SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Now that automobile manufacturers are almost more about software than hardware, your car company may know more about you than your spouse based on all the sensors in your car. The incentive to collect driver and passenger data is great. Every piece of data is used to increase revenue, especially if sold onward to third-parties.
Dunn may consider his everyday driving habits mundane, but auto and privacy experts suspect that big automakers like Honda see them as anything but. By monitoring his everyday movements, an automaker can vacuum up a massive amount of personal information about someone like Dunn, everything from how fast he drives and how hard he brakes to how much fuel his car uses and the entertainment he prefers. The company can determine where he shops, the weather on his street, how often he wears his seat belt, what he was doing moments before a wreck — even where he likes to eat and how much he weighs.
Though drivers may not realize it, tens of millions of American cars are being monitored like Dunn's, experts say, and the number increases with nearly every new vehicle that is leased or sold.
The result is that carmakers have turned on a powerful spigot of precious personal data, often without owners' knowledge, transforming the automobile from a machine that helps us travel to a sophisticated computer on wheels that offers even more access to our personal habits and behaviors than smartphones do.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rivenaleem on Wednesday January 17 2018, @02:53PM (10 children)
Is it common in the US for drivers to have such an unhealthy relationship with their vehicles? Or is this the reason behind such high divorce rates there? Do you not interact more often with your spouse than your car? Do you not have a broader range of interests than your driving habits? Does your car know you leave your socks on the bedroom floor? Does your car know your favourite movie/food/music (well maybe music).
"everything from how fast he drives and how hard he brakes to how much fuel his car uses and the entertainment he prefers. The company can determine where he shops, the weather on his street, how often he wears his seat belt, what he was doing moments before a wreck — even where he likes to eat and how much he weighs."
My spouse know ALL these things and more about me. Except the bit about the wreck, thankfully I've not been in one.
While I like a clickbait, incendiary, headline as much as the next guy, are we not going a bit over the top on "just how much your car knows about you"?
I'm guessing the headline "Cars with sensors know all the things you'd expect a car with sensors to know about you" wasn't interesting enough...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @03:40PM
You would make a lousy advertising exec. Don't be such a party pooper!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by canopic jug on Wednesday January 17 2018, @04:17PM (1 child)
Well, it is alleged that the average commute is about 30 minutes [wtop.com], one direction. So that's 1 hour total round trip. No details are given there about whether parking time is included and the geographical distribution of the drivers. Obviously there are going to be more drivers in congested areas, so it may actually be much higher [cheatsheet.com].
However, that is just the commute. On top of that there are errands, free-time activities, and shuttling the kids around from place to place. So it is quite probable that people in the US waste between 2 and 3 hours per day inside their cars. Those in an urban area might be spending up to 6 hours per day in the car. If it is assumed 8 hours for sleep, that leaves 16 which minus 6 for driving and 9 for work leaves just one hour for hygiene and social interaction, including with the spouse.
It is unhealthy for the individual and society, on both the physical and mental levels.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 17 2018, @05:20PM
Think of the productive time that can be reclaimed once self driving cars rule the rhodes.
Frightening!
Compared to my grueling 10 minute commute with 5 traffic lights.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @04:36PM (3 children)
Yes it probably does and your finances, your sexual preferences and your medical conditions.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Wednesday January 17 2018, @05:27PM (2 children)
Does your car share this information with Google, Alexa, Cortana, Siri, Roku, Samsung, your hospital, doctor, insurance company, employer, and others?
Maybe there needs to be a new industry organization: Personal Information Gathering Association.
Or just: PIGA
Or maybe Personal Information Sharing Service.
Sort of like the movie GATTACA except with personal information instead of genes.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1) by ewk on Thursday January 18 2018, @02:14PM (1 child)
LMFTFY: With personal information AND genes.
You do shed skin cells don't you?
Only a matter of time before that nifty new sensor upgrade package performs some on-the-fly dna-analysis.
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday January 18 2018, @02:33PM
That sounds really paranoid. Crazy actually.
But then came Snowden. And I realized that my most fantastical paranoid ideas were already reality and had been for a long time.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday January 17 2018, @04:52PM
My car forgives me for farting, leaving my laundry in the corner, for spilling drinks on the upholstery, and much much more. And, the car simply doesn't give a damn why I'm seeing some woman - doesn't even care how old she is, or whether she's prettier than my wife. It just doesn't care about any of the things that are likely to piss the wife off. Yes, of course my care is easier to live with than the wife is. Cheaper too! Don't make me choose between the two, or I'll just give the wife to you!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday January 17 2018, @06:00PM (1 child)
> Is it common in the US for drivers to have such an unhealthy relationship with their vehicles?
Yes. In America, men love their cars more than their women. For some men, the car is an extension of their manhood, and the primary way to show off (or fake) wealth, power, and status. There was a brief fad with solid gold rims for the wheels, but the fad faded quickly after several owners were murdered for their rims.
The whole nation is oriented around the car, just the way Ford, GM, and Chrysler wanted. The only exception is the airplane for fast, long distance travel. If you don't have a car in America, you will quickly discover how hard it is to get places. So many bridges have zero room for pedestrians, and anyway, walking is only for the lowest of the low class. Public transport is very patchy and slow.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @08:44PM
My car is cheaper than any woman. (And it is a semi-luxury model.)
My car rarely complains.
My car is dependable.
My car is not terribly pretty, but she's got it where it counts.
My car goes on almost every journey with me.
But my car does not mind when go off on my own with an airplane.
My car would never cheat on me.
I do realize that not all cars can fit these terms. I advice people to get out of those relationships and find one they can love.