• Cactopuses@lemmy.world
    20·
    1 day ago

    This isn’t specific to electric cars, vehicles equipped with On Star can be remotely disabled in the event of theft (and by extension I imagine a legal injunction). I imagine this extends to other vehicles also.

    The real problem is the OTA updates and always-online nature of modern vehicles, not necessarily what powers them.

    • dastanktal@lemmy.ml
      5·
      1 day ago

      Yes, but I don’t have to buy a car with OnStar in it. It seems like every electric car has these OTA features at least in the states. In internal combustion cars that can avoid those features. I’d be more than happy to buy any one of these electric cars if I control the updates and there’s no always on connection.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
      5·
      1 day ago

      At least w/ OnStar, there are documented ways to disable it, and it’s honestly not all that difficult (basically remove power to the OnStar device). Some cars are more integrated, so disabling that crap is a lot more difficult w/o breaking anything important.

      • Cactopuses@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 day ago

        No for sure I hear what you’re saying, onstar was just a handy example, other vehicles have OTA updates also and systems to disable the vehicle.

        My point was the tech isn’t specific to BEV it’s becoming a “feature” in modern cars more broadly

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          1 day ago

          Absolutely. If you care about this, search for a YT video or something about how to disable it, and they’ll walk you through it and list the caveats. For example, sometimes it’ll just show a warning on the infotainment center, and other times unrelated functions will break.

          BEVs certainly started the trend, but once they showed people will put up w/ it, combustion vehicles followed suit.