We didn't ask for 'smart' cars – so why are we getting them?

Posted by breve 4 hours ago

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Comments

Comment by oldnetguy 3 hours ago

First you have the advocates that want technology to make things "safer", then you have the people who want to use the technologies as luxuries thus being able to charge more. Now you have the people who want to use the technologies to monitor you and use that to sell your driving data to whomever is willing to pay. Everyone wants this except drivers.

Comment by pimlottc 14 minutes ago

Because the primary beneficiary of “smart” devices is the company, not the users

Comment by digimon_monday 2 hours ago

The goal is to proliferate DRM to all consumer products and to all economic exchanges. Just like Content-Centric Networking (CCN) will replace TCP/IP the digitalization of our lives will make it easy for banks to forecast liquidity.

Comment by syntaxing 3 hours ago

BMW had a heated seat subscription. This example is enough to explain why we have “smart cars”

Comment by nwhnwh 2 hours ago

The machine has to expand.

Comment by mannanj 1 hour ago

It's definitely not because it's a conspiracy. Like, we use that word to shut down any criticism and thought that is unliked and against the social norms/times. It's not a conspiracy that this monitoring and surveillance has been said to be not because we don't want them, because the unaccountable leaders at the top want them.

Comment by metalman 4 hours ago

I loath my smart car * , it goes....away, and the funds will build a pure mechanical do the thing mobile...unless(Canada here) the Chinese electrics are truely simple and clean, then one of those.

* honda crv, easy to see why honda is in trouble

Comment by cyanydeez 1 hour ago

Number goes up. Business is self interest. Opposite of government. Its almost pure narcissism if not sociopathy.

Comment by dmitrygr 4 hours ago

We are getting them because someone else asked. Someone whose opinion, unlike ours matters. The politicians.

Comment by speakingmoistly 4 hours ago

I'd also toss in that it feels like the consumer demand for smart cars is just as manufactured as the demand for "smart" components (not limited to but including AI features) in everything. It makes products less reliable over time, and pushes upgrades / replacement faster (and opens the door to subscriptions being added on already-overpriced products).

Not everything needs a touchscreen.

Comment by claysmithr 3 hours ago

this is what happens when corpos pander to shareholders.

Comment by cwillu 2 hours ago

The politicians are the people being asked, and secondarily a convenient scapegoat for the blowback. As long as they're the ones being blamed, nothing will change despite the politicians being replaced over the years.