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How to opt out of the privacy nightmare that comes with new Hondas (sherwood.news)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

What kind of damage?

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Personally I’d call that a safety issue. A few years ago my wife and I were driving a rental car that was rear ended on the highway by a drunk driver. The impact caved in the left rear wheel and spun us 360 degrees across 3 lanes of the highway. Within a few seconds of coming to a stop an OnStar person was talking to us, asking if we were ok and confirming our location.

    We had no clue ahead of time that the rental car had one of these services, but at that moment we were very happy it did. I honestly have no idea about the privacy ramifications, etc. but having been through that experience I’d think long and hard about disabling it outright. I do take my privacy seriously, but I’d have to weigh that against the safety of me & my family in that kind of situation and disable it only as an absolutely last resort… Just my own personal $0.02 on the matter.

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  • [–] 28 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I think my car only came with a free trial for that service, I think you needed to pay after a certain amount of time. Cell phone works well enough for me.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    sadfsdfasfasf

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    I estimate that the probability of injuring my arms and that no one else is around to call for help is low enough to not be worth the monthly subscription.

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  • [+] -5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I judge based on probability and severity, and the probability is small enough even though the severity is high for me to not be concerned.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    You're not alone on the road.

    It's incredibly unlikely that you'd be in such a bad accident that you couldn't call for help; while simultaneously being isolated from the public to the point nobody saw your accident and started calling ems/police before you could.

    That's not to say it doesn't happen; but I definitely wouldn't be worried about it.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    You obviously don't live or drive in a semi-rural area at night with larger wildlife that tends to dart across the road in front of cars. All it takes is hitting a deer or javelina hard and going into a ditch.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago

    Playing devil's advocate, in a crazy accident you may not be able to get to/reach your phone, or even be responsive. If you use the personal assistant function on your phone, it's no different than using OnStar, in terms of privacy.

    All of this said, last I heard OnStar was pretty expensive for the average household income. I don't have it, and I don't worry too much about it.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    With how everybody and their mother have smartphones in their pockets, I wouldn't be too worried.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    Depending on the crash you could be unable to reach for the phone.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    No! I mean everybody else! Someone else is going to call for help.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    That depends a lot on where you drive. I've been in situations where, if I had hit a moose, there would have been no one around to call for help except the moose (assuming it had survived the collision, but they often do if it's a smaller vehicle). That stretch of road didn't get many passers-by on snowy Sunday nights in January. Maybe a half-dozen vehicles an hour. Combine that with poor visibility, and it could have been a long time before someone noticed and called for help. Fortunately, I never did have an accident along that stretch.

    Of course, if you're only driving in built-up areas or along major transit corridors instead of in awkward parts of northern Ontario in the middle of winter, your chances of having someone call in for you are much higher.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Does OnStar even work in far out regions like this? Is there even any cell reception? If not then that point is pretty irrelevant.

    And if it's so far out, would emergency services even arrive in time to save you anyways?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I think OnStar is satellite-based, so it might reach areas where cell service doesn't. I believe the stretch of highway I was thinking of (Ontario highway 655) does have at least partial cell coverage now, although it didn't at the time when I was driving it regularly. It isn't extremely remote—it would take emergency services from Cochrane or Timmins about half an hour to reach the farthest point, so they might get there in time, depending on what exactly the damage was.

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