Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Didn’t somebody here just complain their car insurance went up by 30%? My Toyota displays a red warning message on the dash when I exceed the posted speed limit.
@Derf - They used to say “Don’t come a knocking when it’s rocking.”
From what I’ve read Tesla’s the worst offender - more so when auto-pilot is engaged. But most seem to track car location and things like how long it’s parked somewhere, when the trunk or doors open, etc. I love the tech features, but are they worth the cost of privacy. And how soon before insurers will refuse to pay claims based on something the driver did?
They've got to be watching you, if you're not payattention in self drive mode don't they warn you or something.... so I've read or heard.
Yeah - That’s what I’ve heard. I think many key in on your eyes to decipher whether or not you’re paying attention. “Automatic lane-tracing”, which my last 2 had, is lot less sophisticated than auto-pilot (self-driving). I use it a lot. It senses the slight resistance of a hand on the steering wheel and sounds alarms / cuts-off if your hand is removed very long. ISTM it’s about 15-20 seconds.
I’d love full self-driving. A lot of cars now allow it on “limited access” roadways (ie expressways). Some GM models. The catch is you need to pay a monthly subscription fee to have it enabled.
local guy had to carry his toddler and gear for ~20 min. from swimming pool. cellphone died, and was using to open\start his tesla. guess where the charger sat.
I hope self driving cars improve to a point I can get in and say take me to X and it does... what a benefit to older drivers who should no longer drive.
Friend is a schoolbus driver. He tells me the "security" camera was used to demerit a co-worker who was "caught" just momentarily closing his eyes AT A RED LIGHT. This whole business has gone way too effing far.
It’s spooky. My Toyota seems to receive software updates regularly, though I’m not informed.
Lately it’s decided to turn on the left turn flashers when I’m parked along a street as soon as I get in and start the engine. Damn - I’d rather decide when to turn on the flashers than have the car do it for me. What next?
I do appreciate the automatic braking. It’s quick at noticing when somebody pulls out in front or slams on the brakes unexpectedly. One problem, it can’t tell that I’m getting ready to enter a left turn (center) lane as I approach a busy intersection. So, it sees the cars straight ahead in my drive lane and puts on the brakes prematurely. A bit annoying. But easy to override.
Spooky. Ya wonder who may be seated at a monitor somewhere and watching you as you drive!
As for me, I ride the bus. The newer busses come with all the latest "new and improved," hyper-vigilant, annoying, alarming, bullshit bells, whistles and ALARMS. The driver can be simply steering around a parked car, but the effing computer sends the beep beep beep beep beep alarm signal. Loud enough to wake the dead. Loud enough to insert a conscience inside Donald Trump. Loud enough to give passengers a headache. Loud enough to give passengers a heart attack. It just plain sucks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_processing_sensitivity
You guy sound like you have wives nagging at you. My truck don't say nothin at me, and that's the way I like it.
What’s really annoying is the sticker-shaker (rattling steering wheel) that activates on many cars if, as @Derf mentions, you swing out a bit to miss a pothole. Even worse if you need to move over a foot or two to avoid a biker or construction crew. Had me mystified with my 2008 Honda until i searched online and learned it can be deactivated in the car’s settings. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t know that and put up with the aggravation. Rental cars are another matter. I still have trouble turning the headlights on - let alone messing with vehicle settings.
You’re a quick learner OJ. I think you should buy a new vehicle just to learn how all this stuff operates.
Just about all of it can be deactivated. Mine has the full gamut, stopping short of full self driving. It does have a traffic jam assist function that will drive the car in a traffic jam on certain highways under 40 MPH. Not a Tesla.
I have had most of these functions on a couple other cars previously, but implementation is everything. And I try to get used to all of them. The ones I do not like I turn off. On a previous car I had auto bright lights. They were too busy and mostly inaccurate. With my current car they work perfectly.
Lane change assist is cool too. If you put on the turn signal, the car will auto lane change when it is safe to do so. I like it. I use adaptive cruise all of the time. I have it set to 5MPH over the limit and it keeps the car centered and slows for traffic ahead. With a HUD, I never have to take my eyes off the road.
Other cars I have had, the voice activation system were not great. This one is near perfect. I can control nearly everything from defroster to wipers to HVAC. I keep trying new stuff to see what works. Ambient lighting? Yep. Messaging seats? Yep. I find the trick is to learn a new function every few times I drive. Just keep trying new things.
Point being that all of this is getting better everyday. More seamless.
Can one by a vehicle today where the default option for all of these functions is OFF and not on?
No. I don’t think so. But you can turn off 90% of the stuff ISTM. Depends on make and model. Test driving and buying a new vehicle is a lot more challenging then years ago. One irritant is the “auto engine off” (gas engines only) when you come to a stop. It’s a way to save few drops fuel & increase their advertised EPA mileage numbers. But irritating as hell when you press the accelerator and the engine restarts. Most let you disable it in varying degrees. With BMW, which I test drove, it needs to be turned off every time you drive the car or it resets to “on.” One of many reasons I prefer hybrids which don’t use that feature.
The best features are the rear view cameras (now mandated by law) . Once you have it you won’t want to be without. Mine even sounds an alarm if somebody starts to walk behind you when backing out of a spot. Priceless. As I noted earlier, the few cars I’ve driven having the lane departure feature (stick-shaker) have allowed (default) disengagement. But test drive the thing to hell. My salesman didn’t like that I pressed the lane-keeping function to the limits to determine how long one might keep hands off the wheel and consequences (warnings, etc.) if exceeded. I think he was ready to jump out!
Some of the features can be badly implemented. Some not as effective as they may eventually be. But, as aids to older drivers, with slower reflexes and less than perfect vision, there are many that can be pretty darn helpful.
Adaptive headlights with variable light distribution are pretty great. They can illuminate the periphery when driving slower on city streets, for instance, while shining farther and brighter when driving faster on dark roads. They can also dim the portion of the lights that would blind oncoming drivers, while keeping the high beams on other areas.
Sure, some are still a bit gimmicky, but some will just keep getting better. Anyone who ever noticed the windows fogging up and was searching for that little button in the dark, has to appreciate voice activation that actually works.
Shut off the lousy stuff, but embrace the winners!
My current, somewhat older vehicle (2011 model year) doesn't have an infotainment system or electronic roadside assistance so it should not be susceptible to automakers' data collection. It really irritates me when companies harvest our private data often without our explicit permission. This data is frequently shared with or sold to third parties without our knowledge. I'm pleased that California requires companies to let their customers opt out of having their data collected, shared, and sold and that 15 other states have enacted similar privacy laws. It would be better yet if the U.S. adopted an Opt-In Consent Model similar to that of the European Union. I'm certain U.S. corporations would staunchly oppose these measures since their profits could be impaired.
@derf Exactly, as I get older I appreciate this stuff.
I also find it really interesting how it evolves. One can trace the most advance driving aids back to the advent of anti-lock brakes. Next you add a few sensors, a camera, radar, a better processor, some software, electric power steering, and pretty soon the freaking thing can drive itself. I find it fascinating.
Yikes! 10 months after buying the Camry I stumbled upon “Air Play” “Car Play in the settings today - and got it to work. The bluetooth connection I’d been using for Apple music sounded damn good after I upgraded the speakers and added a subwoofer. But with Car Play it blows me away. Apparently the car has some type of built in wifi that allows the clearer streaming between cellphone and car. Nuts!
@Observant1 I agree about the privacy issues. We need stronger controls. And better education. At the moment the cat is out of the bag. In reality, most everything that they can get from your car, they already could get from your phone. Location, acceleration, deceleration, cornering forces. They can even tell if you were distracted from phone usage history.
In my experience, many people are complacent about how much personal data is out there to be exploited. Very early in my career I had a job in customer service, working with customer phone bills. people would call to complain about calls that they believed were not theirs (they were ALWAYS their usage). Policy was to "trust and adjust", meaning to give credit for calls that were disavowed, if they got agitated.
You would be amazed what could be discerned from just their phone bills, and from the people's bills that they called. A person doubts a call. I look up the bill of the person who they called. There are return calls to someone with the same last name in the same small town. Turns out it is a relative. "Oh, yeah, that is my sister's friend's number!" LOL
The best is when they called to complain about dozens of calls to adult entertainment "800 numbers". This was the 1980s. I note that they all occurred on holiday weekends. So I ask, do you have a young adult, possibly home from college over the holidays? Some funny shiat, right there! "Never mind", they say, "I'll take care of it".
"In reality, most everything that they can get from your car, they already could get from your phone. Location, acceleration, deceleration, cornering forces. They can even tell if you were distracted from phone usage history."
Mobile phones are portable surveillance systems that can be used to track or spy on their owners. There are alternate mobile operating systems available to ameliorate privacy issues. GrapheneOS is one such option.
Also add to what they can get from your phone and your car, that which they can get from your credit card usage, social media posts, home security systems, cameras, voice assistants, traffic cameras, and your entire circle of friends similar data. It is mind-boggling.
George Orwell was only thinking in analog, when he wrote 1984.
Comments
From what I’ve read Tesla’s the worst offender - more so when auto-pilot is engaged. But most seem to track car location and things like how long it’s parked somewhere, when the trunk or doors open, etc. I love the tech features, but are they worth the cost of privacy. And how soon before insurers will refuse to pay claims based on something the driver did?
I’d love full self-driving. A lot of cars now allow it on “limited access” roadways (ie expressways). Some GM models. The catch is you need to pay a monthly subscription fee to have it enabled.
local guy had to carry his toddler and gear for ~20 min. from swimming pool.
cellphone died, and was using to open\start his tesla. guess where the charger sat.
No, you stupid car! The door is a DOOR!
Lately it’s decided to turn on the left turn flashers when I’m parked along a street as soon as I get in and start the engine. Damn - I’d rather decide when to turn on the flashers than have the car do it for me. What next?
I do appreciate the automatic braking. It’s quick at noticing when somebody pulls out in front or slams on the brakes unexpectedly. One problem, it can’t tell that I’m getting ready to enter a left turn (center) lane as I approach a busy intersection. So, it sees the cars straight ahead in my drive lane and puts on the brakes prematurely. A bit annoying. But easy to override.
Spooky. Ya wonder who may be seated at a monitor somewhere and watching you as you drive!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_processing_sensitivity
You’re a quick learner OJ. I think you should buy a new vehicle just to learn how all this stuff operates.
I have had most of these functions on a couple other cars previously, but implementation is everything. And I try to get used to all of them. The ones I do not like I turn off. On a previous car I had auto bright lights. They were too busy and mostly inaccurate. With my current car they work perfectly.
Lane change assist is cool too. If you put on the turn signal, the car will auto lane change when it is safe to do so. I like it. I use adaptive cruise all of the time. I have it set to 5MPH over the limit and it keeps the car centered and slows for traffic ahead. With a HUD, I never have to take my eyes off the road.
Other cars I have had, the voice activation system were not great. This one is near perfect. I can control nearly everything from defroster to wipers to HVAC. I keep trying new stuff to see what works. Ambient lighting? Yep. Messaging seats? Yep. I find the trick is to learn a new function every few times I drive. Just keep trying new things.
Point being that all of this is getting better everyday. More seamless.
The best features are the rear view cameras (now mandated by law) . Once you have it you won’t want to be without. Mine even sounds an alarm if somebody starts to walk behind you when backing out of a spot. Priceless. As I noted earlier, the few cars I’ve driven having the lane departure feature (stick-shaker) have allowed (default) disengagement. But test drive the thing to hell. My salesman didn’t like that I pressed the lane-keeping function to the limits to determine how long one might keep hands off the wheel and consequences (warnings, etc.) if exceeded. I think he was ready to jump out!
The Most Annoying New Car Features
Adaptive headlights with variable light distribution are pretty great. They can illuminate the periphery when driving slower on city streets, for instance, while shining farther and brighter when driving faster on dark roads. They can also dim the portion of the lights that would blind oncoming drivers, while keeping the high beams on other areas.
Sure, some are still a bit gimmicky, but some will just keep getting better. Anyone who ever noticed the windows fogging up and was searching for that little button in the dark, has to appreciate voice activation that actually works.
Shut off the lousy stuff, but embrace the winners!
or electronic roadside assistance so it should not be susceptible to automakers' data collection.
It really irritates me when companies harvest our private data often without our explicit permission.
This data is frequently shared with or sold to third parties without our knowledge.
I'm pleased that California requires companies to let their customers opt out of having
their data collected, shared, and sold and that 15 other states have enacted similar privacy laws.
It would be better yet if the U.S. adopted an Opt-In Consent Model similar to that of the European Union.
I'm certain U.S. corporations would staunchly oppose these measures since their profits could be impaired.
I also find it really interesting how it evolves. One can trace the most advance driving aids back to the advent of anti-lock brakes. Next you add a few sensors, a camera, radar, a better processor, some software, electric power steering, and pretty soon the freaking thing can drive itself. I find it fascinating.
Air Play” “Car Play in the settings today - and got it to work. The bluetooth connection I’d been using for Apple music sounded damn good after I upgraded the speakers and added a subwoofer. But with Car Play it blows me away. Apparently the car has some type of built in wifi that allows the clearer streaming between cellphone and car. Nuts!In my experience, many people are complacent about how much personal data is out there to be exploited. Very early in my career I had a job in customer service, working with customer phone bills. people would call to complain about calls that they believed were not theirs (they were ALWAYS their usage). Policy was to "trust and adjust", meaning to give credit for calls that were disavowed, if they got agitated.
You would be amazed what could be discerned from just their phone bills, and from the people's bills that they called. A person doubts a call. I look up the bill of the person who they called. There are return calls to someone with the same last name in the same small town. Turns out it is a relative. "Oh, yeah, that is my sister's friend's number!" LOL
The best is when they called to complain about dozens of calls to adult entertainment "800 numbers". This was the 1980s. I note that they all occurred on holiday weekends. So I ask, do you have a young adult, possibly home from college over the holidays? Some funny shiat, right there! "Never mind", they say, "I'll take care of it".
Location, acceleration, deceleration, cornering forces.
They can even tell if you were distracted from phone usage history."
@DrVenture,
Mobile phones are portable surveillance systems that can be used to track or spy on their owners.
There are alternate mobile operating systems available to ameliorate privacy issues.
GrapheneOS is one such option.
https://grapheneos.org/features
Also add to what they can get from your phone and your car, that which they can get from your credit card usage, social media posts, home security systems, cameras, voice assistants, traffic cameras, and your entire circle of friends similar data. It is mind-boggling.
George Orwell was only thinking in analog, when he wrote 1984.