Your car is spying on you.
That is one takeaway from the fast, detailed data that Tesla collected on the driver of one of its Cybertrucks that exploded in Las Vegas earlier this week. Privacy data experts say the deep dive by Elon Musk’s company was impressive, but also shines a spotlight on a difficult question as vehicles become less like cars and more like computers on wheels.
“You might want law enforcement to have the data to crack down on criminals, but can anyone have access to it?” said Jodi Daniels, CEO of privacy consulting firm Red Clover Advisors. “Where is the line?”
Many of the latest cars not only know where you’ve been and where you are going, but also often have access to your contacts, your call logs, your texts and other sensitive information thanks to cell phone syncing.
All car companies do. Their data also got leaked (German Source in more detail).
Even Tesla showed that they are able to gain control over customers cars remotely (article is from 2022). They are able to add or remove features at their own will. In this particular case it was a sign of good will by enabling this feature. But it can also go into the opposite direction (e.g. they disable features).
I cannot imagine that gaining control over someones car is a good thing in the future, considering Musks power and political influence. Next things are that cars of people who dare to citizise him or his politics are spied into or being altered immoveable. And soon other bootlicker manufacturers will be following the same path, in fear of economical disadvantages.