OT: Electric Vehicles--anyone driving them or seriously looked at them?

[NHAero]

Originally Posted by merckxman

@NHAero: you might want to read this, BOLT owner: How G.M. Tricked Millions of Drivers Into Being Spied On (Including Me) https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/t...5.62haIjJw8wdJ

Thanks. Chevy's web page and app both say I am not enrolled in this Smart Driver program. I don't know what else to do to ensure the car isn't sending data. FWIW, my auto insurance (GEICO) did double this year (so I went to a different company.)

[cgolvin]

Originally Posted by dgauthier

Non-Tesla EV charging stations suck because their owners have conflicting interests.

IME "suck" is an exaggeration (maybe intentional). Eight months of exclusively charging on networks where it's free and, while the experience has lots of room for improvement, overall it's been at worst an occasional annoyance and at best quite smooth.

I don't know VW's ID.4 sales numbers but anecdotally I see a lot of them on the road and I'm pretty sure VW wants those owners to have a good experience. The poor experiences I've had (aside from having to wait) were all due to poor maintenance (app says the station is available and working, it's not) or unreliable software (these are not software companies). I stand by my expectation that both availability and the user experience will continue to improve.

I can believe that the Tesla experience is a lot better, but that brand was a non-starter for me. I hope their network becomes available for my car in the future, but even then it will be my choice of last resort because I don't want to give them a penny of my money.

[Mr. Pink]

And she doesn't even mention the energy needed to charge the thing.

https://twitter.com/Likeshesays/stat...hGDbZiNvQ&s=19

[Mr. Pink]

Self driving cars are safer, I've heard.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...sh-police-say/

[dgauthier]

Originally Posted by cgolvin

(...) I can believe that the Tesla experience is a lot better, but that brand was a non-starter for me. I hope their network becomes available for my car in the future, but even then it will be my choice of last resort because I don't want to give them a penny of my money.

Changing the subject a little, the sentence above^^^ jumped out at me.

A few months ago a friend of mine was proudly showing me how his Model 3 could drive itself around L.A. nearly on its own. Although he calls his 3 "the best car I've ever owned" and he bought a Model Y for his wife, he doesn't plan to buy another Tesla because "Elon Musk is acting like such an asshat."

Certainly a number of factors contributed to Tesla's disappointing '24 first quarter performance. The fact Musk's temperament must be entertained as one of them is a darn shame.

[dgauthier]

Originally Posted by NHAero

(...) I don't know what else to do to ensure the car isn't sending data. (...)

If I were you, as mentioned in the NY Times article I would request the “consumer disclosure files” from LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk and see if they have anything.

[Ralph]

I don’t object to my driving data being sent to my insurance company. If the data is being used to give a less aggressive driver a lower rate, snd a more aggressive driver a higher rate….maybe that’s how it should be. I allow my insurance company to track my driving, and my rates have gone up only a small amount the past few years. Drive about 10,000 per year. My daughter refused having her data used, and her rates have gone up a lot.

[NHAero]

Originally Posted by dgauthier

If I were you, as mentioned in the NY Times article I would request the “consumer disclosure files” from LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk and see if they have anything.

Yes, I've now done that. I'm also looking into the Reddit threads and similar on disabling Onstar completely. It's on even without a subscription.

[unterhausen]

Originally Posted by dgauthier

Certainly a number of factors contributed to Tesla's disappointing '24 first quarter performance. The fact Musk's temperament must be entertained as one of them is a darn shame.

Not going to go look up a link, but this is gaining widespread notice as a problem for Tesla. They just fired their marketing people before they could do anything. Tesla is in real need of an anonymous CEO and some serious greenwashing advertising. And nobody is pushing back against the stories that say EV sales are lagging. Tesla is no longer the only source for EV's.

[dgauthier]

Originally Posted by Ralph

I don’t object to my driving data being sent to my insurance company. (...) I allow my insurance company to track my driving (...)

I've considered doing so as well. The problem is having one's data sent without one's knowledge or approval. I don't think anyone would mind having the ability to switch the sending of such data on or off at will. That'd be kinda cool frankly.

[saab2000]

The genie has left the bottle!

Anyone use a smart phone? Or a connected device? Dog forbid anyone use a listening device in your home! Ever talk about anything and bizarrely see ads for it the next time you turned on your phone?

Or in your car does anyone use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto or Spotify or Google Maps or Apple Maps?

I’m neither defending nor condemning Onstar but true privacy has long since been lost.

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

Not going to go look up a link, but this is gaining widespread notice as a problem for Tesla. They just fired their marketing people before they could do anything. Tesla is in real need of an anonymous CEO and some serious greenwashing advertising. And nobody is pushing back against the stories that say EV sales are lagging. Tesla is no longer the only source for EV's.

I recently got a customer satisfaction survey from them and I mentioned the CEO’s toxic behavior as a serious negative for me as a customer.

[verticaldoug]

It's a good thing Henry Ford's crazy idea didn't have twitter and was confined to the Dearborn Independent. Ford would have gone out of business long ago.




His image is only part of the problem, the real problem is a car company needs to do one thing well-> make cars. He is more interested right now in scaling up AI internally in a pissing match with OpenAI, and spending money on optimus.

[BdaGhisallo]

I found this quite interesting, and I thought some of the folks following this thread might do also:

Could Tesla Go Bankrupt? The Odds Are Rising
With Tesla's "Next-Gen" compact EV on the back burner, its aging Models 3 & Y will drag down earnings with increasing needs for price cuts. Cash could run out.

https://bradmunchen.substack.com/p/c...m_medium=email

[cgolvin]

Originally Posted by saab2000

I’m neither defending nor condemning Onstar but true privacy has long since been lost.

Cue Scott McNealy circa 1999.

Stating the situation as a binary privacy yes/no fails to capture the issue. The relevant question IMO is "are you receiving value commensurate with the data that you allow the company to use?" This assumes that the company fully discloses the extent of those data and their exploitation by the company's "partners." In many cases it's the failure on the latter points, when exposed, that quickly tilts the answer over to "no."