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Comment by falcolas | Hacker News Reader

Forget about the government, I’m more afraid of insurance companies or the manufacturers themselves imposing such limits.

Fortunately shielding against one shields against both.

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It's already started. My insurance State Farm has already advertised you can get a lower rate if you drive around with their dreadful phone application. Won't be long until it's mandated you drive with one or else you're stuck with an "unsafe driver" charge on your insurance.

> Won't be long until it's mandated you drive with one or else you're stuck with an "unsafe driver" charge on your insurance.

That's already happening, too. "Root" is a car insurance company that only serves "good drivers". Guess how they evaluate your "goodness"?

https://www.joinroot.com/car-insurance/telematics/

That's already happening in the sense that companies are able to offer these discounts for their telematics-using customers by surcharging all their other customers. If you're not using one of these devices, you're already paying for it, even if it's not formally recorded as a fee.

exactly. I like how its the government thats always the boogieman despite Tesla and BMW already and clearly abusing thier ability to control a car remotely. Corporates have clear motivation to control you and squeese you.

That's because the consumer has the ability to choose (at least currently in the automotive market) a different manufacturer that won't control and squeeze them like Tesla or BMW would. If the big bad government is doing it instead, it means they are mandating the controlling and squeezing with the full might of the government behind it. Of course they're the boogieman.

I think that safeguard has already failed, the terms and conidtions allow manufacturer to introduce this functionality to millions of cars that are already on the road, years afterr they were bought

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