cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/49178
I took my first ride in a Chinese car recently. Not in the U.S., of course, since sky-high tariffs have made them almost impossible to import. I was visiting family in the U.K., and we rented a BYD Sealion SUV. And let me tell you: I saw immediately why American car companies are desperate to have these things kept out of this country. It was elegantly designed, incredibly comfortable, and a smooth ride.
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I’m in IT and personally I’d genuinely like to see a “grey hat” examination of the internet traffic they send/receive before I’m ready to listen to a car reviewer giving reviews on how nice the seats are or charging is.
The fact that I work in IT is also why my home is secured with security doors and deadbolts.It’s worth looking into how much data modern US cars are gathering as well, if you’re concerned with that. Frankly, it seems like you’re just deciding who gets your data at a certain point.
If I’m ever forced to buy a new car you better believe I’m finding the lte module and faraday caging that shit, regardless of what emblem is on the grill.
Hear me out. Your car, your phone, and these days, the streets themselves practically track you everywhere you go. They are creating a pattern profile for you, and for everyone else. I’m not saying this is a good thing, but the silver lining is that we know about it.
Wanna be invisible for a day? Throw your phone in the car and have your partner or friend drive around with it. The logs for that day will show you being a happy little drone driving around like normal. Here is the thing… As the surveillance state gets more and more toys to play with, they forget the important basics, the primitive tools, the personal skills, and the willingness to do the legwork that actually matters.
If it makes you feel better/differently about the effectiveness of surveillance. Some guy kidnapped Nancy Guthrie, got captured on camera, sent a ransom note, and we still don’t know who the fuck he is.
…But they’ll know it’s your friend driving. The cars have cameras in them. And microphones.
It doesn’t work like that, and you can expect it to go into limp mode until it can phone home.
Maybe so. In that case I’m thinking a few gallons of gasoline and a match may handle the situation.
I’m just never buying a car made after 2018.
Also, how long are the gimmick features like in car karaoke going to last and how much will it be to repair them?
The assumption they will be repairable at all is wishful thinking at this point, but that’s not really what I’m worried about. Every new car has LTE and I don’t trust even American companies with telemetry, let alone a nation state that requires their exporters to share data with their governement.
The US govt can and has done the same, minimize everything
Yeah… As much as I’d love to ride an EV, i think i need to stick to an older gas car just to avoid all the tracking.
I bought a 2018 car in 2022 and was a bit pissed about the tracking. There was a dialog to turn it off but it kept popping up. But then I realized that the built in cell was 3G and they canceled that network nationwide. Just a thought if you are buying a used car.
I have nothing at all against EVs what-so-ever, but I do have a problem with telemetry/data collection/always-connected-equipment of any kind.
As an Australian im ok with the chinese tracking me, what i don’t want is my government or a 5eyes nation tracking me, my government is the one who wants to do me harm.
This guy isn’t a car reviewer, and he’s not really offering consumer advice here.
Yeah, we should be able to control what data the automakers are keeping.
That’s a fair enough point- I suppose I think anyone talking about a car is a “Reviewer”, but I understand they’re not doing it for a living.
No one trusts the Chinese. Do we trust the Germans? Certainly the level of trust in the Americans has fallen based on the Donny the Demented storm trooper state. The Chinese play a long game where the free marketeers play short term profits and it’s obvious that they have produced a black swan.
They’re cheap because BYD received about $1.86 billion dollars in government subsidies last year.
Like in other sectors, they flood the market with cheap goods to put competitors out of business. Then they’re the only car company in town and they have you by the balls.
Hey! That’s our thing…
We could also subsidize this if we chose to. It’s not cheating, they don’t have to play by America’s made-up rules that they don’t follow themselves.
Most western countries subsidize the purchase of EVs, regardless of where they’re manufactured. China subsidizes manufacturing EVs (and also purchase, but that’s irrelevant if you’re not buying in China). If you buy a Chinese EV in a western country that has EV subsidies, they get to double dip in subsidies, while also paying their employees significantly less due to the lower CoL in China.
Should European countries also start subsidizing manufacturing? I don’t think we could afford it, particularly if we wanted to truly compete and subsidize cars sold to China as well, like they do. China simply has too much money and it’s amplified even further by the super cheap labour.
So what?
As if the US government or US compabies don’t play the same “underhanded” tactics to harm competition.
Selling at a loss to earn market share is a perfectly valid strategy for US corpos. Why is China supposedly doing the exact same thing suddenly not as nice?
Lemme guess “because they’re better than American cars”
Because they want you to be a fucking debt slave and die penniless.
(That’s why they’re bragging about how well credit card companies are doing right now.)
“Hey, check out this fun new gambling app! EVERYBODY is playing it!”
I drive an MGS5 EV - MG is a British brand, but it’s manufactured by SAIC Motors. Every bit a Chinese company. I traded a VW ID.4 for it . . and WHAT AN UPGRADE. Better across the board - faster charging, longer real world range, much, MUCH better software . . . all for 25% less than the ID.4.
Jim Farley is right to be terrified . . . Both the American and the German legacy car companies are screwed.
I’ve been in many a Chinese Didi. Much like the cheaper Teslas the hardware in these cars is exceptional for the price, but nothing else about it really stands up past the first glance.
Software is distracting and UI is terrible. I’m sure privacy is nonexistent which is scary when you consider the car can see and hear everything you do and know everywhere you go.
Would I buy one? No. But I welcome more competition in the EV space, and something at an introductory price point that may get some skeptics to try something new.
Privacy is also nonexistent on all other car brands. The best thing to do is probably to disable the car modem. They might still collect information, but will be unable to transmit it.
Personally I don’t even find their interior elegant.
It’s all about the “national car manufacturers profit security”. Nothing more, nothing less.
Maybe make regulations to limit the degree to which any car sold can spy on citizens? Nah, let’s limit competition so U.S. companies can keep making huge profits from inferior cars that still spy on everyone with no need to up their game.
For real. Every. Damn. Time.
Like if you want privacy or control of your car in the US you have to buy cars slowly becoming antiques or rip and replace a bunch of electronics not built to be maintanced at all. Doesn’t matter the country of origin. I think I’d rather EU, Japanese, or South Korean spying at this point but what a hell of a choice…
the headlights can project movies
unironically yes. I saw a Sony? branded EV with a long thin screen on the front bumper playing Ghost of Yotai trailers.
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/huawei-unveils-car-that-can-project-movies-with-its-headlights/
Huawei cars dont have a screen on the front. They project the movie out of the headlights.
If only U.S. companies could innovate and reinvest instead of spending billions on stock buybacks to drive up share price. Big 3 apparently authorized $5 billion in buybacks in 2022/2023.
Id rather be spied on by a country whose jurisdiction I am not within
Funny how legislators are scared of Chinese cars crossing the Mexican border
The real question is what has made the USA auto industry so uncompetitive. Answer: protectionism. So, will even more protectionism make things better?
Xiaomi SU7 Max for a few weeks, she literally started writing it love notes:
Or…
Xiaomi SU7 Max for a few weeks, she started writing it love notes:
If modern cars weren’t filled with tracking and surveillance equipment that empowers a foreign, not so friendly, state, then it wouldn’t be such a concern.
