Every new vehicle for the last 15 years (and 20 years for GM) has a 3G, 4G or 5G antenna and bulk contracts with cellular providers to allow constant connections and data usage. The paid services are all on top of that, but they are all sending data up constantly even if you don't have any paid services.
They send up speed at every recorded interval, all locations you stop at, your location at all recorded intervals, some subset of engine and system diagnostics at all recorded intervals.
That is just the public stuff. There is no way to know what they do beyond that. And don't forget your mic can be turned on remotely and record at any time. Your car can be shutoff remotely at any time.
The communication systems (the piece that sends and recieves data) can be disabled to varying degrees, but you need to do it yourself. Chrysler is the easiest. GM varies depending on the year and ranges from removing a chip to unplugging the antenna, and Ford is very difficult because they also have several wifi sensors that do who knows what.
And even if you disable the comms, everything is still recorded on internal drives that are now in a legal grey area to mess with.
They generally have some way to try to contact the manufacturer to request to opt out of the data collection, but I've not heard of anyone who is certain they have really been opted out, plus you would just have to trust they aren't doing it (and with software these days, new updates always seem to accidentally mess with settings and you might just end up getting collected on again).
How is the data getting uploaded?
Do the cars have sim cards in the computers with wireless and mobile signals? Who is paying for the mobile service?
Or are the cars hijacking your phone's network to phone home?
Damn. So the new vehicle has a mobile sim card that is active and communicating wirelessly through a mobile network?
I know those OnStar gadgets have mobile network cards in them but i thought it was a paid service.
I wonder if OnStar or something similar is not embedded in the computer of each new vehicle
Every new vehicle for the last 15 years (and 20 years for GM) has a 3G, 4G or 5G antenna and bulk contracts with cellular providers to allow constant connections and data usage. The paid services are all on top of that, but they are all sending data up constantly even if you don't have any paid services.
They send up speed at every recorded interval, all locations you stop at, your location at all recorded intervals, some subset of engine and system diagnostics at all recorded intervals.
That is just the public stuff. There is no way to know what they do beyond that. And don't forget your mic can be turned on remotely and record at any time. Your car can be shutoff remotely at any time.
The communication systems (the piece that sends and recieves data) can be disabled to varying degrees, but you need to do it yourself. Chrysler is the easiest. GM varies depending on the year and ranges from removing a chip to unplugging the antenna, and Ford is very difficult because they also have several wifi sensors that do who knows what.
And even if you disable the comms, everything is still recorded on internal drives that are now in a legal grey area to mess with.
They generally have some way to try to contact the manufacturer to request to opt out of the data collection, but I've not heard of anyone who is certain they have really been opted out, plus you would just have to trust they aren't doing it (and with software these days, new updates always seem to accidentally mess with settings and you might just end up getting collected on again).