I can totally see this being a possibility with the technology available today as cars have become rolling computers. Where will this end before someone can tell you you aren’t leaving home for some reason and your car will no longer start because of a remote signal that has been sent to it. Or, if you cannot leave your town due to pandemic restrictions, you might have lines on a map that cannot be breached. The list of limitations that could be imposed by this type of technology could go on and on. This is a slippery slope.
This type of crap is not what this country was founded upon. It is also one reason why I am not against driving older cars without this technology present.
I also hope that smart hackers find ways to bypass stuff like this although that would probably be illegal of course.
Well that was a level I hadn’t thought about but after the great shutdown in Minnesota, if they could they would have done it. No doubt in my mind at all. With cell phones we are already being tracked. Interesting that I’m learning about the life of George Orwell and how he came to write 1984. It is here today. Then all the uploaded ring cameras in the hands of Amazon. We’ve got a lot of work to do. As my boss said once just because you are paranoid doesn’t people aren’t out to get you.
Yes, they can TRACK you with cell phones unless you leave it at home but it is different if you end up with cars where a remote signal can be sent telling the car not to start until permission is granted. I wonder if there will be ways to disable this nonsense or if doing so would cause the car not to run at all.
I personally do not use the smart features of my TV. I do the same thing through a surplus laptop and the apps are a lot more customizable that way. Most importantly, they don’t spay like some of the TV’s these days. Of course not everyone has crates of junk laptops to pick from for media players if needed.
The same goes for Amazon Alexa and similar. There is no way I would use that.
With this smart tech in cars and our homes, we have welcomed “1984” right in.
Allstate is giving an insurance discount to people who put the cellular transponder in to the OBD II port in their car. So that tracks you everywhere. I believe State Farm has recently started a similar thing.
I believe the Allstate device records forces while you drive, and it won’t give you the discount if you frequently brake hard. By braking hard they mean about half of full braking. I understand that the insurance industry as a whole benefits by not having someone run in to the back of a car that brakes hard, but this can put the car ahead in greater danger if the driver is afraid to slow down too much before going in to a dangerous situation because of losing the insurance discount. I believe they’ll be more likely to try to run red lights.
edit: If I see a deer beside the road I brake hard. I don’t know if the deer is going to bolt by the time I reach it. But I would lose my insurance discount for doing this.
That’s not what it’s about. It’s about driving behavior that the insurance company has correlated to higher likelihood of collisions. People who regularly brake hard are typically not driving defensively and instead driving reactively.
I agree with Sestivers. but I also believe the insurance company is looking out for themself and not so much you. so, it can backfire on you when using these if you are not careful. like when your kids use your vehicle.
those pesky kids.
Most every insurer has one of these dongles that plug into the OBD2 port and broadcast back to the insurer. I don’t doubt my normal driving would get me the discount… it is my HOBBY that would set a huge red flag! So no, just NO.
As far as the nanny kill switch… NFW, Not with my cars. I’ll keep these 3 running until I die to avoid that government control feature.
Europe is mandating this as well. Big Brother is Watching…
State Farm came out with that some years ago offering a discount. Pound sand was my response. Of course they can justify it as every other intrusive measure can be justified. Shopping apps, camera footage sent to the cloud, hvac monitoring, etc. it’s endless. Yet people eagerly take the bait and brag about their features. My bil became agitated when I suggested his home camera footage was all on the cloud and could be viewed.
I know what you mean. I wish you could buy “dumb” version of products that were decent but most of what I see is such bottom of the barrel crap you are best to just pay for all the features, including the ones you turn off. I got my smart TV online to update the firmware, then deleted all the networking configuration information so the TV is essentially dumb and not connected directly now. Then you use a network connected device you have more control over to pipe content into the TV.
I wonder if you could disable the transponders in cars but there may be a feature that disables the car from running if you do something like this. It seems like there should be some way to hack or disable this nonsense.
I agree this is a reason to keep older cars around and in good shape.
I’m not loosing any sleep over this issue myself, geezer’s like me less affected by future electronic intrusions, but I do think most all of these ideas will be implemented by our gov’t. Why? B/c driving a car is not a stated constitutional right, so there is no constitutional argument that can be made against restricting vehicle use. Gov’t, fed, state, & local, all use the citizen’s need to drive a car to bully the population, just my opinion.
Sorry, but your car won’t start if
haven’t paid your parking or traffic fines.
failed to pay other taxes or fees due
failed to respond to a jury duty request
haven’t paid your rent or utility bill
have unsightly weeds & grasses growing amongst your garden plants, or trees too tall, or too short
Insurance companies already base rates on driver performance, age, tickets and accidents so is it any surprise that they’d refine these rates?
If I lived in a rural area with minimal stoplights and minimal traffic I’d be cheering to avoiid being grouped with the urban commuters and the lead foot knockelheads.
