Aren't you glad you don't have a VW that can rat you out?

[Randall]

A Florida man wondered why his automobile insurance quote was double what he was previously paying. He found out from an insurance agent that he had been rejected because of information in his 'LexisNexis report'. The report "contained details about 258 trips he had taken in his Cadillac over the past six months. His file included the distance he had driven, when the trips started and ended, and an accounting of any speeding and hard braking or accelerating. The data had been provided by General Motors — the manufacturer of his Cadillac."

I wonder if any of you have had an experience like his.

Read the complete article from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/technology/gm-l...=url-share

[Emily's Owner]

After 44 years together, the stories she could tell...


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Xargaret

ITMC - OG Den Mother

What (and I cannot stress this enough) The Actual Fuck?!

1974 Transporter
2023 Subaru Outback

[finster]

all hidden in the terms and conditions small print which nobody is going to read but just tick the box...

A spokeswoman for G.M., Malorie Lucich, previously said that customers enrolled for SmartDriver in their connected car app or at the dealership, and that a clause in the OnStar privacy statement explained that their data could be shared with “third parties.” Asked about the lawsuit, she said by email that the company was “reviewing the complaint,” and had no comment, pointing instead to a statement the company previously gave about OnStar Smart Driver.

“G.M.’s OnStar Smart Driver service is optional to customers,” the statement said. “Customer benefits include learning more about their safe driving behaviors or vehicle performance that, with their consent, may be used to obtain insurance quotes. Customers can also unenroll from Smart Driver at any time.”

kerrching for lawyers (as usual)
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"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[clockworkbox]

State Farm says they will give me a lower rate if I put a little spy box in my truck but I say nope. My right foot gets heavy sometimes...
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'69 Beetle (pieces)
Learning the hard way is still learning...

[NJ John]

I have the Gieco little white box in my Tahoe. It always has me speeding on the same hills that everyone speeds on. It keeps me in check, sometimes.
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1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[Zundfolge1432]

Could be any car even my POS 1974 VW. WTF how can that be? I’ve got a Pike Pass toll reader on the windshield which we thought was cool 25 years ago and laughed at the people stopping to pay. Then a few years ago everyone got new license plates with a chip or something to identify you and your car using flock camera. They love to cite examples of how dangerous criminals have been brought to justice using this technology. Cops had a shootout here and killed a guy after he was located driving the toll road here. I post pics of me driving the old bug fast but the other 99% I’m driving with the pack blending in.

A way out might be to use a year of manufacture license plate on the old classic bug. I got 1974 plate but here’s a cool fact. Because of a prison riot the inmates burned the building where plates were made. Some were issued with burn marks, they are collectible now and you can still find them as never issued because scavengers rushed in and took some. Unable to meet demand Arkansas prisons tooled up and made some plates for us, they’ve got a red border and are collectible now. Then some big brain figured out they could install a sticker to make 1973 plates valid. But in order to run the YOM you are required to have a up to date regular plate in the car to show law enforcement upon request. Fuck them I could do all that and carry the chipped plate in a shielded bag to defeat the reader😂 Be sure to grow a beard and wear sunglasses, be the man with no eyes like the guard from Cool Hand Luke because facial recognition is up and coming. Leave the cellphone at home too because that thing is listening to everything you are saying and that Fitbit you wear is gathering intel. Fuck it crank up some tunes.

[oprn]

The company I used to work for installed GPS units in all our trucks to keep an eye on us. Our Boss was given monthly reports and would review them at our safety meetings. They would also give us a call on our phones if we were speeding for more than 5 minutes. That was fine, I had no issue with that.

What we did have an issue with was what they termed as "racing" and "hard braking". It took a while to get them to tell us what the "racing" was all about. Turns out that it was hard acceleration. We worked in a rural area so anytime we pulled out to pass a tractor or a farm truck and planted it hard we were "racing"!

On the "hard braking" issue, the #1 cause of collisions in the region was wildlife. The deer, elk and moose have a habit of waiting in the ditch until you are almost there and then making a dash for the other side of the road. Most often this happens at dusk or at night.

So we asked the safety department if they would rather we hit the deer and dawdled around the tractors and had a head on? No brownie points were gained and there was no policy change.

As our friend Mark likes to say "You can't fix stupid!"
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We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[photogdave]

[TDCTDI]

[oprn]

[markswagen]

you can keep this modern car BS.
l'm not interested in any of it.
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markswagen {mobile mechanic} san diego area all early VW's cared for.

619 201 0310

[Abscate]

There no chips in plates, it is done by reading them optically. Even your old bug is tracked by cameras. You can put plates on them which obscure the vision but most of these are illegal and you can get ticketed for that
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.ssS!

[calvinater]

just add some mud.
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"Albatross"!

[PatJr]

1984
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#############################################
1970 Transporter a orange one
#############################################

[TDCTDI]

[Abscate]

Don’t run it up here. If it isn’t issued it will come up for an immediate pullover and citation
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.ssS!

[67ctbug]

CT doesn't link our YOM plates to the car either. The desk clerk/ specialty plate division approves or denies the plate as correct for the vehicle and signs the paper. It gets filed at Wethersfield and you keep a copy in the car with the issued plate. If you're stopped you present the plate and official DMV form signed by the DMV official stating the allowed use of the plate. A lot of people get stopped because it's a relatively unknown program, but most cops have better things to do.
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'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[KTPhil]

Recent car example...

My Benz SUV is the subject of a minor recall. Apparently some people ran a hose in the back, filling up the spare tire well, and shorted out a nearby fuel pump. No fire risk, but the engine can quit. Fortunately brakes and steering will continue to work long enough to pull safely off the road, should it happen. But I don't routinely water my car like a lawn, and I close the hatch before running through a car wash, but that's just me..

So the recall is to drill a hole in the bottom of the well.

Ok, I'm fine with that... but the damn CA nanny state will not let me re-register the car until it is done!

The need for biennial smog is on large bold print in a graphic box at the top. The notice to have the recall done is buried in the fine print lower down. I didn't see it. The smog checker pointed it out to me.

Now I have to take a day off work for a NON-SAFETY recall to get this done before my registration lapses.

Meanwhile, jalopies with no brakes and leaking gas get a pass...

The problem with these do-gooders is that they have NO common sense or a sense of proportion. They are on a crusade, and facts don't matter.
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Current Fleet:
'71 Fastback
'69 Westfalia
Retired:
'67 Beetle
'65 Beetle (x2)
'65 Bus
'71 Squareback

[the_benjamin_effect]