Should You Buy a Connected Car?

What would the equivalent of 'denial of service' attacks using thousands of cars instead of computers look like?...especially in the hands of terrorists! All major roads blocked in many or all major cities during a 9-11 type of attack? Using these vehicles to attack whomever/whatever...

I saw a prophetic movie released by the Disney Channel (of all places)named WALL-E. The movie is about a space ship loaded with extremely fat humans who depend upon robotos for eveything from moving from point A to point B to robots simulating physical exercise while the human sat idle on a chair/table. A "throw-back" botor got loose on the spaceship, made friends with one of the modern robots and lead a revolt against the master controlling robot leading to the human landing back on an environmentally disasterous Earth. While the "thro-bots" theme is good in the movie, can you imagine a group of thugs like the drug cartels or a street gang getting control of your car with you/family in it, killing your phone servcie, locking your car's doors and steering your vehicle to a location where they can do whatever their evil hearts desire without fear of being seen or interfered with? I'll pass on AI cars.

No, absolutely not. There are enough sloppy drivers on the road, and boggles the mind to think that when you buy and venture out in one of those vehicles/robots that you are then trusting your life to the all-knowing-idiogeeks who probably have never driven in snow, on ice, in white out rainstorms or winds that can blow you off the road and do not know how to make the necessary corrections to continue on safely or have never paid real attention to the idiot opposition on the road. No, absolutely not.

I want to drive the car myself. If I buy it its mine isn't it? Can we decrapify a new car similar to the way we decrapify a new computer? If I want tech I'll go to the Apple store not a car dealer.

Truth is, people are not safe drivers. Nor are they efficient drivers. Even the best will be bettered in the foreseeable future by "dumb" machines. Sorry folks - you're on the wrong side of history, and science, and economics, and progress, and ...

I won't be buying a connected car and I can sum it up in 3 words: HACK, HACK, & HACK.

WALL-E, the movie, was a great film, though animated, but although I saw it maybe 8 years ago, my recollection of the plot line differs from Roy Adams' recollection.
I will copy an imdb plot summary below.
WALL-E is a garbage robot who has developed many endearing human characteristics. To amuse himself he starts building a house out of all the cubes of garbage he has compressed. And he cares about his insect friend.
He did fall in love with Eva, the cute and deceptively powerful robot there to see if any life has re-emerged on Earth. Eva flips over a weed WALL-E shows her as a curiosity.
Here's the summary:
"In the distant future, humans abandon Earth because there is too much trash on it. WALL-E, with habit of picking up everything he finds interesting, lives alone on the planet with a pet cockroach. He has quite a collection of things, from lighters to a working iPod and even a small ring box (without the ring). He even has the last living plant. When a spaceship comes to earth and drops a sleek and dangerous probe EVE to look for a living plant, WALL-E falls in love with her. WALL-E gives her the plant, which makes EVE go into sleep mode. When a spaceship comes to take EVE back, WALL-E too goes with her. What follows is an adventure onboard the Axiom, where people move on hovering chairs and get liquid food which they suck up through a straw. Due to laziness, they have become so fat that they are unable to move. Due to hastily given instructions given to it, auto, the autopilot it tries to get rid of the plant which compels WALL-E, EVE, the pilot and some malfunctioning robots to find a way to retrieve the plant and save the earth."

If you haven't seen it try and download it; it's fun. And no Disney flick will have an ending that has viewers go away depressed that goodness lost. WALL-E's a very endearing character who by the human characteristics he has developed, implies no matter how garbagey things are programmed to be, the best of humanity, like weeds, keeps popping up.

This was the only time in memory that I have had no desire to read your article.

I know the answer like it was tattooed on my forehead.

Besides, I have my phone so Google will always know the address I am trying to find so that they can send me some ADS!!!!!!

Maybe I will reconsider after they outlaw cash.

EMP, anyone?

Anyone remember Kitt from the Knight Rider series? At the time, everyone who saw or heard about the series wanted one. Some bought expensive remote systems that controlled the locks, windows, and even started/stopped the engine. One car I saw had a sequential red light bar installed in the grill.

It would really be nice to have a car that would drop you off at a store's entrance, find its own parking space, and come back when your were finished shopping. Kitt became so sophisticated that it could even carry on a conversation with the driver.

At the time, the greatest threat to the Internet was unwanted p**no. Then someone found a way to hack into systems and ruined everything.

Yes, a car like that would be really nice - if someone could find a way to make it hack-proof. Until then, I'll pass. It's enough hassle just trying to protect my home computer without having to worry about a bunch of other Internet-connected items [oven go to self-clean when you are making a casserole, refrigerator shut down spoiling everything inside, microwave start when there is nothing in it, toaster being changed from light to charred, heater kick in when it's 90 or the air conditioner run when it's below zero, ... No Thank You].

BobM, some people don't drive to "efficiently" get to a specific locale, they drive for the sheer pleasure of it, and on a sunny day might spend hours meandering about. My younger brother is exactly like that. Since he starts off without a known destination he can't make use of any computerized program that wants to plot his course. Is he to be denied this pleasure because Google or Tesla want to give him their idea of a better ride?
I'm getting to the point where I can foresee a motorized golf cart parked in front of a small senior citizen apartment. Hopefully that is still a decade away but you never know... I do believe that if the day comes when "they" take the keys to the golf cart away from me, then at that point I probably should not be outdoors without supervision. Until then, I drive!

Having been a coder (with you, Bob!) I know that despite the most scrupulous review, no code will be perfect. Hence I am highly skeptical of the safety of self-driving cars or the wisdom of having everything connected. I can't bring myself to trust in it totally.

What's the point? What's the benefit to me? We keep hearing about distracted driving and how dangerous it is. Why can't we concentrate on driving and leave all the connectivity to your home or business where you might need a small percentage of the connectivity you now have. All of this at the end of the day comes down to how much money companies can make off your data or by selling you data. Whether it's just the cost of bandwidth or some other form, they aren't doing this for your benefit, it's for money. It's amazing how people managed to survive in the pre-smartphone era. If you don't update your social apps in the next five minutes, your "friends" might forget that you exist.

Good article on the corporate state mind. I wounder how we got this far without it. I concur with many of the blogs and do remember when I had no set destination and a love for the road,fresh air wind in my long hair back then. Today's generations have little knowledge of being disconnected and free.
Thanks, Phil

We need to allow the killing of hackers once identified. There is nothing that deters crime, like the death of criminals.

Top Squirrel, re GPS, my wife and I call it "Lady Map" because it has a female voice and can't navigate.

This could lead to the police hacking into your car computer and checking your speed from their office then mailing you a ticket.

I won't be buying a connected car until somebody makes one in which the computers which control the car's driving systems are isolated from the computers which talk to the outside world. Who are the retards who 'thought' (and I'm using the word very loosely here) that giving outside agencies access to engine and transmission control, steering, braking, etc. lived in the same galaxy as 'good idea'?

The world was a better place when cars had running boards and vent windows -- and no GPS.

Last winter I rented a house in Tucson, AZ. A talking GPS nearly drove me nuts until I figured out how to shut it off.

The GPS was possibly useful the first two or three times I had to navigate through a new neighborhood. Thereafter the voice would continue telling me to turn right, turn left, stop, etc., all information that any competent driver would learn in short order.

When I was in Death Valley National Park there was a ranger talk called "101 Ways to Die in Death Valley." Most had to do with extreme heat and getting lost. There's a new one: excessively relying on a GPS. Visitors were driving off cliffs rather than doubt the machine.

What fathead thinks it's OK to connect a car's control mechanisms to anything outside the car?
Are car companies hiring children?