And the horse you rode in on

[Galant]

https://apnews.com/4a749a4211904784826b45e812cff4ca - "If your Tesla knows where you are, China may too"

Lede: "SHANGHAI (AP) — When Shan Junhua bought his white Tesla Model X, he knew it was a fast, beautiful car. What he didn’t know is that Tesla constantly sends information about the precise location of his car to the Chinese government.

Tesla is not alone. China has called upon all electric vehicle manufacturers in China to make the same kind of reports — potentially adding to the rich kit of surveillance tools available to the Chinese government as President Xi Jinping steps up the use of technology to track Chinese citizens.

“I didn’t know this,” said Shan. “Tesla could have it, but why do they transmit it to the government? Because this is about privacy.”

More than 200 manufacturers, including Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Mitsubishi and U.S.-listed electric vehicle start-up NIO, transmit position information and dozens of other data points to government-backed monitoring centers, The Associated Press has found. Generally, it happens without car owners’ knowledge."


This is ultimately more about China, who are already notorious for their oppressive monitoring of citizens/comrades, but still, the tracking of data by in-vehicle software in and of itself could well rear its head elsewhere.

Onward marches the progress of technology such that automatic fines for speeding (based on speedometer/GPS tracking), as well as other 'inappropriate' or criminal behaviour of a vehicle. Of course, that may also mean securely 'logging in' to your vehicle to know who is driving it, which also means increased cyber-security, and a whole slew of other 'developments'.

This sort of thing really makes me wonder about 'progress'. Is all the added stress worth it, especially with other concerns on the line?

How smart do we really need our vehicles to be?

[pp05]

Digital makes it easy to do.

[BobF64]

China has called upon all electric vehicle manufacturers in China to make the same kind of reports — potentially adding to the rich kit of surveillance tools available to the Chinese government as President Xi Jinping steps up the use of technology to track Chinese citizens.

Rule 1. Know your local laws.
Rule 2. Know your Government.

I guess the Chinese aren't very aware of their own country, which, tbh, doesn't surprise me.