how-figure-out-what-yo...

The good news is that if your car has a 3G embedded modem, it probably doesn't have any networks to connect to anymore.

Yes, I should have been more explicit but I was relying on the fact that the cellular modem in my car and many others from that time have had their service discontinued. So the car likely did used to report on me, but I suspect it does not any longer.

I have a brand new car and don't have to put up with any sort of data collection.

That seems a bit dubious. What makes you say that?

The reason I ask is that, as I understand it, the collection happens via cellular modems talking to cell towers to report back to the mothership; it's not through, e.g., connecting your smartphone via bluetooth. (The non-smartphone information they send is about car usage habits and statistics, including location.) I'd be curious what the make/model of the car is which doesn't have this hardware.

The sibling comment about the 2013 model is more likely since I don't know when manufacturers started putting cellular modems in their cars. "Brand new", not so much.

lol - check again. As others pointed out it's just about assured your car has an embedded cellular modem and is spying on you unless you explicitly opt out.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/how-figure-out-what-yo...

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