I'm pretty sure the EU GDPR requires explicit & clear consent for data collection.

That's up to a £17.5m fine or 4% of your annual turnover, whichever is higher

How about national security? Russia or NK might struggle hacking the CIA but Nissan or Mercedes ain't going to have the same security. Now you have hundreds of thousands of multifaceted information collection devices spread throughout the whole country in the hands of companies that would take the seat belts out if they weren't legally required to put them in.

"I can tell you're a very smart man, sir... I've got a hunch that you'll buy this car if I jerk you off during a test drive, what do you say... do we have a deal?"

Sounds like any iPhone or Android with Google out there.

2015 with manual transmission, manual windows, manual locks, and knobs as controls. I need to keep this car running for at least another decade because they just don't make them like this anymore. I dont want the extra weight of electric motors in everything and the cost to replace said motors.

Exactly. I'm keeping my 2010 Mazda 3 for as long as I can for that exact reason. I barely use it anyway. Bought new in late 2009 and it only has 130 000 km on it.

I essentially use it for groceries, and occasionally for visiting friends and family who live outside of town.

New cars have all these bright tablet screens to control everything and it's a nightmare when driving. You have to focus on the screen all the time to press buttons. It's super dangerous.

Meanwhile, my car has only physical knobs and buttons that I can reach with muscle memory without even looking. The Bluetooth for my phone with integrated voice commands is a nice feature though.

Sent from my personal data harvester

Not related to EVs at all. Every new, feature rich car, is like this.
Camera systems for semi-autonomous driving, blind spot warnings, and parking assist. Always on cellular connections for maps, navigation, and roadside assistance. The tech has been in most cars for a decade or more. It's the last 5ish years the manufactures realized they could collect all the data and have another revenue stream.

Not to mention how much cheaper an EV could be if it had manual windows, less software, less microphones, less screens and just overall focused on being a car before being a smart device, status symbol, or entertainment system.

The problem is tech is cheap, especially software. Even moreso when the data you gain is so valuable.

Why wouldn't they be an eSIM?

Probably the equivalent of where the Death Star's weakness lies. Hard to reach on purpose.

My privacy policy of charging 100mill per bit of data collected is valid if it was.