I am planing to buy a new car. Which of these are better relatively speaking in terms of privacy, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, or Audi? I can’t buy old used cars. I have to buy a new car. I like new safety features but I don’t want privacy invasive features, or subscription services.
Of your options, I not go with BMW as they are pushing subscriptions based features. In my new car journey I may settle on a low millage model 3 if I can get it with the lithium pack.
Something old enough to not have a cellular modem in it, and hope that privacy laws improve before you have to buy again and it’s inescapable.
That being said, I was forced to buy new last time. I called Mazda and they were able to deactivate it remotely, and confirmed that this deactivates everything and does not send any data to them moving forward. Does this mean they can reactivate it remotely? Yes. But it’s something. I have tried a few times to get the telematic control unit physically removed, but got stonewalled by the dealer. I may try a third party mechanic or a different dealer. I found a schematic that seems to suggest it can be removed kn my vehicle with no downsides. Not all vehicles are like this, it may break something such as audio or other sensors.
buy a bicycle
Avoid BMW then.
Are you in a hurry?
If not, you could keep an eye on Slate Auto
With no embedded modem, the Slate Truck is the antithesis of today’s connected cars.
I was gonna post about Slate. Awesome stuff. A shame they don’t ship to or build in Canada.
A shame they don’t ship to or build in Canada
I was about to say “Yet. US & Canada cooperate on car regulations, so it’s trivial to support both markets”.
But, web says the tariff situation got in the way, and Slate has no plans for it. Ugh. That sucks :(. Hopefully sanity will be restored eventually, and it’ll become possible again.
I want a better timeline please.
I figure if/when they start selling maybe they will expand. Likely, years away. I can wait.
Practically all modern vehicles are privacy nightmares on wheels. They have identifying sensors all over the vehicle, on both the exterior and interior. And all ECUs (monitoring and controlling sensors and actuators from a vehicle’s particular subsystems) are (indirectly) connected to a cellular modem, which is likely to support ‘vehicle to everything (V2X)’ communications: where the vehicle exchanges sensory data with external networks (primarily the manufacturer’s), road infrastructure and other road users nearby.
Your most effective remedy is to hamper the functioning of the modem, that is if the manufacturer doesn’t throw an error code as a result of it. If that isn’t an option, check if it allows you to physically disable sensors (taping off, or limiting the FOV of cameras, or unplugging microphones). And lastly, if even that isn’t an option, disable as many “features” as you can; even though some may require you to manually re-disable them, every time you restart your vehicle…
Keep in mind that in doing so, you might also disable actual features (ones you might find genuinely useful). Mozilla’s somewhat outdated reports of manufacturer’s privacy statements might give you some idea, of which brands could be considered the lesser of evil. But these are subject to constant change, as are the over-the-air updates of vehicles in their fleet, and their dynamic user manuals…
Essentially none, they are all significantly to severely terrible on privacy.
The Slate truck looks promising due to not having a head unit from the factory but it’s anyone’s guess if and when that project comes to fruition and in what state.
What do you mean? They, and their 1758 different business partners, TOTALLY respect your privacy. :)
Doesn’t matter who the partners are if the vehicle doesn’t collect and transmit data.
on a lot of cars, you can simply pull the fuse to the modem.
