cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1432229/your-car-is-a-smartphone-on-wheels-a-team-of-researchers-tested-21-vehicles-and-found-th
Data sent by vehicles and companion apps included locations, VINs, and other identifiers. Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft were among the top receivers of driver data.
My wife just got a newer car last week so I’m asking you because you know more than I.
We never connected a phone to it but the GPS worked right off the bat. Do cars have standalone GPS now? As long as we don’t connect a phone, it can’t reach the internet, right?
Cars have had standalone GNSS (GPS) for quite a while. GNSS itself doesn’t require internet. Its output is coordinates and elevation - it’s the “gotta have internet to load the map in which I’ll show you the coordinates” that makes people associate GNSS with internet. Offline maps solve this.