alt Hacker NewsI currently drive a mid 2000s Ford truck, which runs great and meets my needs, but lately I got interested in minivans/people carriers. I pretty quickly realized that newer vehicles seem to not just record, but export a lot of driving data.
The minivan market is small. There are really only 4-5 available and every single one sends telemetry data from the car and makes it hard/impossible to opt out of selling your data. Additionally, without pretty extensive work there is no means of physically disabling the telemetry, which forces you to trust they'll honor your opt out request (vs re-enabling it with some update).
I'm clearly in the vast minority on this, but it's so frustrating that there are no options beyond buying and installing a third-party bypass to disable this type of tracking. Worse, I'm aware that the absence of data is data itself. Is my insurance going raise my rates because my vehicle won't provide telemetry for them to buy?
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If you don't mind used, the Ford Transit Connect Wagon is an excellent option for an everyday vehicle that doubles as a camper. We have one and love it. It fits a double mattress with plenty of headroom room to sit up in bed. Ford discontinued it in 2023, hence the used requirement, but I believe you can turn off the internet connectivity on that model. We have a 2016 model (still going strong after 150,000km!) which has no internet connectivity, thankfully.
Buy a slightly used one that has a 3g modem. My 2018 car no longer can phone home.
I know some models of Ford allow you to pull the modem out. It doesn't even nag you about a connection problem.
> Worse, I'm aware that the absence of data is data itself.
The Burrow, Franz Kafka
> Is my insurance going raise my rates because my vehicle won't provide telemetry for them to buy?
They will do it and some sneering POS in the comments will defend the practice.
> absence of data is data itself
oh that is endless.. if you are aware enough to do something about telemetry IMHO do that and don't obsess about loose ends.
> Is my insurance going raise my rates because my vehicle won't provide telemetry for them to buy?
Thanks, I hate it.
Ford until recently sold a minivan that was ugly as sin (looked like an '87 Vanagon) because it was a panel van with seats added. They are popular with the campervan community.
As it was essentially a commercial vehicle meant for upfitters turning them into work vans for electricians and plumbers, it would probably be easiest of all to disable telemetry.
From what I can find, permanently disabling FordPass at the hardware level is as simple as unplugging the cell modem or pulling its fuse.