Is Your Car Ratting You Out?

[Jim Koepke]

Cars have become rolling listening posts. They can track phone calls and texts, log queries to websites, record what radio stations you listen to — even tell you when you are breaking the law by exceeding the speed limit.

Automakers, local governments, retailers, insurers and tech companies are eager to leverage this information, especially as cars transform from computers on wheels into something more like self-driving shuttles. And they want to tap into even more data, including what your car’s video cameras see as you travel down a street.

Who gets what information and for what purposes? Here is a primer.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/a...-tracking.html

Maybe there will be old used cars available for the rest of my life.

jtk

[Steve Peterson]

As much as I can't stand big brother watching over me, I do like the modern safety features that have been added to cars.

I am hoping for self driving cars to be common before my kids start driving in a few years.

Steve

[mark kosse]

Bet my 1995 f150 ain't talking...

[Chuck Wintle]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/a...-tracking.html

Maybe there will be old used cars available for the rest of my life.

jtk

And it cannot be stopped, this collection of information as they become more and more skilled at getting the info. As long as we have good laws in place to keep them in check a little it may remain tolerable.

[William Adams]

The thing is, at some point, there will need to be an effort made to make up for lost gasoline tax revenues, and the most likely way to do that is a mileage tax which uses GPS data, which from a privacy stand-point is just insupportable.

What really should be done is we should instead focus on the interface of the vehicles which is actually doing damage, the tires, and have a tax based on the mass of the tires (say square it, so that it's markedly advantageous to drive a smaller vehicle), and which takes into account the size of the contact, and the pressures exerted --- maybe we could then get tractor trailer designs which would optimize for minimizing damage to roads instead of complying w/ antiquated per axle counting.