While I’m not surprised, it’s important that empirical research be done and published. It’s needed to bolster calls for regulation. Not that I, for one second, think we’ll get any meaningful regulation out of this in most countries.
Our best bet, as always, is to limit our technologies’ access to the internet as much as we can tolerate. Cars, doorbells, and refrigerators have no business connecting to the internet at all.
I’m heavily conflicted …. I agree, but I really want to not need to agree. A door bell connected to the internet is extremely useful. Current implementations are a nightmare though.
But if it could be secure, private, and the technology actually served the individual in physical proximity “owner” it would be awesome!
I had a car with its own internet connection for a while, I could check my windows were rolled up from my phone, start it from anywhere, get alerts on fuel levels or oil change intervals…. BUT telemetry was used in evil ways against me.
A connected fridge that didn’t spy on you, show ads, or be designed to fail could be really useful. But we know the “business” behind this makes it consumer hostile.
Heck, my washer and dryer wanted to connect to WiFi and it COULD be useful to get an alert on your phone when it’s done but you’re not in its immediate proximity. But we all know giving this thing internet will be a net loss no matter what.
Smart tvs could be neat in concept, but we all know they’re little corporate spys. Watch out for these, especially Roku is apparently requiring internet connectivity for initial setup. Oh, and this is the company that’s got a patent to identify when an hdmi input is paused so they can inject ads.
I’m sad because technology is so cool and should have served us to make life easier. Instead, it has killed the joy. FOSS is helping revive the passion in technology.
So many things should be possible, but “people” went and ruined it for everyone.
They will make it illegal to remove it from the internet, I think it long has been illegal to remove the onstar and that was a long time ago, but not sure it’s been 20 years since I think I learned that after seeing a sopranos episode where they paid someone to remove it from their new car.
Remotely enabling heating/cooling of my car so it’s ready when I get to it is just so god damn nice. This is only possible with internet connection, if it’s limited by keyfob range to the vehicle then it may as well not exist.
This really depends on Keyfob range. My current cars tend to be around 50ft, though i haven’t tested it tons past that. Prior to these, I had a Mazda Protégé5 that I could lock/unlock from 300’+ with line of sight. Thats more than enough to start/cool/heat/etc without actually leaving the house.
Honestly, even 50ft is probably fine. Only time I can think of wanting more would be leaving a large venue and wanting it heated/cooled in the parking garage before I got there… but I’d be worried about it being stolen while running at that point.
Where it’s the most beneficial is when I can walk around e.g. a mall and the decide to heat/cool the car before leaving, or coming back from a hike I can start cooling 15min before we arrive at the car so it’s nice and cool when we get there. If I can only start it 300’ feet from the car, I might as well just wait the 30sec it takes to keep walking until I get there, it won’t make a difference.
Edit: for EVs it doesn’t need to start/enable the entire car, it only starts the AC unit.
While I’m not surprised, it’s important that empirical research be done and published. It’s needed to bolster calls for regulation. Not that I, for one second, think we’ll get any meaningful regulation out of this in most countries.
Our best bet, as always, is to limit our technologies’ access to the internet as much as we can tolerate. Cars, doorbells, and refrigerators have no business connecting to the internet at all.
I’m heavily conflicted …. I agree, but I really want to not need to agree. A door bell connected to the internet is extremely useful. Current implementations are a nightmare though.
But if it could be secure, private, and the technology actually served the individual in physical proximity “owner” it would be awesome!
I had a car with its own internet connection for a while, I could check my windows were rolled up from my phone, start it from anywhere, get alerts on fuel levels or oil change intervals…. BUT telemetry was used in evil ways against me.
A connected fridge that didn’t spy on you, show ads, or be designed to fail could be really useful. But we know the “business” behind this makes it consumer hostile.
Heck, my washer and dryer wanted to connect to WiFi and it COULD be useful to get an alert on your phone when it’s done but you’re not in its immediate proximity. But we all know giving this thing internet will be a net loss no matter what.
Smart tvs could be neat in concept, but we all know they’re little corporate spys. Watch out for these, especially Roku is apparently requiring internet connectivity for initial setup. Oh, and this is the company that’s got a patent to identify when an hdmi input is paused so they can inject ads.
I’m sad because technology is so cool and should have served us to make life easier. Instead, it has killed the joy. FOSS is helping revive the passion in technology.
So many things should be possible, but “people” went and ruined it for everyone.
Doing it yourself is the only practical way to have those nice conveniences and not expose everything to the Internet.
They will make it illegal to remove it from the internet, I think it long has been illegal to remove the onstar and that was a long time ago, but not sure it’s been 20 years since I think I learned that after seeing a sopranos episode where they paid someone to remove it from their new car.
Remotely enabling heating/cooling of my car so it’s ready when I get to it is just so god damn nice. This is only possible with internet connection, if it’s limited by keyfob range to the vehicle then it may as well not exist.
This really depends on Keyfob range. My current cars tend to be around 50ft, though i haven’t tested it tons past that. Prior to these, I had a Mazda Protégé5 that I could lock/unlock from 300’+ with line of sight. Thats more than enough to start/cool/heat/etc without actually leaving the house.
Honestly, even 50ft is probably fine. Only time I can think of wanting more would be leaving a large venue and wanting it heated/cooled in the parking garage before I got there… but I’d be worried about it being stolen while running at that point.
Where it’s the most beneficial is when I can walk around e.g. a mall and the decide to heat/cool the car before leaving, or coming back from a hike I can start cooling 15min before we arrive at the car so it’s nice and cool when we get there. If I can only start it 300’ feet from the car, I might as well just wait the 30sec it takes to keep walking until I get there, it won’t make a difference.
Edit: for EVs it doesn’t need to start/enable the entire car, it only starts the AC unit.