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Posted by cadito 5 hours ago

The Car That Watches You Back: The Advertising Infrastructure of Modern Cars(nobodyaskedforthis.lol)
75 points | 52 comments
jmward01 2 hours ago|
This one issue, privacy, has stopped me from buying a new car. It is stopping me from even buying a used one since it is hard to figure out how far back you need to go to be rid of these things. Screaming at the wind though isn't helping. We need actual real options. I will buy something that it privacy aware. This is YC. Someone, build the startup that sells that and you have my money.
michaelt 40 minutes ago||
Motorbikes are available without any of this tech, if you want something made this year without the need to remove any components.

Sure, there's an elevated risk of death, but you've got to balance that against the fact bike go vroom vroom.

arkadiyt 50 minutes ago|||
I bought a 2024 RAV4 Hybrid and

1) physically removed the modem (the "DCM") and

2) disconnected the GPS antenna from the head unit

Took a little research but was still an approachable project

duskdozer 48 minutes ago||
What still functions and what broke?
arkadiyt 43 minutes ago||
When I removed the DCM the in-car microphone stopped working, but I bought one of these to get it working again: https://www.autoharnesshouse.com/store/AHH-DCM77.

Also even with no modem, if you use CarPlay on your phone _via Bluetooth_ then the car will just use your phone's internet connection, so I only use CarPlay via a wired USB connection.

Aside from that the car works great, everything is 100% functional. I suppose I don't get OTA updates, which I'm fine with.

jmward01 40 minutes ago||
Wow, that is evil that they steal your data to send telemetry back via carplay. I always assumed that was possible so I have never actually hooked my phone up to a car but it really saddens me that it actually happens. There is 0 requirement for my phone to pass along raw internet access to the car in my opinion.
2III7 54 minutes ago|||
Still driving my 2014 Golf mk7. No ads, physical buttons, adaptive cruise, frontal collision avoidance, great reliability. Not planning an upgrade any time soon.
CalRobert 1 hour ago|||
Slate maybe?
jmward01 1 hour ago|||
So far I have seen slate position itself as stripped down, but the thing I haven't seen is that they will be privacy aware. These are two totally different things. I want a simple but functional vehicle which does mean a comfortable vehicle that has reasonable features, but the honest truth is most features I don't want are purely because I want to be privacy aware. I don't want built in maps because I know they will connect and sell my location. I don't want and 'on-star' like feature because I know (for a fact with on-star) they will sell my data to insurance companies (actual harm to me will happen in other words). I don't want anything connectable to an app because I know that means their servers are constantly in control of my vehicle. I have 0 trust so I want a vehicle with one critical feature: no sim. If you can build a car without a sim I will buy it. If it has a sim I will avoid it until I have no actual other choice.
eks391 27 minutes ago|||
What you described sounds to me like slate. It doesn't have maps or a sim. It doesn't even have a digital dashboard at all[0].

I barely looked it up so I'm no expert, but that's what I'm interpreting from their site.

[0] https://www.slate.auto/en/faq

jmward01 2 minutes ago||
Again, not having a feature doesn't mean they don't send telemetry back. They can be stripped down AND steal my privacy. In fact, I expect them to considering the backers.
roarcher 49 minutes ago|||
I can't speak for other makes/models/years with certainty, but my 2024 Ford Maverick has a "Telemetry Control Unit" that is easily accessible through a hatch by the front passenger seat. Unplugging it disables all communication with Ford servers and I can confirm the app no longer works.

The infotainment center also has no built-in maps as it relies on Android Auto/Apple CarPlay for everything except climate control and the AM/FM radio.

griffoa 1 hour ago|||
[dead]
everyone 1 hour ago||
Solution: Get a modern car but simply build a Faraday cage around it, like those anti-drone "cope cages" you see on Russian tanks.
incoren3 2 hours ago||
The newest car I own is 14 years old, and the next one I buy will have a carburetor.

And you better believe I will ride around on a fucking HORSE before I put up with ads on my dashboard. Screw that noise.

cadito 5 hours ago||
The transition started with drive-by-wire and the CAN bus, but the moment they added cellular modems, the dashboard became a platform. Automakers are currently running the exact same programmatic targeting logic as web publishers and in-store retail networks. The only difference is they conveniently left out all the consent infrastructure we forced onto the web.

Tried to look at the actual ad-tech and architecture driving this rather than just doing another "touchscreens are bad" rant.

gib444 14 minutes ago||
> The only difference is they conveniently left out all the consent infrastructure we forced onto the web.

This obviously needs fixing !

The only way to do it is to force you to click "Refuse" or "Agree" each and every time you start the car and to not let you drive until you click an option.

This will be a massive win for consumers.

dzhiurgis 1 hour ago||
Cybercab has electric brakes.
Lio 28 minutes ago||
It would be a great idea for a website to sell the latest versions of cars, used or new without the enshitification.

Maybe it’s not a huge market but I bet there is some market still for a quality experience.

dotancohen 30 seconds ago|
That sounds like a lot of liability. For one thing, it almost certainly means that the vehicle is being sold without the manufacturers warranty. It also might mean that the manufacturern won't even support the vehicle for service. And finally, by disabling OTA updates there could be safety implications.
mmooss 3 hours ago||
What are the options for cars that don't track you? For example, new cars that don't include tracking, cars old enough to not have it, cars that can be modified (e.g., parts disconnected, software updated) to stop it, etc.
ehnto 2 hours ago||
It's easy for me to say because I don't mind old cars, but you really don't have to go that old to find something without ad-tech or tracking. You can have a completely acceptable experience in say a 2015 Toyota Camry or Crown or whatever equivalent you get in your country, with lane assist and excellent safety, but no phoning home.

The answer really depends on how much you don't want to be tracked, is it a big concern worth a lot of effort and compromise, or do you just kinda wish it wasn't happening?

If the former, there are plenty of vehicles to choose from the relatively recent past. I haven't looked into it but I imagine a lot of cars could have their phoning home disabled too, and it'd be surprising if all of these cars will be paying for an internet connection/SIM for decades to come so eventually the modern ones will fall off the net anyway.

culi 3 hours ago|||
Great question. It feels like there's no real options here except buying older cars. Mozilla did a review and every brand they looked at flunked

https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-...

The "least creepy" were Renault and Dacia and the "most creepy" were Nissan and Buick.

Apparently there's tools like Privacy4Cars that could help you delete your car. Based on their website, it seems their primary customer is enterprise

https://privacy4cars.com/

charcircuit 2 hours ago||
This Mozilla report is low quality and treats legal boilerplate as proof of them spying. It says a car is snooping on you via its microphone even if that microphone is purely used for support Bluetooth calls.
Lio 20 minutes ago||
Then as a minimum the report should act to encourage car manufacturers to use less boilerplate and be more specific in their terms.

This “we reserve the right to do everything” bullshit has got to go.

layoric 3 hours ago|||
A 90s Camry, Corolla, or Civic seems to have become the peak minimalist car. Shame we will never likely see an EV equivalent focused on utility and cost efficiency without all the bloat. I don’t think there is a good option sadly, any ICE car will eventually just become unmaintainable, and I can’t see a path to EVs that are just cars and don’t come with all this tracking.. hope to be proved wrong..
manyatoms 3 hours ago||
https://slate.auto
wiml 2 hours ago||
I'm pretty curious what Slate's telematics/privacy story will be like. No way to tell until they start shipping, I guess. It's pretty cheap to add a cell modem, so I don't think it's safe to assume that a "bare bones" car necessarily won't have spyware.
eks391 32 minutes ago|||
I haven't heard about slate till just now, but based on their specs, it doesn't seem like they are capable of collecting or selling data. The dashboard is your personal tablet or phone. It literally seems to just be a battery, motor, chassis, and trunk, with climate control and required safety features
duskdozer 56 minutes ago|||
Isn't it Bezos? In which case I have little faith it won't be like the rest.
ItsBob 1 hour ago|||
In the UK, any car that used a 3G modem is fine now: we have no 3G networks here any more.
Lio 19 minutes ago||
Yeah I think about 2016 or 2017 is as late as you should go.
unethical_ban 2 hours ago|||
The one with a fuse on the modem circuit, no?
teh_infallible 2 hours ago||
I’m hoping the new Slate electric cars don’t have this.
downrightmike 4 hours ago||
$60k min, 80+month loans, Insurance++, and you are still the product. So much for the freedom of the open road.
CalRobert 1 hour ago||
I do love my electric cargo bike…
youniverse 1 hour ago||
At least Tesla is doing something right with direct sales and no suffering through a dealership just adding on cost.
everyone 2 hours ago||
I guess just stick to cars from mid 2000's and older.

There is another issue with newer cars too, They have extremely loose piston rings, after X thousand miles they burn as much oil as a 2 stroke.

https://youtu.be/Ft12aZffCEg?si=uYlRABoqweTOKaoi

dmitrygr 2 hours ago||
replacing the antenna with a 50-ohm resistor works very well. The car thinks it is out of cell reception and continues to work. No manufacturer would dare have their cars stop working merely due to it being in Montana (indistinguishable from having no cell antenna/reception).
lynx97 21 minutes ago||
Its small, but there remains the hope that progressive enshittification of cars might convince a few people not to own one. Cities with useful public transport infrastructure already see a trend of young people not owning a car, which is good.
VladVladikoff 3 hours ago|
Awful writing. Cant stand that LLM generated drivel. Ruins it for me.

On the topic however I do wish there was a fully disconnected modern car. Maybe a Corolla with base trim has no starlink?

helterskelter 3 hours ago||
I know you can yank the modem out of a SuperDuty. Say what you will about them, they're work-oriented despite the luxury packages available and don't force you into being treated like the product -- Ford will track your location if you don't pull the modem, but at least it isn't necessary for the ICU and it doesn't nag you about the anything being disconnected. Fuel prices and gas economy are another issue...

(You may be able to do this with other Ford models)

helterskelter 2 hours ago||
Sorry, I meant ECU not ICU.
sandworm101 3 hours ago||
Motorcycles are the last refuge of vehicle privacy. No (japanese) sportbike manufacturer would dare track customer activity. They really do not want to know how thier customers use thier products.
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3 hours ago||
Plausible deniability
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