Privacy

My French car asks me at startup if I allow it to send my data. The default settings if I don't answer by 10 seconds is the last one, i.e. "no than you". Thank you EU.

None of this has anything to do with the car's powertrain. Regular internal combustion engine cars are just as bad as EVs in this regard.

I was lucky enough to buy new in 2017, just before all the ridiculous privacy violations hit the fast lane

By the time this car is done for, I will have no option available that is not a privacy violation on wheels... jailbreaking/hacking will be my #1 purchase criteria of whatever my next car will be

Well that's it, I'm just going to drive my 23-year-old 350Z Roadster forever. As a 90s computer geek, I would have never imagined that future technology would turn me into a classic car guy, yet here we are.

I miss the days when spyware was treated like a virus; now it's the norm.

I have an older Nissan Leaf in Australia. While I'm sure the car is trying to send telemetry, it only has a 3G modem, and the 3G network has been switched off for all of Australia.

If you have a newer car, it may be possible to remove the telematics fuse and ignore the related DTC.

This is a lose-lose-lose.

• New cars don't respect people's privacy.
• New cars cost more due to the extra camera/sensors/compute/connectivity necessary for tracking.
• Less people buy new cars due to increased cost and tracking. Instead drive older, more polluting cars for longer.

I bought a used Chevy bolt EV, for now I've pulled the onstar system fuse which kills the telemetry and GPS+cell antenna. No tracking with no power, it's my car and my battery so I decide what gets my power.

I'm not interested in letting any of these companies screw me over behind my back regardless of who is "less evil," but I've gotten so used to the convenience of EVs that I won't do without one.

I use my phone for navigation and music/podcasts and that still works just fine.

Might at some point look at a more sophisticated way of doing this like removing just the onstar module or terminating its antenna, but for now it's fine.

And all of a sudden data roaming costs isn't an issue anymore ;) Who pays the mobile subscription? Or do car manufacturers pay the telco's with a part of the data gathered ....

List of automotive connectivity module providers: https://www.evbusiness.net/ev-directory/automotive-lte-5g-module-manufacturers/

Find which one your car has. Then see if you can find a repair manual with schematics. Find where the cell antenna connects. Non-destructively disconnect it. This way your telematics won't be affected. It will just look like you're always in a cell dead-zone.

Edit: don't do this if it's a lease, a rental, or there's a loan on the vehicle. If you own it outright and it doesn't void the warranty, go nuts.

I had been actively looking forward to the Slate truck (even though I don't want a truck) for this reason - an EV with modern drivetrain but no BS electronics or telemetry. Unfortunately the price has gone from about $20K - a price appropriate for it's minimalist approach - to "below $30K" and it's not due out for another year, so who knows how it will pan out.

I have a 2014 Chevy volt. Not a full EV, but used ones are affordable and the 3g cell modem no longer works.

We get 30-38 miles per charge depending on the outside temperature which covers most of our day to day driving. It will charge from a regular wall outlet (120v at 8 amps) in 12 hours. The ICE engine gets an oil change every 2 years since it gets rarely used.