[mdorazio]

Telematics & remote interaction. Want to get remote diagnostics/problem notifications on your car, have emergency 911 service in the event of a crash, be able to unlock it from your phone, preheat it in the winter, precool it in the summer, get notified when your 16-year old child is driving over 70mph, get software updates for the ECUs in your car, enable remote charging notification & management, etc.? Cellular.

Note that the HN crowd is extremely outside the mainstream in its collective view on these kinds of features. The actual mass market for cars embraces most of these even though HN tends to vilify attempts to add connected tech to vehicles.

[montroser]

Just because the actual mass market embraces these things doesn't mean they're good for us all. The skepticism is about how needlessly dependent it makes our individual cars upon a broad shared resources like CDMA and coprorations' servers, in perpetuity.

Tesla drivers locked out of their cars en mass last week because Tesla servers were down? Okay, it's relatively benign, and maybe it has helped people not get locked out of their cars on the whole, versus how often it locked people out of their cars.

But year after year at DEFCON, it is demonstrated that malicious actors can take remote control of your "connected tech" car, while you're driving it. The terrorism potential alone is scary, aside from all of the mildly troublesome tracking and privacy implications.

I'll trade away precooling my car in the summer in favor of exclusively controlling my own vehicle, thanks.

[toomuchtodo]

Tesla drivers have a keycard or fob they should have with them. Using the app for vehicle access is a convenience.

[KennyBlanken]

The problem with telematics systems: even if you don't buy the subscription, the telematics system is still active, reporting your location, speed, environmental data, and use of various accessories like windshield wipers etc. to the manufacturer.

A friend used to work for a company that was purchasing that data from automakers to try and enhance weather data for real-time weather reporting.

Let's run down that list of benefits:

911 calls in event of a crash? iOS 16 is going to have that built-in. Ford vehicles (and others, I think VWs too?) can use a bluetooth paired phone to place a crash-detection 911 call.

Remote diagnostics? Only authorized dealers can access, and if you're going to your dealer for non-warranty service, you're a fool. Massachusetts passed an extension to Right To Repair requiring automakers to provide indie garages with access to the same telematics and Subaru responded by remotely disabling all remote diagnostics in any car registered in Massachusetts. That's how petulant they are.

Remote keyfob based starters (optionable on any Ford/GM and a ton of other vehicles) don't need monthly subscriptions to preheat/precool. Idling your car especially in the winter is terrible for the engine and environment anyway; it's much better to just get in and gently drive the car until it has started to warm up. 3/4 of the energy in gasoline is converted into heat.) In the summertime the fastest way to cool a car down is to open up the windows and sunroof, and drive for a minute or two.

Very, VERY few automakers do remote software updates for ECUs. For example, the Chevy Bolt, an electric car, will only update its entertainment software "over the wire" even though Chevy has said they have the capability to do OTA updates for the drivetrain. Ford vehicles can update the infotainment system via WiFi.

Remote charging notification/management? Largely useless except for very specific, limited circumstances. Electric cars have built-in scheduling and charge limits, in many cases location-specific settings can be done. There are also "smart" EVSE adapters that allow for max SoC and charge time settings. If you need to monitor the percentage charge on your electric car regularly, you have too much time on your hands.