“Smart Driver”

By
eric
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78
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Insults are literally being added to injuries.

The latest example being what GM styles “Smart Driver” – which isn’t a “service,” either. It is embedded in new GM vehicles whether the owner (sic) wants it or not – and it collects data about the owner’s s driving, which is then sold to the insurance mafia, which adjusts what the owner (sic) is forced to pay, accordingly.

GM – and it’s not just GM – puts it this way:

“GM’s Smart Driver service is optional to customers. Customer benefits include learning more about their safe driving behaviors or vehicle performance that, with their consent, may be used to obtain insurance quotes. Customers can also unenroll from Smart Driver at any time.”

Italics added.

Malarky obvious, hopefully.

“Customer benefits?” Is that like “safe and effective”? It’s certainly worse than “the check’s in the mail” (and another one that doesn’t need repeating but which everyone already knows).

How does the customer benefit from having data about how he drives recorded and transmitted to the insurance mafia?. Oh! That’s right. The customer can “learn more” about “safe driving habits.” As if driving with the flow of traffic – which is almost always flowing faster than the speed limit – had anything to do with unsafe driving habits. The same goes for other driving habits the system is designed to take note of – such as what is styled-to-shame “aggressive” acceleration. Everyone does that, too. Because if they don’t, they’ll get hit by the car they just pulled out in front of.

And how, pray, is a person supposed to brake gently when trying to avoid a kid or dog that just ran into traffic without running over said kid or dog?

LexusNexis, which aggregates the data culled from “connected” vehicles, says this “sevice” enables the mafia to “create more personalized insurance coverage.” 

Indeed.

But this not about “safe driving habits” anymore than “wear your mask” was about “stopping the spread.” It is about laying a pretextual guilt trip on people in order to get them to accept being abused for normal, reasonable, rational action.

GM says the “service” – the same kind of servicing you get from the IRS – is “optional,” which is a lie – because the system is embedded in the car and you cannot opt out of having the car equipped with it. Your “option” is to “unenroll” – and believe that GM, et al, aren’t watching you.

And if you believe that, here’s a “vaccine” that is guaranteed to prevent you from getting and spreading the ‘Rona.

How dumb are people?

Even The New York Times concedes the point. Well, at least as regards “Smart Driver.”

A news story references several people who own GM vehicles who – as far as they knew – never “enrolled” in the “service. Yet found out later – in the mail – that they were. This includes owners of Corvettes, the high performance sports car. What is the point of owning – of paying for – such a car when driving it more “aggressively” than an ’80s-era Yugo will be a guaranteed “ticket” every time you do?

EV lovers ought to chew on this a little.

Many pf them bought an EVs because they are quick and that quickness compensates for the slowness of recharging them. How about when they aren’t quick anymore, either? Or at least, when their quickness capability becomes a kind of talking-points-only codpiece? One that’s as ridiculously useless as those fake testicles some people hang from the axles of their megatruck?

This is what comes of the collusion between car companies and insurance companies – both of whom now regularly collude with government. You are no longer a customer in the eyes of the car companies. You are a product. The car you bought sells you – and this is literally true. It collects all kinds of data about you – not just about your driving – and that data is a valuable commodity to interested parties looking to make a buck off what they can find out about you.

And then sell. Or use to make you pay.

In this particular case, data about your driving – collected in real time, as you drive, very much like the telemetry stream from the Apollo lunar missions broadcast live, back in the day – is sold to a “risk broker” (LexisNexis) which then sells the valuable data to the insurance mafia. It is valuable to the mafia because every “incident” of “unsafe” driving recorded by your car – the one that sold you out, literally – can then be used to justify forcing you to pay the mafia even more money than you’re already forced to pay. News stories about this ugly little arrangement describe inexplicable “adjustments” of more than 20 percent.

“Inexplicable” italicized to reflect the fact that the people hit with these adjustments had not hit anyone. They hadn’t even gotten what is styled a “ticket,” the term used to soft-peddle the piece of paper handed to you by an armed government worker when he “pulls you over” for having disobeyed a statute such as the ones everyone (including the armed government workers) disobeys, such as those that forbid driving any faster than “x.” Of course, everyone does – because these speed limits are deliberately set so low that everyone drives at least a little faster – so that almost everyone is in perpetual danger of being “pulled over” and issued a “ticket.”

But now it’s not necessary to “pull over” the driver – even though he just was and didn’t realize it. And then – again! And one more time. He has no idea he got all these “tickets” until he gets his “adjustment.”

And now he knows.

And so do we.

We also ought to know how stupid they think we are. That is the meaning – in the Freedom is Slavery sense – of “smart,” whether applied to drivers or phones or utility meters that are designed to monitor and control us. Whenever you hear that word applied to a tool or technology, run.

And shun.

Be smart, instead.

Stop buying “smart” things. And by doing so, make it clear to them that you aren’t stupid.

. . .

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Related posts:
  1. Insuring the Driver – Not The Vehicles
  2. Your “Driver Safety Score”
  3. “Pro,” “IQ” and “Smart”
  4. If We’ve Got to Have Driver’s Licenses . . .
  5. Bad “Unvaccinated” Driver!

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

78 COMMENTS

  1. Networked Smart Driver:

    ‘Camera-based collision avoidance programs are a major part of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) safety systems. Frankly, it is not too far of a stretch to imagine such V2V camera systems programmed with plate recognition software, and using that to feed info back to insurers.

    ‘Even if you prevent your car from ratting you out to the insurers (or at least, you try to), what about your other road-goers? Will John Q. Public’s Honda Accord blow the whistle on me, as I cruise past at 20-over on my RF900R?’

    https://www.advrider.com/ride-smart-your-vehicle-or-your-neighbours-vehicle-is-spying/

    The horror! OF COURSE they are going to do this.

    You can check out of the Hive. But you can never leave.

  2. Another way to get rid of ice cars….

    Noise cameras….if your vehicle is too loud, it mails you a ticket….

    If they lower the legal level…only EV’s will pass….

    Noisy vehicles…all new V8 Mustangs?…Harley’s…..All Porsche 911 and VW air cooled…..lots of old muscle cars, classic cars…..diesel trucks…..lots of motorcycles…..air cooled motorcycles……

    No sound…no emotion or fun…..they want everything dead…the new normal….

    they want everything dead….because they are dead…..

  3. Holy Cats folks!

    Where are the “told you so” comments about the Angela Chao Tesla …”Submarine deep dive” into a Texas pond….?

    ep… you never did mention the “Crash Depth” of a Tesla compared to a USN Nuclear sub during your evaluations, better watch out for potential litigation. What gives?

    Heaven forbid.

      • That’s correct. In reality, the TRUE crush depth of most of the USN’s nuclear boats is somewhat deeper than what they’re permitted to descend to…neither value of which I’m “at Liberty”, pun intended, to disclose. All submariners know this; not only for their class of boat but that of their opponents.

        A “crash dive” is simply diving at the steepest permitted dive angle; “go down” (LoL) at any steeper attitude and the boat is at a greater risk of capsizing or a hull rupture due to twisting forces. It’s obviously employed in the strictest of emergency, such as being depth-charged or attacked with torpedoes from destroyers or aircraft, or if an ASW aircraft is trying to find you with a detection buoy or mine. Good sub captains try to foresee these issues and evacuate in advance; especially if it’s an SSBN. The SSNs are better equipped to engage surface vessels, while those 24 Trident II D5 SLBMs are too valuable to risk.

        • DS,
          Typo. lot’s of bud’s work at Electric Boat NewLondon/Groton…..
          Everybody up here knows about Adm Hyman Rickover..
          Thanks, for catching the it.

          Semper Fi

        • DS,
          More detailed reply.

          The U. S. Submarine Fleet is the last remaining actual deterrent to ANY ..”invented aggressor”..period.

          Aircraft carriers are the 21st century “Dreadnaughts”…of yore.
          Great for kicking around punk countres…BUT….

          A couple of anti ship missiles And ….Goodbye one “limited airport” + aviation supply chain…and a whole lot of expensive aircraft.

          No matter what MSM pundits spout.
          The era of the Carrier Battle Group … is History…..

          Aww Hell it will take another spectacular “Visual Aid”….before the Klowns Get It….It always does.

          And so it goes.

  5. ‘They hadn’t even gotten what is styled a “ticket,” the term used to soft-peddle the piece of paper handed to you by an armed government worker when he “pulls you over” — eric

    Then, sadly, the hard-working LEO is obliged to return to this:

    ‘Rats have gotten into confiscated pot at New Orleans’ aging police headquarters, munching the evidence as the building is taken over by mold and cockroaches, said the city’s police chief.

    “The rats eating our marijuana, they’re all high,” Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told New Orleans City Council members.

    ‘Kirkpatrick described vermin infestations and decay at the offices that have housed New Orleans police since 1968, saying officers have even found rat droppings on their desks.’

    https://tinyurl.com/3wx2tsp6

    Who will fight this ghastly plague of stoned rats, chomping through law enforcement’s own private stash? I ask you …

  7. As alarming as this is, we all need a car to get us around, new and reliable is or has been the best way to go if one can afford it. Decisions like this will drive away some new car buyers. It is likely younger buyers will like being plugged in and connected to everything which in some peoples minds is progress. Kids nowadays are constantly on their phones and have no clue about surroundings and thus directions and how to get around, I think they will be happy to have a self driving car so they can be on their “smart” device because that is what they have done their entire lives. For me the tracking will be a non starter for a new car purchase, and thus will drive an older car, problem is I already have problems finding someone who can work on my two old carburated vehicles. The insurance mafia have already made many outdoor workers uniforms forced on companies in the form of “safety”, bright colored shirts will “save” you money on your premiums, but not much and not for long I think. I have a nickname I used to tell my insurance provider for my business and its many vehicles, legalized extortion.

  9. Warning: off topic (getting smart car fatigue)

    I was shocked, disappointed and dismayed the day the Orange Excrement appointed RFK Jr to his staff as commissioner of vaccine safety and integrity in Jan 2017. “What?, a freaking life-long demon(crat)!” Of course, that was only the beginning of Trump’s never-ending blunders of appointing the most despicable people to positions of power. Naturally, years later I was labeled as some kind of traitor & democrat operative by conservatives when Kennedy gained fame & popularity with his stance on the covid farce. “How dare you criticize him. Look what he’s done on covid, you dumbshit!” Whatever. . .

    But today I had a stark realization while skimming this morning’s headlines: “Aaron Rodgers, Jesse Ventura on RFK Jr’s VP Shortlist”. Quoting Mr. Spock, “Fascinating!”

    Now, how is it that a lifelong, hardcore, & traditional democrat in the vein of a Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, and of course his uncle, could possibly consider two guys like those two who have strong libertarian bents? Answer: you wouldn’t. So I have to ask, just what the hell is going on here? Why in the world wouldn’t he consider some moderate democrat (are there really any moderate democrats anymore?) or maybe even a left-wing statist republican (I’m thinking of you Mittens) as his running mate? Hmm.

    I’ve always said that I thought RFK Jr had to be torturously & internally conflicted. This latest (conflicting) idea of his only confirms & reinforces what I’ve previously realized. The guy really does not know which direction he wants to go. . . Or does he?

    Kennedy is clearly no dummy. I know not what his IQ might be, but I assure you it’s probably several gradients to the right of me on the bell-shaped curve. And if that’s true, isn’t his decision to consider Rogers or Ventura irrational? Of course it is. His (stated) goal is to bring both sides together, which means he’s looking for votes from both parties equally. How could he expect democrat votes from either of these guys?

    I can only conclude that Kennedy is a democrat operative (unlike me) and is in this race to divide and take away some of the Trump vote for himself. I now believe he is an operative for the dems (knowingly or not) to assure another four years for that puke of a human being. FJB!

    • Hi Dave,

      I am going to disagree. I don’t believe Kennedy is an operative. I think he is a man that sees how far the current Democratic Party has gone off the cliff and is looking for a home.

      The reason that I think this is the case is that I actually got into a pretty deep discussion (hours long) with one of my “supposedly” Democrat clients a few months ago. The old school Dems are lost. There is no longer a base for them. I think Kennedy feels that.

      The Libertarian Party has a history of being the Party of Misfits. It has a little bit of something for everyone. It can attract the Left like Elon Musk, Bill Maher, or Woody Harrelson, but it can also attract a more conservative base like Ron Paul, Clint Eastwood, or Penn Jillette. I think the left leaning side likes the legalization of drugs, the lack of foreign intervention, and the focus on staying out of someone’s else bedroom. The right leaning approve of the conservative approach on fiscal responsibility, getting rid of fiat currency, and limiting government.

      Right now we are a country torn, but I don’t believe it is 50/50 Republican/Democrat anymore, but more 33/33/34. A lot of people are sick of the the Right and Left and are just looking for a some semblance of sanity away from the Two Party political system.

      • Hi RG,

        I don’t think RFK Jr is a “Democrat operative” either. He initially sought the Democrat nomination for President until the DNC establishment all but crowned Joe Biden their nominee and declared they weren’t going to have ANY primary debates between Biden & his primary opponents. Not only that, the Democrat Party savaged Kennedy for dropping truth bombs, in addition to his stance on the COVID “vaccines”, and probably also didn’t like that he wrote a book exposing their “Public Health Hero”, Tony Fauci, as a fraud and corrupt bureaucrat. The Biden regime also censored RFK Jr, along with others who dared speak the truth on COVID & the experimental mRNA jabs, and Democrat Congress critters were also nasty to him when he testified in that Congressional hearing on censorship. I’m not sure if he had his own awakening the past few years like others have, but he has been doing what no other (current) Presidential candidate I’m aware of has been doing; namely dropping history and truth bombs about COVID, vaccines, censorship, the ongoing wars, the assassinations of his father & uncle, CBDCs, corporate capture of government agencies (which I learned was an actual thing in 2020), etc.

      • As stated, I think Kennedy is deeply conflicted & confused and has realized that even his old fashioned ideology has been almost entirely dismissed and thrown in the dumpster. And just like the intro to The Lone Ranger, he desperately longs to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear.

        He realizes his recent rise in popularity is coming not from the left — his own party – but from the right! Sure, there are some faithful democrat stragglers clinging to his coattails — those crusty old gray haired geezers who watched Cronkite weeping on TV back in ‘63. But by far most of his fans are ignorant, naive, conservative republicans & independents. And he won’t be swaying any more of those types — and especially any mainstream democrats — by picking someone like Jesse Ventura. He, of all people, especially knows that. He’s the son of RFK don’t forget. And just like “Bo knows football,” he comes from a family that knows politics like the back of their hands. He’s not some political rookie.

        If he were serious about the election, he’d be trying to steal votes from both parties, and anyone in between. So, unless the story I saw was misreported and perforce he actually picks some moderate democrat like Joe Machin or a left wing republican (hey Bobby, how about Lisa Murkowski or Susan Collins – don’t forget those women), then I think I’ll be sticking by my homemade conspiracy theory.

      • RFK Jr. speech in Berlin……8/29/2020

        The history of much of human existence since the Neolithic Revolution 12,000 years ago can be written simply: the endless struggle by those who are oppressed and enslaved against the insane elite slave owners that oppresses, enslaves and kills them.

        Unless we succeed completely in defeating this slave owner coup the very essence of what it means to be human will be taken from us.

        And one consequence of this coup will be human extinction in the near term, by one or more of 3 paths: nuclear war, plandemics or famine

        our own obedience, our own cooperation that will condemn us all to the fate being orchestrated by the global elite nobility slave owners.

        The entirety of human history is one of the few controlling the many because the many acquiesce to the few

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_pj3RWaFBY

      • Hopefully RFK Jr. thinks like current Senator John Kennedy….

        He says…..for him there is 3 laws…..do no harm to anybody unless they harm him…don’t steal…and leave me alone….that is classic common law…….

        That is all that is required….the way it should be…..

    • Likely RFKjr has the test results from the late Mary Jo Kopechne’s gynecologist ca July 1969. Gotta keep those Kennedy family skeletons in the closet.

  10. With the oily terms like “Vaccine Hesitancy” & “Range Anxiety”, it’s a wonder these sociopaths didn’t also concoct the term “Smart Hesitancy” to describe people who are suspicious of & want no part of all these “Smart Devices”, such as smart TVs, smart meters, smart appliances, and the smart driver app.

    • They already do with the derogatory term luddite (resistant to “progress”). I get this all the time from people I know when I say I’m not interested in new technologies for things that have already been perfected, like internal combustion engines, knobs on car audio or hvac equipment, smart tvs, refridges, thermostats, unserviceable transmissions, money, etc. I despise when somebody tries to fix something that ain’t broke. The usual result is diminished performance, or more recently, less control and privacy.

      • At least they aren’t calling us ‘medieval cave dwellers’ yet — though I’m prepared to take that step if need be.

      • Hi ML,

        IIRC, when electric smart meters were being deployed in my area of Oregon a few years ago, there were people who called those who opted to keep their old analog meters instead of getting a smart meter LUDDITES. However, there was also someone who wrote a letter to the local newspaper at the time to complain about her electric bill having almost TRIPLED after she got a smart meter. However, instead of blaming the state Public Utility Commission that ORDERED the electric company to install smart meters everywhere, she blamed the electric company for her bill having gone UP.

  11. Reasons not to ever get in a Government Motors vehicle #1: OnStar and other tracking methods, the original spyware
    Shame too, some beautiful cars out there for weekend toys, but then you remember they’re always watching and listening to you. Even if you never touched onstar, it’s still watching and listening, they’ll know.

    As for EV’s, despite what the cucks and sellouts at the Driveby auto mags (Cuck and driver, Road & Track, etc..) claim, they’ll be obsolete by the end of the decade, a boutique brand at best like Morgan or Weismann, or just scrapped once more at best.

    As mentioned here; https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/03/more_hidden_risks_of_evs.html,
    “While much of the press is devoted to claiming that EV fires are rare, I have found no credible statistics that prove they are less rare than comparable ICE vehicle fires. By “comparable,” I’m referring to age-corrected vehicle statistics to modern EVs, not overall statistics for vehicles of all ages which is not a fair comparison.
    We all know that grandpa’s 1976 Cadillac with its carbureted engine and rotting rubber fuel hoses will far more likely catch fire than a 2021 fuel-injected Tacoma with stainless steel fuel lines. That being said, regardless of credible, comparable statistics of fire risk there is no argument that the consequence of an EV fire is far more severe because of the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of extinguishing it unlike an ICE vehicle fire and the length of time it will burn.”

    Of course, you replace all of gramps rotted rubber with stainless steel, gut the cats and tweak it a bit, and it’ll keep on trucking til you can’t afford to fix it no more.

  12. Do not buy any vehicle with this crap installed! If you don’t have a choice about the vehicle (such as if it’s a hand-me-down or something like that), find a way to disable this telemetry crap and disable it!

  13. [How dumb are people?]- Eric

    “No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”
    H.L. Mencken. 1926

    and they were far, far better educated,,, no ‘smartphones’ no 144 genders and no water fluoridation.

    • Eric asks, How dumb are people???

      Albert Einstein — ‘Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe”

      Nuff said….

      • Nor the ability of the Tribe to promote a good yarn, including that he actually knew anything about nuclear physics. There were REASONS that fellow Tribe member and “fellow traveler” Robert Oppenheimer didn’t want old Albert on the Manhattan Project.

        • > promote a good yarn, including
          Including that Germany had a nuclear weapons program.
          In fact, Adolph Hitler had, based on the advice of his trusted science advisor, Werner Heisenberg, made the decision *NOT* to pursue nuclear weapons, but to develop rocketry and other technologies.

          Heisenberg’s wife recorded in her diary that her husband traveled to Copenhagen specifically to meet with Niels Bohr, and to inform Bohr that Germany had no nuclear weapons program, although German nuclear physicists continued to do scientific research in their field.

          Bohr, of course, was heavily involved in the Manhattan Project, so whatever Bohr knew, Oppenheimer also knew. Whether General Groves knew as well is another, and very interesting, question. Bottom line is that the entire ($$$) Manhattan Project was based, from about 1943 onward, on the false premise of racing to beat the enemy to produce this type of weapon.

          Ironically, the U.S. government totally ignored rocketry, even though the (now famous) U. S. rocket scientist. Robert Goddard, was pursuing his own research in eastern New Mexico.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Goddard
          >Three features developed by Goddard appeared in the V-2: (1) turbopumps were used to inject fuel into the combustion chamber; (2) gyroscopically controlled vanes in the nozzle stabilized the rocket until external vanes in the air could do so; and (3) excess alcohol was fed in around the combustion chamber walls, so that a blanket of evaporating gas protected the engine walls from the combustion heat. [86]

          >The Germans had been watching Goddard’s progress before the war and became convinced that large, liquid fuel rockets were feasible. General Walter Dornberger, head of the V-2 project, used the idea that they were in a race with the U.S. and that Goddard had “disappeared” (to work with the Navy) as a way to persuade Hitler to raise the priority of the V-2.

          Politics, baby. 🙂

          • The notion that Hitler dismissed nuclear weapons research as “Jewish pseudo science” is another Tribe “Tall Tale”, that Nazi Anti-Semitism caused it to literally shoot itself in the foot by driving out scientific talent.

            The reality is a bit more complicated: Heisenberg’s calculations were actually quite accurate in estimating how much U-235 was needed for a bomb. The trouble was how to refine it. It should be kept in mind that Germany didn’t fully mobilize it economy for war until 1943, but even if they had and built the equivalent of Oak Ridge and Los Alomos, how would they protect it from Allied bombing? Germany was LOSING the war of production America alone, never mind that the UK.and the USSR each rivaled it. The USA alone had the means for the Manhattan Project, aside from being immune on the home front to enemy action.

            • > how would they protect it from Allied bombing?
              Exactly. The gas diffusion plant at Oak Ridge was the largest building in the world at the time of its construction. Had the Germans built anything even close to that size, it would likely have been bombed, whether the Allies knew its intended use or not, is my expectation.

              Heisenberg’s estimate of 1946 before a bomb could be produced was not far off, and Hitler’s judgment that Germany’s war would be over before The Bomb was ready turned out to be correct.

    • “Think about how stupid an average American is, and then realize that half of them are even more stupid.” (George Carlin).

  14. New battery tech charges batteries in seconds.

    Such exciting times for electric vehicles! Looks pie-in-the-sky, but you never know.

    Pigs will fly, do barrel rolls.

    Smart Driver suggests the driver isn’t smart enough to drive a car. It’s an insult, be compliant and go along. Resistance is futile, obey.

    You can bet you are being taken for a ride.

    • Drumphish,

      That article is remarkably bereft of details. It might as well say that batteries will soon charge quickly because “stuff will happen”, though it does mention “New battery materials, such as graphene-based supercapacitors…” . Of course, supercapacitors aren’t batteries and are even more expensive and discharge in a linear way.

      Hell, if THAT guy can have a blog, what am I doing? Oh yeah, every other damn thing. :p

  15. The solution to most problems that plague modern society is to say “NO” and go without if necessary. Yup, this may cause you to get some uncomfortable feelies when the “NO” is being said, and it also may inconvenience you having to go without, but tough shit. Ill ride a bicycle before driving a car that spies on me.

    I went to see a band in an all-ages outdoor venue recently. While in line to get in, an official-looking security guard came up to me and demanded my ID. I asked him why and he told me he needed to determine whether I was old enough to drink alcohol. Now, my appearance leaves no doubt that I’m over 21. I told him I did not plan to show him my ID because (1) he needed to use his common sense as I’m clearly over 21 and (2) I do not drink. Nonetheless he insisted that if I am over 21 he needed to stamp my wrist with ink showing this, and if I am under 21 he needed to stamp my wrist with ink showing I was under 21. I told him I would “take a pass” on the ink (my initial nice way of saying no). He then told me he would be forced to stamp me with the ink showing under 21 unless I showed him my ID. The pathetic crowd in line started to become uncomfortable with my resistance to this stupidity and tried to plead with me with: “Hey, just show him your ID; you’re obviously over 21” and “Come on dude, just let him stamp you. He’s just doing his job” (what a loathsome phrase). The security guard told me I otherwise could not see the show and then he tried to physically grab my hand to stamp me with the under 21 stamp. I responded to the security guard in no uncertain terms: “Do not fucking touch me, asshole! You are not stamping me with any ink to go see a fucking band that I purchased a ticket to see, so go fuck off!” His response: “Ok” and he moved on to the pathetic moron behind me who complied. Problem solved for me. However, if the crowd had run with my efforts it would have ended for everybody. All the crowd had to do was boo him and yell go fuck off.

    You get what you put up with. There needs to be much more intolerance in society.

    • Mister, your comment reminds me of this past EP Autos comment thread. I like to save the really good ones, and have several pages worth of EP Auto comments over the years. When I need a good chuckle, I reread them. This one is of the same subject matter. I do not know who wrote it (to give credit to), but like this one, found it funny:
      Hi Jim, some years back – when I could still tolerate commercial air travel – I attended a Toyota long lead in California. I was waiting at LAX to catch my flight home and decided to sit at one of those bars they have inside some terminals. I just wanted coffee and a place to sit. An older guy – long gray hair, appeared to be at least 60 – sat down and asked for a drink. The bartender demanded ID from this guy, who got really angry – understandably – and sarcastically asked this guy (who appeared to be maybe 25) whether he thought there was even a slight chance he was under 40. “It’s policy,” the young bartender said. The older guy said – thusly: Fuck you, twerp. I was in Vietnam before you first crapped your pants.” And he got up and left.

  16. And now a word from our old friends at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety via CBS

    https://www.wboc.com/news/driver-assistance-tech-not-a-substitute-for-driver-say-safety-experts/video_18904b27-4cd5-54b1-aeb8-532840fd1ead.html

    Naturally more monitoring of drivers is the proposed solution to the failings of all those “driver assists”. The idea of banning automatic transmissions and cruise control along with all the other crap is never mentioned.

    • ‘Safety experts’ … you just triggered me, Mark.

      This is another occupation that I want to see in matching striped jumpsuits, shackled together at the ankles, grubbing out the chaparral with pocket knives and hand trowels.

      *gratuitously whacks a ‘safety expert’ on the rump with his rifle butt*

  17. ‘Stop buying “smart” things.’ — eric

    ‘Smart’ is a lipstick-on-a-pig euphemism for ‘spyware.’ End of story.

    The Matrix of wireless infrastructure is universal in populated areas. It’s useful if you need to make a call or send a text. But since this can be done with a ‘smart’ (spyware) phone, it is totally gratuitous and sinister to connect cars to the Matrix.

    ‘But I need connectivity to get an over-the-air update for muh EeeVeeee!’ I hear you protest. Warning: OTA updates are an EVEN BIGGER trigger for me. I do not want the functionality, user interface, or any other aspect of my vehicles changed by remote control, without my permission. I got a lifetime dose of that crap, via Microsoft messing with and screwing up Wiiiiiindows. Don’t want no stinkin’ Windowsmobile.

    Smart devices are designed by people who fall into the ‘intellectual yet idiot’ category. They misuse their coding and electronic skills to design crap features like laaaaaaane keep assist that drivers hate. Kinda like Microsoft gratuitously changing the user interface of Windows 8, only to have users puke all over it.

    We’ve discussed how just across the border, cheap cars are still sold in Mexico with manual transmissions, and presumably minus many US NHTSA saaaaaaafety features that can be stripped out to save weight and cost.

    As the US unravels — today the Slimes reports that migrant kids are selling Chiclets on the subway, just like in Venezuela — this dying empire is headed for ‘middle income country’ status too. Consequently, some of the worthless ‘smart’ shit will go away, because it’s unaffordable and can’t be fixed. Then we can rusticate the intellectuals to hog farms, to dig slop drainage ditches with their bare hands. Sooooo-eeeeeeeee!!

  18. Insurance mafia… and now also any corporation with DOD-connections-mafia. Has anybody read about the Boeing whistleblower who was in the middle of providing depositions was found dead of a gunshot to the head in his hotel parking lot. Coroner quickly determined suicide?

    It’s getting weird and desperate out there for them American oligarchs, deep staters and democrat-Marxists.

    And now for my personal conspiracy option which I think is a very possible option for the Democrat-Marxists and Deep Staters….

    They have continued to try to get Trump with lawfare and it is blowing up in their faces. Everything they tried is failing and making Trump into a folk hero. Tucker has suggested their next option might be elimination of Trump off planet earth. Maybe? They could put some water in his fuel tank of his 757. But that would make Trump a national martyr and empower his replacement with a mandate. Here is also what is also possible with these people; they are now committed to Bite-me. Unless Bite-me withdraws due to health this is their guy they are stuck with. What if the Deep State does what they love to do; false flag operation. The run up campaign and at the convention they write speeches and play up accusing MAGA of being enemies of the state. Then set up a someone as the MAGA patsy and eliminate Bite-me. They get younger Marxist Newsome with a mandate to eliminate and outlaw their opposition political party forever. Will this happen? Long shot says no. But we live in interesting times as they say. Trump may place Robert Kennedy in his administration…think he might come out with evidence the Deep State got his uncle? They are wildly desperate and dangerous, just ask the dead whistleblower.

    Just sayin and throw it in the woods.

  19. There’s an article on Lew Rockwell this morning, “The State of Our Nation No One’s Talking About: Tyranny Is Rising as Freedom Falls” by Jon & Nisha Whitehead.

    The ‘smart driver’ bs falls nicely into the ‘Americans no longer have a right to the expectation of privacy’ bucket.

    From the article:

    Americans no longer have a right to the expectation of privacy. Despite the staggering number of revelations about government spying on Americans’ phone calls, Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, Google searches, emails, bookstore and grocery purchases, bank statements, commuter toll records, etc., Congress, the president and the courts have done little to nothing to counteract these abuses. Instead, they seem determined to accustom us to life in this electronic concentration camp.

    • OT: Elon’s Starship Orbital Flight Test (OFT-3) is scheduled for 0700-0930 CDT on Thursday 3/14 (happy Pi Day!). If successful, those of us normal thinkers should crowd source funding to send the leftist moonbats, bolsheviks, etc on a one way trip to Mars.

    • Don’t give them any ideas, Allen. They already want to implant chips in everyone for digital ID, CBDCs, vaccine passports, tracking brain activity and thoughts, carbon footprint tracking, and who knows what else.

  21. This is what comes of the collusion between car companies and insurance companies – both of whom now regularly collude with government.

    Funny thing about that triad of tyranny. There’s a missing piece to the safe driving puzzle. The government could get bad drivers off the road tomorrow but won’t. Licensing is still a joke in this country. Take a drivers ed class at 15, get your learner’s permit at 16 and pass a multiple guess test at 17. You’re on the road. For the next 60-70 years you’re golden… unless you have an extra glass of wine with dinner and get caught, or don’t pay the insurance mafia their tribute. You have to screw up pretty bad to lose your license for actually being a bad driver though. And even if you do get too many points, just beg the DA and judge for leniency and tell a good sob story. Bang, plea accepted. You’re still a bad driver but that’s OK, the lawyers say otherwise.

    My commercial sUAV (drone) pilot license is good for two years, then I have to take a recurrent test. So I can fly a 2Kg quadcopter in the airspace. To be fair it’s multiple guess, but I still need to review the material before taking it. Every pilot in the sky has to log flight hours and have regular recurrent tests. That’s probably a little too extreme but also shows an alternative solution that doesn’t rely on gadgetry and surveillance to reduce bad driving, and increases skills too. That’s how to get bad drivers off the road. Of course we all know that there’d be some group that for whatever reason won’t be as good at driving as another, and that’s racisisss. Besides, it would mean more work for the state bureaucracy, and they’re “too busy” as it is.

    Besides, Uncle can’t even keep the roads in good repair anymore. How can we expect him to actually weed out bad drivers?

    • Ready, you are correct, but according to them you and I are the bad drivers. If you think and observe (which are the very definition of a capable driver) rather than follow the rules like a well programmed machine, then you are anti-authority and therefore a bad driver.

      Be very careful what you wish for- aviation has gone from the domain to the smart, independent thinking individual to the domain of the submissive rule follower. When I was learning to be a pilot I had to buy the FAR-AIM book, an 3 inch thick book of Federal Aviation Regulations. And instructors smugly told me it was all vital to obey. Which was one of the reasons I met all the qualifications but never finished my private.

  22. This is another reason not to buy a new car. Sadly according to my mechanic some car companies were installing this sort of invasive technology back in 2012 although OnStar was earlier.

    I wonder what would happen to a Corvette owner who used their car both for commuting and raced it competitively on a NHRA approved drag strip on weekends?

    • “what would happen to a Corvette owner”

      maybe the same thing as can happen to someone getting collector car plates for their car and the insurance….but neglecting to disclose it has rust problems….you crash…they find out…..no coverage….

      drag racing…using launch control over and over, doing burnouts, cornering at 1.3 G’s…heavy braking…..all recorded now….they might say…that is criminal activity….your insurance is void…a great way for insurance companies to reduce their costs…..if you just crashed into and injured/killed a dentist…you are facing millions of dollars in liability….

      • Hi anonymous1.

        I was thinking more of a new Corvette with the Smart Driver app reporting prodigious acceleration followed by heavy braking. That’s not safe according to the smart driver app though but does a car insurance policy forbid you from doing it and will it raise your insurance? Probably.

        I assume your car won’t be won’t be covered if you crash if you’re racing on a track but I’ve never checked on it.

        Definitely fun though.

  23. Americans love their gadgets and the software which runs them.

    “There is an app for that.”

    And the apps are designed by psychologists working with the developers to maximize the dopamine hit.

  24. Oh and customers are complaining about how fast their EVs depreciate. That one puzzles me because its easy to research that fact before you buy the dang thing. Guess people get blinded by their ideology!

  25. Recently took BMW for servicing at the dealership. Chatting with my tech he said they have gotten so many complaints about the lane keep assist they now show drivers how to turn it off. Drivers are saying lane keep assist prevents them from swerving to avoid cyclists and actually tries to steer them into the bike lane! He also said they are selling a lot of EVs but receiving many complaints from customers saying not only have their electricity bills gone way up because they plug in at peak usage time when they get home from work but the vehicles they were told would charge in 8 hours are taking 14 hours to regain a full charge.

    • Hello, RS. This new vehicle I have now (a 2022) is probably the last new vehicle I will buy. I still have an ’07 WRX, which I need to do a bit of maintenance on, but otherwise, runs great, albeit, it has a lot of miles on the engine. And, it is a standard: Something I sorely miss. When I bought my new car, I flat-out told the sales guy I did NOT want an EV or a hybrid. He shut off all the safety crap and the bells-and-whistles that go with it. And, I recently learned how to shut off the governor, as well. Also when I listen to David Gilmour play a guitar solo, the last thing I want is to hear a “ding” every time someone drives up next to me. In the Winter, we drive where the roads are clear (so do the state troopers) and to hell with the lines. And if I need to swerve to avoid the perma frost in the Summer, or a moose, I sure as hell do not need some “lane-keep assist” to stop me. And now with the advent of breathalyzers and kill switches coming to these newer vehicles (even newer than mine), it just makes me wish I had one of my older vehicles from the past. Where I could do the maintenance, and it was not so computerized.

    • “lane keep assist they now show drivers how to turn it off.”

      Soon, if not now…it will be a criminal act, voiding your insurance….the car will pull over shut down, brick itself, because you shut safety stuff off…..

      it will rat you out for sure….maybe leading to insurance or warranty void…..you can expect far higher insurance rates….

  26. Wasn’t it GM who started with the OnStar bullshit? GM should focus on making cars that are driveable and not all that other social media- connectability crap. I don’t even know what types of cars GM makes anymore, that’s how much I never think of that company as a real automobile manufacturer.

        • ‘From 2008, OnStar has offered “Santa tracking” in all equipped vehicles around the festive period. This has allowed children worldwide to see Santa’s location on Christmas Eve. Each time this feature is used, OnStar also made donations to various charities.’

          Awww, how cute (barf).

      • I can report pulling the onstar fuse works to disable it, at least on older gm’s.
        I have found the onstar fuse on my wife late model CT4 and will pull it to see what happens.
        Currently, there is popup message at every start “sign up for onstar!” and it bothers me.

  27. How surrealistic, that tools intended to enslave you are promoted as a “benefit”. What earthly good for you is created by having every move you make recorded and sold? If ever there was a thing incentivizing us NOT to buy new or late model cars, this is it.
    Almost glad I can’t drive any more.

  28. “Many of them bought an EVs because they are quick”

    That is the only thing EV owners talk about… how quick it is 0 to 60….

    The latest VW EV ad shows an 80 year old granny drifting a VW EV around a parking lot…..that is the only selling feature it has….quick 0 to 60……other then that they are useless……

    Then there is Ferrari….they don’t talk about 0 to 60….they only care about lap times…

    The best sorts car in the world…the Gordon Murray T50….they don’t talk about 0 to 60…because the car has many other more important strengths…like sound…13,000 rpm V12…. emotion, feel, feedback, perfect balance, incredible handling, etc…

    EV’s have slow lap times….

    The Ariel Atom V8 is the best experience car in the world, the EV is the worst….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jvHqB4ZxbU

    • There’s a limit to how much of a magnetic field can be produced by a copper coil, called saturation. There’s also a time factor for how quickly that field can collapse, called coercivity. These two physical properties of motors will limit how fast a speed controller can operate. Once that maximum rate has been reached the motor won’t spin any faster no matter what, and will probably do damage if you try (at least with the kind of power necessary to move cars).

      I’m working from memories of my analog sound recording days, mixed with my limited understanding of drone motors and ESCs, so I might be off a little on the terms.

      • But it’s not an absolute limit, like a IC engine running out of breath, the electric motor becomes more resistive/reactive, builds up heat due to lost efficiency, and components start to degrade due to countervailing forces. If it’s brushed DC, arcing starts and eats up the commutator and brushes. If it’s electronically commutated there will be push back counter EMF on the output transistors.

    • Apart from the Porsche Taycan Taycan, with a two -speed transmission every production EV uses a single-speed transmission,

      EV makers favor low-end acceleration over Autobahn-worthy top speeds.

      Where most electrics top out around 125 mph (Tesla limits its cars to 163), the Taycan will touch 161 mph….top speed is limited by the diff. ratio and maximum engine rpm….

      NOTE: these EV’s have very short diff. ratios….increasing motor rpm….Taycan 8.0 to 1….Tesla 9.0 to 1…..compared to a Corvette 4.1 to 1……another reason they accelerate quickly….

      The Porsche Taycan electric motors reach up to 16,000 revolutions per minute…..it has a 2 speed transmission

      The maximum RPM of a Tesla motor …it has a 1 speed transmission….depends on the vehicle, but the new carbon-sleeved motor is capable of 23,308 RPM @ 200 mph compared to the previous P100D redline of 18,000 RPM @ 155 mph…..lower rpm in the Taycan motor means less wear, longer lifespan…..

      Nobody would buy an ice powered car that was geared for 11,000 rpm engine speed at 100 mph….like the EV’s have…..lol

      The Taycan’s transmission is an in-house Porsche solution….there is no EV transmission available anywhere, for other EV’s…..

      But auto industry supplier ZF is working on its own version of the two-speeder, which it’s looking to sell to any automaker that doesn’t want to choose between low-end torque and top speed .

      “With a two-speed transmission, we can do both,” says Stephan Demmerer,For automakers willing to take on a bit more complexity, he says, the two-speed setup can either improve an EV’s range by 5 percent, or push its top speed beyond the typical cap.

      It does that by improving the conversion rate of battery power to actual wheel power. Every one percentage point in energy conversion efficiency translates into 2 percent more range, ZF says.

      Carmakers can use the system to squeeze more range out of a smaller battery—thereby reducing vehicle weight—or pair it with larger batteries to pursue performance, whether it’s racing around a track or towing the family boat.

      “There is a real race to compete on the energy efficiency of EVs,” says Venkat Viswanathan, a mechanical engineer at Carnegie Mellon University.

      The two-speed transmission is only arriving now partly because it’s complicated. Multispeed transmissions must be robust to deal with the massive amounts of torque that electric motors can generate in a very short period of time, says Shashank Sripad, a mechanical engineer also from Carnegie Mellon.

      Tesla tried multi speed transmissions with its proof of concept Roadster more than a decade ago, but ran into reliability challenges and has stuck with single-speeds ever since…..the torque breaks the transmission….. And because they require more maintenance, these gearboxes can make very unreliable EV’s even more defective….

      Moreover, going beyond one speed hasn’t really been necessary so far. “Batteries have been small, with ranges of about 100 to 150 kilometers and the focus was more on inner-city driving,” Demmerer says…..single speed EV’s are better suited to low speeds in the city….not highway speeds…..

      EV’s with 1 speed tranmissions are not ready for highway use….plus the range problem…..

      “Today we see all-round use of battery electric vehicles with a higher portion of highway driving, and the range has increased.” Two-speed setups have an advantage when people are driving in many applications….highway driving….. he says, and that 5 percent range improvement can save significant money as battery capacity continues to increase.

      In fact, the two-speed system makes the most economic sense in vehicles with larger batteries—or in higher-performance systems—so urban runabouts…at low speeds….. will likely stick with single-speed transmissions indefinitely.

      https://getjerry.com/questions/what-is-the-maximum-rpm-of-a-tesla-motor

      • Steam was better…….

        Howard Hughes’ 1925 Doble E20 went 0 to 75 mph in just 5 seconds, with its engine turning over at less than 1,000 rpm, a steam engine is a very low rpm engine…..but has 100% torque at 1 rpm like an electric motor…

        The tesla plaid motors runs at up to 19,000 rpm, that sounds dangerous, will wear out quickly, car electric motors are too high rpm….they are having seal failures, motor failures….motors filling up with coolant….lol

        An EV electric motor’s power drops off half way through the rpm range..weak top end power….some ice engines have full power all the way to redline…far better top end power…EV’s have far lower top speeds.

        The steam engine goes 600,000 miles without an overhaul. After 100,000 miles the tesla battery is dead so it is worthless, scrapped, at 19,000 rpm the motors are probably gone too..

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