The promotion began on July 27, 2026, and is scheduled to run through August 10 across more than 70 markets. On supported vehicles, starting the car brings...
Yeah 100%. Ever since Elon went Republican everybody wants to hate him. I don’t blame them. It’s sad and IMHO short-sighted, but these days nuance doesn’t seem to be a big part of popular decision making. So something like ‘he’s a weird guy who works his people to the bone and he has shitty politics, but he’s overall doing things that are good for our society’ is too much to ask from most popular discourse.
It’s pretty clear that the other automakers really do not understand vehicle computing on a fundamental level. Even the supposedly connected modern cars are still using old infrastructure with tons of little can bus modules everywhere each doing one thing. And they are all supplied by the usual handful of companies like Delphi and Bosch.
If any of the automakers took a page out of Tesla’s playbook, namely design your own hardware and software, and focus on flat out building a better vehicle rather than figuring out how to nickel and dime every user, they would make a killing.
This could also be solved with regulation. And probably should be solved with regulation. Basically say that automakers are prohibited from extracting any personal data from a vehicle including driving data or location data, unless a. The user explicitly opts in (and an opt-in may not be required for any other functionality), and b. Extracted data may not be sold or shared or used for any purpose other than providing services to the user (such as navigation). And that in-car screens may not be used for any sort of advertising or promotion, unless a. The user opts in (and an opt-in may not be required for any other functionality), and b. Any advertisement on the display must include a clear way to permanently disable advertisements in two clicks or button presses.
The fact is nobody wants advertisements on their car and they know that
Yeah 100%. Ever since Elon went Republican everybody wants to hate him. I don’t blame them. It’s sad and IMHO short-sighted, but these days nuance doesn’t seem to be a big part of popular decision making. So something like ‘he’s a weird guy who works his people to the bone and he has shitty politics, but he’s overall doing things that are good for our society’ is too much to ask from most popular discourse.
It’s pretty clear that the other automakers really do not understand vehicle computing on a fundamental level. Even the supposedly connected modern cars are still using old infrastructure with tons of little can bus modules everywhere each doing one thing. And they are all supplied by the usual handful of companies like Delphi and Bosch.
If any of the automakers took a page out of Tesla’s playbook, namely design your own hardware and software, and focus on flat out building a better vehicle rather than figuring out how to nickel and dime every user, they would make a killing.
This could also be solved with regulation. And probably should be solved with regulation. Basically say that automakers are prohibited from extracting any personal data from a vehicle including driving data or location data, unless a. The user explicitly opts in (and an opt-in may not be required for any other functionality), and b. Extracted data may not be sold or shared or used for any purpose other than providing services to the user (such as navigation). And that in-car screens may not be used for any sort of advertising or promotion, unless a. The user opts in (and an opt-in may not be required for any other functionality), and b. Any advertisement on the display must include a clear way to permanently disable advertisements in two clicks or button presses.
The fact is nobody wants advertisements on their car and they know that