1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Featured The Biggest Problem with Electric Vehicles - Zero Privacy.

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by kenmce, Dec 25, 2023.

  1. kenmce

    kenmce High Voltage Member

    Joined:
    May 4, 2004
    1,527
    502
    0
    Location:
    NY
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    Limited
    The biggest, but mostly unaddressed, issue with all these pure EVs is that you can't just roll up and pay cash. You need to have an account with someone and you need to remotely log in before you can charge. Everywhere you have ever been becomes part of your permanent record. The potential for misuse of this system is tremendous.
     
  2. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2005
    19,849
    8,153
    54
    Location:
    Montana & Nashville, TN
    Vehicle:
    2018 Chevy Volt
    Model:
    Premium
    No - there are a ton of free charges where all you have to do is plug in. Just like at home. Buying fuel for an EV with a credit card is no different from buying everything you get from Amazon or the grocery store with a credit card. What's the difference.
     
    TGrracie, Zythryn and salyavin like this.
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    108,658
    49,371
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    Who uses cash anyway?
    Talk about horse and buggy .
    What we do need is a unified system with one app
     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2010
    55,407
    38,644
    80
    Location:
    Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    That’d be good for parking meters too.
     
    hill and bisco like this.
  5. john1701a

    john1701a Prius Guru

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2004
    12,753
    5,245
    57
    Location:
    Minnesota
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Advanced
    Most new DCFC have credit-card readers.

    Since NEVI funding requires it and that's just a natural progression toward gas-station replacement, the topic is much ado about nothing.
     
    salyavin likes this.
  6. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2021
    1,440
    787
    0
    Location:
    SacTown, Ca
    Vehicle:
    2021 Prius Prime
    Model:
    LE
    Shhhhhh.... Big brother is watching this thread!!!!!! Your all on the watch list now!!!!:D:LOL::ROFLMAO:o_O:whistle:o_O

    Seriously, I do get what your saying about privacy rights, but your sitting in a rolling computer that's reporting your location. Like my friends who put post-it paper over their laptop camera, but freely move around with their cell phone cameras uncovered. What's up with that!!!

    The only way to escape this is to be an off-grid, off-line hermit in the woods and don't let your cabin fire give away your location.....:notworthy:
     
    drash likes this.
  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    108,658
    49,371
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    And never get a social security card and work only for cash all your life
     
  8. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2005
    19,849
    8,153
    54
    Location:
    Montana & Nashville, TN
    Vehicle:
    2018 Chevy Volt
    Model:
    Premium
    Cashless Society is coming. First to the developed world than the developing world then all the cave dwellers.
    Bartering is looking better & better all the time. How does 3 loaves of sourdough sound - for 8kWh of juice
    ;)
    .
     
  9. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2005
    27,368
    15,511
    0
    Location:
    Huntsville AL
    Vehicle:
    2018 Tesla Model 3
    Model:
    Prime Plus
    Can you pay with a pre-paid, credit card bought with cash from a local gas station?

    Bob Wilson
     
    drash and hill like this.
  10. TinyTim

    TinyTim Active Member

    Joined:
    Nov 23, 2016
    366
    224
    0
    Location:
    Seattle
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    I thought you were talking about your car spying on you. Tesla records everything inside and outside a Tesla. That is truly invasion of privacy.
     
    salyavin likes this.
  11. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2005
    19,849
    8,153
    54
    Location:
    Montana & Nashville, TN
    Vehicle:
    2018 Chevy Volt
    Model:
    Premium
    Like your computer you can always tape over the cameras
    ;)
    .
     
  12. Zythryn

    Zythryn Senior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2008
    6,233
    4,228
    1
    Location:
    Minnesota
    Vehicle:
    Other Electric Vehicle
    Model:
    N/A
    Any personally identify-able data recorded is recorded and stored locally. There are settings to turn off all connectivity (or you can just remove the cellular antennae if you really are concerned).
     
    salyavin likes this.
  13. Isaac Zachary

    Isaac Zachary Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2018
    1,834
    871
    1
    Location:
    USA
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    I use cash and a basic flip phone. But not because I think they government is out to get me. I use cash because when it runs out I can't overwithdraw. And I used a flip phone because I hate being addicted to my phone, and I hate being accused of being addicted to my phone even when I'm not, and I hate being a part of the phone addiction culture.

    While I don't believe this is any worse than privacy concerns in general (how many letters have I gotten from companies saying they had a security breach?) I do agree that charging is a pain. Or at least it was 6 years ago when I had the Leaf. Come to think of it, I have several DCQC cards in a drawer all witih money on them I never used.
     
  14. 3PriusMike

    3PriusMike Prius owner since 2000, Tesla M3 2018

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2009
    2,963
    2,314
    0
    Location:
    Silicon Valley
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    I get it. You need to be able to just pay with cash for privacy. So when you rob a bank and get out on the highway you can use the cash to get 1000 miles away in secret. Even though the cash is all marked bills with known serial numbers and when you pay with cash you have to go into the mini-mart to hand over the cash and get your face recorded on the security cameras.

    Note to future poor self: before robbing the bank get an ICE car and lots of gas cans full of gas so I can get outside the range of the FBI's likely locations to get gas.

    Mike
     
  15. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 12, 2018
    7,133
    6,682
    1
    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Vehicle:
    2018 Prius c
    Model:
    Two
    I'm somewhat less concerned about the privacy problem, though I acknowledge that it can be problematic and we likely haven't seen the worst of it.

    I see a more practical problem: charging up a rented EV.

    Approximately the last thing I want is a system that identifies the vehicle and figures out whom to bill for the electricity plus the delivery charge, program access fees, charger safety compliance fee, commission, regulatory recovery charge, and state and local tax.

    You might be thinking "Wait, when I charge my EV I don't have all of those charges..."

    Again, we are in the context of rental cars, so you have to think of all the add-on fees.

    The rental companies have already shown that what they can do with their electronic tolling systems. Small charges get ballooned up into enormous bills. Worse, they often take so long to do the accounting that you wind up struggling to figure out which client needs to be re-billed for these charges.

    In other words, using the rental agency's service to manage running expenses is difficult and expensive. It destroys much of the appeal and cost-savings potential of EV travel.

    I'm not opposed to having a convenient payment system somehow keyed to the car itself.

    Nor am I specifically opposed to omitting cashboxes and card-readers from the chargers.

    ...But if they aren't there, then there absolutely must be a same-as-cash, safe and well-regulated alternate point-of-sale payment system embedded within whatever interface is available. App? Website? Something in the car itself?

    Make it so I can plug the car in and instead of charging the car beeps and shows a message "Alert! This is a rental! click the button to accept the many charges or show your credit card to the camera for direct billing"
     
    #15 Leadfoot J. McCoalroller, Dec 27, 2023
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2023
  16. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    108,658
    49,371
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    Every year we drive to Florida in our gasser, our credit card company knows exactly where we are.
    It’s horrifying and should be illegal
     
  17. sylvaing

    sylvaing Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2023
    1,027
    424
    0
    Location:
    Canada
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    You have to opt-in because by default,

    "To protect your privacy, video recordings are saved locally to a formatted USB flash drive's onboard memory. Recordings are not sent to Tesla"

    "If you choose to enable data sharing, in the occurrence of a serious safety risk or a safety event like a collision, the vehicle can share images and short video clips with us to help develop future safety features and software enhancements, such as collision avoidance"

    Tesla can send these clips to you if asked in order to prove who's at fault in a collision in case you weren't recording.

    https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/model3/en_us/GUID-3BCC07CE-5EA2-4F40-99D1-27690898FF3C.html
     
    Zythryn likes this.
  18. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2021
    1,440
    787
    0
    Location:
    SacTown, Ca
    Vehicle:
    2021 Prius Prime
    Model:
    LE
    You ain't seen nothing yet!!!! Four years ago, I was in China - they are mostly cashless. They prefer direct app payment and saw it as a choir to receive and count out cash - Note to self; those millennials have a hard time counting, they rely too much on their devices; couldn't even calculate change properly. Here I am, doing conversions in my head, to try to figure out if I was getting scammed or not.:love::whistle::rolleyes:

    I feel your pain!!!! Back in the day, you could hop across the border to a neighboring state or country - with the rental company none the wiser. Now-a-days you get dinged, hopefully your on an expense account.;)
     
  19. ColoradoBoo

    ColoradoBoo Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2019
    952
    626
    4
    Location:
    Monument, Colorado USA
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Hospital delivery rooms actually "help" the parents apply for the child's SSN even before they are discharged!! (It's linked in with the birth certificate.)

    Yes Big Brother's a HUGE monstrosity these days...and post something that goes against the Party Line on almost any social site and see what happens to you! (I've been banned and put in Gestapo time-out many times for many reasons and they can kiss my grits.)

    "Are you on Santa's naughty or nice list?" "I don't know, but probably on the FBI, CIA, and NSA lists!"
     
  20. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2005
    19,849
    8,153
    54
    Location:
    Montana & Nashville, TN
    Vehicle:
    2018 Chevy Volt
    Model:
    Premium
    God forbid you ever bring 5 figures of cash to avoid using traceable credit cards. If you get pulled over they somehow are able to confiscate your cash and presume it's going to a drug deal.
     
    bwilson4web and bisco like this.