There are no new cars on the market today that don't have a slew of connected """features""", right?
Will it ever be possible to have a non-connected car? If so, how? What would it actually take? This is not a ranty rhetorical question -- I'm actually wondering.
In the U.S., by 2026, all new cars must have a "kill switch", and that includes a remote operation. The requirement is about preventing drunk driving, but it's being interpreted by many to require a kill switch.
> Section 24220, “ADVANCED IMPAIRED DRIVING TECHNOLOGY,” of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), enacted as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), directed that “not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue a final rule prescribing a Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) under section 30111 of title 49, United States Code, that requires passenger motor vehicles manufactured after the effective date of that standard to be equipped with advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology.” Further, the issuance of the final rule is subject to subsection (e) “Timing,” which provides for an extension of the deadline if the FMVSS cannot meet the requirements of 49 USC 30111.
Now, I don't see anything in there about a "rmeote switch", and I don't understand how the "remote" bit would work to prevent DUI.
I wonder how well current adaptive cruise control/collision prevention technology works to help someone safely drive drunk. I don't own a car with these features but once rented a 2021 Nissan for a road trip and just set the cruise control to 70 and it would maintain a safe distance from other cars automatically down to like 20 mph iirc. I didn't, but I probably could have been drunk and driven that car without much issue, not that I am advocating for this.
There's probably already a bunch of data being collected about cars parked at e.g. a bar for a few hours that's being used to train some AI to detect driving behaviors associated with drunk driving or something like that.
Don't know about 2024, but my 2023 Honda Civic EX-B (Canadian market) is actually pretty old school. Yes, it has the keyless unlock and even a remote engine start button on the keyfob (can be disabled, thankfully - car is parked inside and we have kids!) But no cellular connectivity, no wifi, and all the touchscreen stuff is "extra icing" - all the controls you need are there in physical form except for some radio and cell phone call functions. Yes, the car may be vulnerable to signal boost kind of attacks (to pretend the keyfob is nearby when it's not) and possibly the "pop off a headlight and get into the CANbus" attack. But no cloud dependency and no way for the cloud to reach in and mess things up. Also, the software it does have seems "debugged" based on a year of using it.
You can pull the fuse on a ford maverick and it physically disables the telemetry. You could also opt out and disable it through the settings. Remote start from your keyfob still works. As expected remote start, seeing where you parked, remotely locking the car through the ford app will not work.
depends how wide is your definition of "connected features". all modern vehicles in the EU are required to have the eCall feature which uses cell to send your location in case of a crash. Since the hardware is in there I have absolutely no faith in car makers/govs to not use it for other purposes (now or in the future) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECall
Will it ever be possible to have a non-connected car? If so, how? What would it actually take? This is not a ranty rhetorical question -- I'm actually wondering.