And car companies have so many more data-collecting opportunities than other products and apps we use – more than even smart devices in our homes or the cell phones we take wherever we go. They can collect personal information from how you interact with your car, the connected services you use in your car, the car’s app (which provides a gateway to information on your phone), and can gather even more information about you from third party sources like Sirius XM or Google Maps. It’s a mess. The ways that car companies collect and share your data are so vast and complicated that we wrote an entire piece on how that works. The gist is: they can collect super intimate information about you – from your medical information, your genetic information, to your “sex life” (seriously), to how fast you drive, where you drive, and what songs you play in your car – in huge quantities. They then use it to invent more data about you through “inferences” about things like your intelligence, abilities, and interests.

Ok but how do they know my genetics and sex life‽

I’ve always looked at cars like factory equipment. They should do the job you ask and nothing more. Granted, more comfortable and prettier than factory equipment, but as far as functionality, it should be a static piece of metal until I start it, do the needful of spinning the motor and wheels and then stop. Anything else is a distraction from driving which I consider to be a distraction risk.

All these new cars with multiple screens, operating systems, internet connectivity, auto assists… it’s like we’re creating an entertainment center on wheels. Why bother the poor driver with the idea that they’re flying down the highway at 80 when you can convince them they’re in a floating living room?

Driving should be scary because it is, and the more we distance people from the road they’re driving on, the more of a surprise it will be when their “automagic” car sends them into a wall it didn’t detect.

Now add on the privacy issues that the car company makes wicked profit on and you’re making cars for the manufacturer and forgetting that the goal was to deliver the driver safely to begin with.

They want us to forget somehow that driving is one of the single most dangerous things people do daily. If you’re not completely alert being the wheel, you shouldn’t be behind it at all.

I read most, but not every word of the article, so forgive me if I missed it. Can we just disconnect the antenna/modem on the car so there is no way to transfer the data it collects? I’m under the assumption that these are all satellite-connected.

They will do all the things computers and sensors can do as long as it makes them money. So this excludes beneficial ones like speed limiters in cities.

This dying industry cannot duck off quickly enough.