[herbie]

$1:

like my old 76 GMC Sierra Classic 4X4

You might get spied on, but at least your new one won't rust through in one year like those 75-76 GMC/Chev trucks did. And holy shit, borrowed a friend's 2012 F150 4x4 and drove 400Kms bringing back 1/2 a ton of laminate flooring. Only cost $15 more in gas for same trip than my Saturn did.
That's what everyone says with this tech stuff. We're trading privacy for every gain.

[raydan]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

There's a growing cottage industry of mechanics who 'sanitize' new cars and remove or neuter all of this bullshit so it stops spying on you. That's probably what I'm going to have to do with the next car I buy.

That... will probably void your guaranty.

[DrCaleb]

raydan raydan:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

There's a growing cottage industry of mechanics who 'sanitize' new cars and remove or neuter all of this bullshit so it stops spying on you. That's probably what I'm going to have to do with the next car I buy.

That... will probably void your guaranty.

That's the price of protecting your privacy. Or buying cars that don't 'phone home' and share all your data. But since the DMCA and Bill C-11, you aren't allowed to reverse engineer things to find out what they are doing. So snipping those bull testicles is the only way.

[DrCaleb]

Sort of related:

$1:

Uber announced today that it will monitor some of its drivers' behavior for things like excessive speeding or distracted driving. Starting with a trial in Houston, the program will use Uber drivers' own smartphones to provide data to the company.

The company will use a phone's gyroscopes, accelerometers, and GPS to record whether drivers break speed limits or play with their phone while the vehicle is in motion. But in this trial, Uber will only access that data if a customer has a complaint about driving standards.

http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/01/ube ... -behavior/

[Hmmmm]

I think big brother is already much bigger than Orwell ever imagined and fast becoming malignantly obese .

I already have (what many would consider) an "older" car and hope never to need a newer one - only partly because of prices.

I wonder how the motor vehicle regulations and insurance companies will deal with the situation when despite smart car proliferation a high percentage of un-monitored vehicles are still on the road. I have a "safe driving" record that goes back decades. It worries me that the day is coming when lack of a monitoring device will eliminate all of my discount; of course insurers look for any excuse to increase premiums. There must be many people in similar positions; the poorer among us as usual.

I echo all the comments about the inability of any "app" to properly judge one's driving based on braking, acceleration etc. A swerve or acceleration may be exactly what avoided an accident when something totally unforeseeable happened. Likewise hard braking; I imagine we've all experienced situations where it was forced on us "out of the blue." It's much fairer to base judgement of safe driving on real accident rates. Still has flaws but I think much fairer.

[BartSimpson]

raydan raydan:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

There's a growing cottage industry of mechanics who 'sanitize' new cars and remove or neuter all of this bullshit so it stops spying on you. That's probably what I'm going to have to do with the next car I buy.

That... will probably void your guaranty.

If someone cancels my warranty because they can't spy on me then I may well become irked.

I am not all that much fun when I am irked.

[Canadian_Mind]

#2 reason why I drive a 2005 F350.

#1 is I don't have to deal with all the failure prone emissions bullshit.

[DrCaleb]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

raydan raydan:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

There's a growing cottage industry of mechanics who 'sanitize' new cars and remove or neuter all of this bullshit so it stops spying on you. That's probably what I'm going to have to do with the next car I buy.

That... will probably void your guaranty.

If someone cancels my warranty because they can't spy on me then I may well become irked.

I am not all that much fun when I am irked.

Now that I think of it, I don't think they can deny warranty claims based on just disabling communication to the mothership. They'd have to prove that the lack of communication is the reason for the failure. It would be pretty tough explaining how a transmission failure or bad paint is the result of an ECU reflash.

[Freakinoldguy]

herbie herbie:

$1:

like my old 76 GMC Sierra Classic 4X4

You might get spied on, but at least your new one won't rust through in one year like those 75-76 GMC/Chev trucks did. And holy shit, borrowed a friend's 2012 F150 4x4 and drove 400Kms bringing back 1/2 a ton of laminate flooring. Only cost $15 more in gas for same trip than my Saturn did.
That's what everyone says with this tech stuff. We're trading privacy for every gain.

Cab corners, box wheel well's, the standard GMC rust spots. Fortunately there's still alot of replacement parts available in both the wreckers and the body shops. But you're right about the cost. That 350 guzzled gas like an untuned 18 wheeler driving 90 mph. But I had a lot more fun with it than anything since. It had a 14" high 1/2" thick plate steel bumper on the front that we used to go into the bush and run over trees with when we got bored.

If I did that with my new truck it'd be totalled with the first shrub it hit.

Technology isn't always better.

[Canadian_Mind]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

herbie herbie:

$1:

like my old 76 GMC Sierra Classic 4X4

You might get spied on, but at least your new one won't rust through in one year like those 75-76 GMC/Chev trucks did. And holy shit, borrowed a friend's 2012 F150 4x4 and drove 400Kms bringing back 1/2 a ton of laminate flooring. Only cost $15 more in gas for same trip than my Saturn did.
That's what everyone says with this tech stuff. We're trading privacy for every gain.

Cab corners, box wheel well's, the standard GMC rust spots. Fortunately there's still alot of replacement parts available in both the wreckers and the body shops. But you're right about the cost. That 350 guzzled gas like an untuned 18 wheeler driving 90 mph. But I had a lot more fun with it than anything since. It had a 14" high 1/2" thick plate steel bumper on the front that we used to go into the bush and run over trees with when we got bored.

If I did that with my new truck it'd be totalled with the first shrub it hit.

Technology isn't always better.

Pretty sure you could do the same with modern trucks as well. Can't speak for GM or Dodge, but Ford's pickup frame is much stronger now than it was pre-90s. Pretty sure with the plate-steel bumper and the stronger frame I can get into a head-on with anything smaller than a 10 tonne truck at 60kph and the truck wouldn't be a write-off. I have no qualms running over anything smaller than 6" across when bush-bashing.

[herbie]

Got rid of my 91 F250 4x4 a year or so ago. Same thing, already replaced the box, rusted out around the doors, etc. Sucker had a 460 and once I winched a line truck out of a mudhole atop a mountain. Guy who bought it wanted the front bumper, told him he had to take the whole truck.
Also owned a spiffy 89 F150 SC 4x4, family XLT, that pig ate more gas than the 460.
Couple years back, went to the store in Abbotsford, we were looking at a guy's built up F350. He came out and asked if we were damned greenies gonna give him shit for it. The wifey just about burst herself laughing, told the guy we were a couple rednecks from Prince George where we could actually use something like that.
Truth was, this is what I was servicing radio towers with at the time: