may be of interest to this community
As cars become ever more sophisticated pieces of technology, they’ve begun sharing information about their drivers, sometimes with unnerving consequences.
Kashmir Hill, a features writer for The Times, explains what information cars can log and what that can mean for their owners.
I’m in the market for a car, and it’s annoying how much research I need to do just to decide which model years are acceptable…
I just bought a new truck back in December, and I feel you. Your best bet might be to find something a little on the older side with low miles that has no connectivity features whatsoever. Carmax was a great resource for this, but I still had to do a significant amount of research before doing anything. Avoid GM/GMC like the plague, OnStar is officially spyware at this point, and Ford with their Sync crap isn’t any better. Basically, avoid anything that offers LTE or WiFi capability, but also beware that even pairing Bluetooth to your car can be a breachpoint.
The classic 4chan cars for under 5K chart still largely holds up today.
Take it with a grain of salt and perhaps bump the years up by a decade or so.
Personally i would take a 20 year old car with low milage that still has solid saftey features and a comfortable interior vs a newer car with better technology, but arguably worse saftey features and undoubtedly worse privacy.
Not to mention it’s going to be cheaper to break some shit on an old car vs a brand new one that’s loaded with sensors and computers. My 2 cents anyways.
Just drive a rustbucket
I currently drive two older cars (>15 years old), and I was hoping to get an EV to replace my commuter (Toyota Prius), but they’re all full of “smart” nonsense. Hopefully someone ends up making a sensible, simple EV w/o the spyware.
@sugar_in_your_tea @possiblylinux127
Good luck with that. You can’t even buy a “dumb” TV anymore.
They are available, selection is just a lot more limited.