this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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If a car is advertised as smart or connected, there's a good chance it collects too much personal information.
That's too bad because most new cars are, and it may cause some people to keep their old polluting but privacy-friendly car longer.
I'm probably never buying a car newer than the one I have. Everything is so ridiculous now. Though if I can just physically disable the WAN communication it uses I guess that's fine too, though it would likely be expensive to get working again for resale.
It bothers me enough that my car is even capable of doing any kind of steering input I didn't give it myself, brakes are by wire too, but fully depressing the pedal still connects you to the hydraulics directly so kind of a non issue, it allows for AEB which is a good safety feature though I'll likely never trip it.
My current car I think can do some kind of connection but I disabled it in the firmware when I flashed the BCM. Not missed, did nothing of benefit to me afaik.
Physically disabling WAN can be a workaround, assuming is can be done and reverse without damage. But it's not a good solution.
Manufacturers have ways to degrade experience/features when the owner physically disable WAN: deny features and security updates (by doing OTA updates only), drag their feet or void warranty if WAN is disabled, design some features to be unnecessarily dependant on some cloud/online services (eg navigation, media features, ...).
They cannot void your warranty over that, maybe for the computer you modified but the Magnuson Moss warranty act means they have to honor the warranty unless they can prove your modifications caused the damage.
Also, who cares if it gets updates? It will continue to work as it did from the factory indefinitely. Security updates aren't necessary if the car isn't connected to the internet and those updates cant change how the immobilizer/keys work anyways.