Make sure those funds are distributed around because the amount of loans out there mean another bank collapse or 3 is a likely outcome

Well this one is at zero and I haven’t downvoted it (can screenshot if you don’t believe me), so I suspect someone else isn’t loving your posts.

Yes, that’s true. Now. Do you the customer control whether the dealer does that, or does the dealer ?

I don’t think anyone is arguing that the manufacturers HAVE to be creepy. They choose to do so. The problem is there are limited ways to avoid it. If you want your warranty to remain valid you have to have it serviced.

Some countries have laws forcing manufacturers to allow 3rd party servicing to not invalidate the warranty, so a few can avoid this but not many.

Most EVs are in fact liquid cooled. The Leaf which isn’t, has much poorer battery life because of it.

EVs do have maintenance items like brake pads and air filters and items like suspension bushings have a finite life.

An EV certainly needs fewer regular maintenance activities than an ICE but it’s not zero.

And all that is ignoring that some EV manufacturers make you do a regular service to keep your warranty (Hyundai Kia for example)

Rip out the lojack and this becomes a non issue real quick.

That is literally only one vector, so no, ripping it out doesn’t necessarily fix the problem (although it’s a very good idea).

The car itself is often collecting telemetry and reporting it back either via a live mobile link or when you get a service done.

https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/how-figure-out-what-your-car-knows-about-you-and-opt-out-sharing-when-you-can

"A car (and its app, if you installed one on your phone) can collect all sorts of data in the background with and without you realizing it. This in turn may be shared for a wide variety of purposes, including advertising and risk-assessment for insurance companies. The list of data collected is long and dependent on the car’s make, model, and trim. But if you look through any car maker’s privacy policy, you’ll see some trends:

Diagnostics data, sometimes referred to as “vehicle health data,” may be used internally for quality assurance, research, recall tracking, service issues, and similar unsurprising car-related purposes. This type of data may also be shared with dealers or repair companies for service.
Location information may be collected for emergency services, mapping, and to catalog other environmental information about where a car is operated. Some cars may give you access to the vehicle’s location in the app.
Some usage data may be shared or used internally for advertising. Your daily driving or car maintenance habits, alongside location data, is a valuable asset to the targeted advertising ecosystem. 
All of this data could be shared with law enforcement.
Information about your driving habits, sometimes referred to as “Driving data” or “Driver behavior information,” may be shared with insurance companies and used to alter your premiums.  This can range from odometer readings to braking and acceleration statistics and even data about what time of day you drive.. "

https://apnews.com/article/auto-car-privacy-3674ce59c9b30f2861d29178a31e6ab7

https://www.gadgetreview.com/federal-surveillance-tech-becomes-mandatory-in-new-cars-by-2027

https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/personal-information/how-to-stop-your-car-from-collecting-sharing-driving-data-a1233378612/

"If you drive a car made in the past five years, chances are it’s collecting reams of data about your driving—things like how quickly you accelerate, how hard you hit the brakes, and how fast you turn corners.

But many people don’t know that this data is being amassed—much less where it goes or how it’s used. "

US-centric links, but the info is broadly true for most western countries.

The Issue: When I send my coworkers to https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/botstopper they find the mascot and URL weird.

You’ve decided without listening to the responses

https://botstopper.net/

Botstopper doesn’t have the .lol domain, and doesn’t use the anime cat girl splash

It’s not even expensive

You don’t have to tell your peers it is just a rebadged version of the same website, just say “look I’ve found another one that does the same thing but without the domain and splashscreen probs you complained about”