I would like to share some concerns about the way modern cars, including our Z4, are constantly connected to the car maker servers.
Pretty much all new cars have a sim card used for:
- Sat nav and traffic information
- Emergency breakdown assistance
- Remote checks
Modern cars have a sim card which the majority of the customers are not aware of, a microphone in the car for voice activated functions and remote assistance as a premium package.
In a nutshell, when we use our cars, the car maker can know everything that is happening in the car: speed, location and also potentially what we say in the car.
This to me is already disturbing enough and, if the car maker can have all this information, so can the Government should they want to legally force car makers to handle all this data for national security reasons or what not.
All the above has already happened for other sectors so I'm not discussing whether it's possible, legal or probable. If it can be done, it will be done.
My car dealer told me many times that when taking a new car for personal use, he and his colleagues switch off all the advanced features as they don't trust and don't approve this invasion of privacy.
The problem is that they cannot switch everything off, for example the sim card connection, unless you go fiddle with the wiring and/or hack the software.
Car makers seem to justify this by telling customers that they want to help drivers, forgetting that if you cannot drive a car properly without assistance of any sort, you should probably not have a driving license in the first place.
The reality is that this data is part of big data collected from other sources and it is used for real-time analysis of cars, traffic, routes, habits, and so on at the sole benefits of car makers and ultimately the Government.
Recently, an official communication from some Governments said that the new cars will have to have a black box and a kill switch to be used from the Law Enforcement.
Apart from the dangers of switching off the car remotely when the car is moving on the road and performing actions like overtaking, avoiding obstacles or else, the implementation sounds like a nanny state that considers you a 5 year old child incapable of having individual freedom and judgement, and wants to tell you when you can use the car, where you can use the car and at what conditions.
I am hoping people can see the shift towards a more and more centralized form of control in all aspects of our society, but sticking to the subject of cars that I have described above, has any of you thought about these problems and is anyone talking about this in the industry?
Are there associations of car drivers or car enthusiasts that are trying to put pressure on the Governments on this matter?
