I really don’t like where all of this is going. All the integrated pay-to-use, cloud-enabled, surveillance (and surveillance-adjacent) tech was bad enough. Then there’s the runaway average pricing for cars and increasing loan terms. And now we’re getting AI foisted in while we’re at it? At what point does it implode, with everyone just sticking with older tech and sticking to the used market?
Shit. They’re going to make old cars illegal, aren’t they?
ai is just gatekept internet knowledge and they are trying to sell you every “made new” again.
car+ tv+ phone+ internet+
it’s all a ruse because capitalists have 0 creativity.
Why do you think cash for clunkers happened ? All a plan to get rid of repairable, affordable, non government/corporation controlled cars. Its been the plan since the tech came along to make it possible.
2027, your car is mandated to be filled with cameras, mics, and air sensors , all of this sent to a database, or you cannot drive. This is not conspiracy. This is real.
Really hate this era. Can I skip ahead 70 years after collapse or go back 30 years please ?
Soon they will require proof of these systems in older cars to get registration. Watch.
They will bring back inspections for surveillance but not for emissions.
"I need to grab lunch, find some highly rated sit-down restaurants along the way. I’m not in a rush, oh, and I’d like to eat outside,” Google offers as an example, stating that it will pull in reams of data, including reviews, from Google Maps to help make a decision.
Yeah that’s not how I use my car…
Do you guys not have phones? /s
We should have taken this sentiment for the (industry) warning it was.
It’s worse, that was when the industry realized we weren’t using our phones how they wanted, so they had to start cramming this shit in our cars and door bells and thermostats because they couldn’t reliably monitor the entire populace just through phones.
We(corpos) need smartsmoke alarms(surveillance devices), legally mandated in every room of the house, to keep ussafe(monitored) 24/7.
Yeah, who gets into the car not knowing what the target is?
What I’d like to have is plain old Google Assistant, with its deterministic nature, plus a keyword that enables Gemini for more advanced stuff should I need it.
Especially looking up info while listening to a podcast or something like that.
Yes, the non-determinism is crazy.
I have like one thing I use voice for usually. “Call <name>”. With Google Assistant, it reliably called that specific person.
Now that my phone decided to gemini, it will sometimes make a call, and sometimes it says something like “I have found one contact with that name in your contacts, their phone number is 1-555-555-5555” Sometimes with some extra language clearly intended to be stuffed back into context to guide some next step that isn’t coming, don’t remember but something along the lines of “Contact match added to context to enable dialing the phone now” or something.
I’m perfectly fine with a different wake word or chaining it to google assistant, “Hey google, ask gemini …” would be fine.
And yes, it might be vaguely useful for doing a maps search in the car, as that is a pain. A vaguely decent answer I can confirm is nice for things like a road trip stop for food or some small thing.
A few days ago, me to Google home:
“Hey Google, turn on the light”
“Sorry, I can’t control powered devices.”
“Hey Google, turn on the light”
“Turning on the light.”
I had a similar experience getting it to summarize my maps info, it would alternate between correct answers and claiming it had no access to the data.
You missed
“And just so you know here are some new ways I can help you turn on lights…” Etc. etc
I’ll be buying and fixing pre 2015 cars till I learn to make my own. Hopefully I can also learn how to do electric conversions.
What happened in 2015? (Only have a 2001 and 2012 right now)
2015 is when surveillance came standard with all cars.
So how do you disable it?
This thing popped up on my Android Auto the other day in the middle of a drive and I cursed at it because I was trying to get directions and then it kept responding “I don’t respond to hostile language”. Fucking annoying.
fuck you, you piece of shit!
I don’t respond to hostile language
you just fucking responded you piece of shit!
you’re right, I did respond, I’m sorry.
Goddamn, I am so tired of modern convenience. My god we have made shit complicated in the name of simplicity.
Despite attempts to reduce driver distraction by enabling select voice commands to activate things like the air conditioning or change a radio station,
You know what worked great and didn’t distract? Haptic buttons and knobs. I don’t know what I can buy when my current car dies. I don’t want all this shit again.
I sure hope some good quality manufacturers jump in and fill the consumer need for dumb tech cars and everything else that can be “smart”
These days any AI or Smart feature just makes any product far less interesting to me
you missed the part where this will be mandated by the USDOT for “safety”.
just like headlights that are so bright that they blind everybody in front of them
I never feel safer than when I’m approaching the crest of a hill on a corner with a 15-ft deep rocky ditch to either side at 80 km/h on a narrow road with almost no shoulder and I can see the night sky lit up in front of me like it’s a football stadium because the car on the other side of the hill has LED high beams on. Then we reach the point where we can see each other’s headlights, and I am flash banged from the intensity going directly into my squinting eyes. I see a barely discernible flash as their auto-highbeams recognize that I am a vehicle and it switches to low beams, which are the exact same intensity and still going directly into my eyeballs, except now it’s not lighting up the night sky as well as the treetops.
I turn my own LED highbeams* on in response in an attempt to see some of the road in front of me so that I can avoid the ditch, and I steer towards the middle of the road where there is only a chance of danger instead of guaranteed danger from driving off the road. Hopefully the other driver sees me well enough to avoid me if I get too close to center or even go over the line.
We complete the pass, my night vision returns over the next 30 seconds, and I start saying a small prayer thanking God for how safe I was kept during that interaction, but I am interrupted by the exact same scenario happening on the next hill.
- I installed LED highbeams bulbs just for this reason, trying to see when somebody is blinding me. I only use them in this situation because my halogen low beams are enough for all other driving conditions that I find myself in. I disabled the DRL module so that the LED bulbs don’t come on unless high beams are on.
This is just like Android, it was rough around the edges, all new tech is. Then its flawless and its quality becomes normalized as everyone forgets how it started.
The Flawless Marriage of Surveillance Capitalism and Consumerism.
The average person doesnt give a single solitary shit I’ve learned sadly.
Of all the voice LLMs Gemini is the worst. You’ll ask a factual question, “How many Grammys has U2 won?” It will give an answer based off its training then ask, “Would you also like to know about blah blah blah.”
No. I would not. Stop asking follow-up questions. I simply was curious about this one thing while listening to the radio.
The fact people fall in love with or depend on these auto complete bots is crazy. Not to mention, they’re wrong as often as they’re right.
“How many Grammys has U2 won?”
Correct answer: who cares.
Ford has had Amazon Alexa built-in for something like 5 years …
Several vehicle infotainment systems literally run Android. Android Automotive is an entire branch dedicated to being an entire vehicle infotainment system… separate from Android Auto on your phone.
My car has Android automotive. If you’re driving 8 hours a day, it’s better than what you have in your Android or Apple phone. Everything’s right there and it integrates very nicely with the car. However, like most people, you’re only driving for a little bit to work and then your car just sits there. It’s not worth it. Your phone already has everything you want on it and you just want your phone to connect and do things. I hate that in my car if I say hey Google my car jumps in sorry you need a subscription- my phone already has my subscription I don’t want a second one. If I remember I can turn on the Wi-Fi on my hotspot on my phone, but why bother? I don’t even want my car to respond here. I just want my phone which is right there and already can respond and do everything. Part of this is another well deserved rant against GM for not putting Android Auto on their cars. That’s something that other manufacturers do and I suppose in that case it actually would work well. I don’t know.
Have you tried denying the car Google’s microphone access?
I have not seen such a setting. Thanks for the tip, I will look
