The problem with connected cars

Nowadays, most cars are connected to the internet, ostensibly to provide owners with additional functionality through their phones. However, most cars are becoming computers with wheels, but this improvement in functionality also causes many problems that are associated with computing nowadays.

The first problem is data mining; car makers have discovered that getting information about driver routines, destinations, car usage, and patterns is very valuable, and in some cases, they can share that data with third parties like advertising companies or car insurance. This goes against privacy of drivers that probably don’t know this, just want a car for their daily life.

Another problems are updates (or lack of them). A connected car means that the manufacturer can shut down the servers when they want to; it is another way of implementing planned obsolescence. Also, problems could happen with updates if not released properly.

One of these problematic updates happened last week with the Jeep 4xe. Apparently, they published a buggy update, and bricked all cars that installed it. The owners who installed this update cannot use the car on the weekend, until Jeep releases a fix. Also, the problem was more serious, as the problem appeared while driving, losing power until it stopped completely, with the potential of generating dangerous situations. Imagine that this happens while doing an overtake, it could generate a HUGE problem.

For me, this situation is unacceptable and you should have the option of having a disconnected car if you want to. I really like cars, but nowadays cars are becoming less interesting for me. Nowadays, we have a lot of buggy, privacy-invasive, generic electric SUVs that look like washing machines with planned obsolescence. For me, this is not innovation, and nowadays you should know more about regulations than cars to make a good choice. This is ridiculous and stops me from buying a car. But it is true that living in Korea, a car is not needed at all; the whole situation is still sad and disappointing.

Source. Arstechnica