Skip to content

25 thoughts on “Subaru knows everything about me”

  1. bhommad

    They know what you do with the car. Probably where you have been and what you have been listening to on the radio. Anything you did through Starlink, duh. Why did you sign on for Starlink anyway? It cost you money and it does you no good. All it does is pin down your identity as a chump, the kind of guy who buys a car and buys the spywear that the car company wants to sell you.

    1. bhommad

      Oh, apologies. Don't want to disparage you as a chump. I bought a Subaru in 2016 but fortunately there was some programming mishap and even the "free introductory Sirius radio" didn't work, and there is no detectable connection to the internet. The only real outrage is that every time I get into my own car, that I bought for cash and have a pink slip proving that, it welcomes me. The main "screen"lights up and says Welcome when I open the door to what I think of as "my"car. When I turn the motor on the car tells me to obey traffic laws and drive safe. Thank you, my car. Thanks for the tip.

      If you search the internet, you can find ways to turn off that welcome screen. You can learn secret codes, like shift to first gear, open and close the door three times, shift back to neutral, open and close the door twice.. it goes on and on and is quite complicated. It works, but it is erased when you turn off the motor, and the next time you step into your car it welcomes you, as if you are stepping into Subaru's parlor. Where is Ralph Nader when we really need him? It is like turning on your own computer, and being welcomed to it as if you were stepping into an opera house where Bill Gates is the usher. You just paid extra, you bought the part where the usher runs out and checks the air in your tires.

  2. iamr4man

    Apparently the Subaru Company is paying Bill Gates for the information he is getting from the nanochips that were injected into your veins via the “vaccine”. So they, along with every other company that pays Gates for the information, know everything about you. You can expect many cat food ads and coupons in the near future.

  3. Rich Beckman

    The Big Businesses of the world finally noticed what Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc are doing. And they are jealous. If you can buy a product that is not tracking and listening (and viewing?!?!). it is only because they haven't yet figured out how to get that particular product to perform that way for them.

    This is the future.

    Someday the apple you buy at the store will come with the legal agreement that you agreed to by buying the apple, except you didn't buy it, you only bought a license to eat it. Reselling it, planting of its seeds (and more I can't imagine) being strictly prohibited.

    None of us will own anything, and everything will be spying on us.

    I tell myself I exagerate. I try to believe myself.

  4. J. Frank Parnell

    You are concerned Subaru knows your tire pressure? Consider yourself lucky you didn’t buy a Tesla. Elon would know everywhere you went, how fast, and the identity of anyone who drove or parked near you.

  5. D_Ohrk_E1

    Almost all cars since 2014 have black boxes, but you know, lots of insurers now offer lower rates, especially per-mile insurance, if you attach a device to read and transmit some OBD2 data. Manufacturers know everything about what you did last summer.

    But, if you don't want anyone to know anything about what you're doing, turn off your phone, first. If you can't do that, there's little point to discussing vehicle/location privacy.

  6. Rattus Norvegicus

    They do keep track of the systems in your car. My tire pressure light went on a couple of days ago when it was really fucking cold for the first time this year (12F). I went to my dealer and had them fill up the tires. There were two other people there getting the same thing done. Service consultant told me that lots of people had been in with the same problem that day.

    Look at the MySubaru app on your phone, it will tell you everything you need to know about what they are collecting. I'm pretty good about keeping on top of maintenance so when I get a service notification on the dash I take care of it right away. So far that has only been low washer fluid and the low tire pressure on the first really fucking cold day in a couple of years.

    1. Rattus Norvegicus

      And a couple of emails reminding me to schedule a service when it was due. Handy if I was a slacker about getting my services done, but I'm not.

    2. rick_jones

      Going to the dealer to have air put into the tires? ? I can understand not wanting to use a bicycle pump (which I’ve done several times but in a climate which doesn’t hit 21F let alone 12) but isn’t that what what the compressors at gas stations are for?

      1. HokieAnnie

        A lot of gas stations around my neck of the woods don't have them and he few that do are charge for an amount of time to barely get you two tires filled. I haven't done it in so long I don't know what the going rate might be.

        Instead I got an air pump that uses lithium batteries, Rhyobi so it's the same batteries used in my lawn equipment. It's quick and accurate, no fuss.

        1. J. Frank Parnell

          I have a similar air pump from Milwaukee Tool. Highly recommended, much easier than going to the dealer. I can connect it to a tire, set the pressure and walk away and do something else, as it will shut down when it reaches the target pressure. I used to have several of the cheap air pumps that plugged into the outlet previously known as the cigarette lighter, but invariably the connector would get run over or otherwise destroyed.

  7. Vog46

    ♪♪
    They see your radiators leaking.....
    They know when your tires deflate
    They see your oil as bad or good
    So keep it good, for goodness sake..........

    Sorry, just had to

  9. rick_jones

    Kevin, do you remember when rollover crashes were all the news, and how they were linked to low tire pressure? And then how tire pressure monitoring was made mandatory in all passenger vehicles and light trucks because drivers could not be trusted to check tire pressure? (The multiple level aptly named TREAD Act)
    Toss-in a little networking and a litigious society and you get to where emails arrive. “See, we informed Mr. Drum about the serious issue with tire pressure and he did nothing about it. We therefore could not possibly be liable” …

  10. coynedj

    My tire pressure light is always on. I can get the tires brought up to proper pressure, and the light will come on after about 5 miles of driving. It's probably set to come on if any tire is more than 0.5% off the recommended pressure level, but I haven't looked into whether that can be changed.

  11. Vog46

    My Camry drove me crazy with this type of stuff
    Its going on 6 years old and barely has 44K miles on it.
    Every damned 3 months the service required soon notification came on. This was very aggravating.
    After the first year I had 7K miles on it I brought it into the dealership for it's required maintenance. I told the service person I was aggravated and that they needed to either disconnect that warning permanently or I would buy a new car. They immediately pounced of course saying we'd welcome your trade blah blah blah.......
    When they finally took a breath I told them they fix it or I trade it in for another care at another dealer because cars are just not important to me as far as brand loyalty etc goes. This was the second car I had bought there and the first one with all these new fangled bells and whistles.
    They fixed it and showed me how to do it myself should the computer reset itself after a battery change out.
    I check my car out myself. Oil and tire pressure weekly. Coolant monthly along with other things. I no longer do the maintenance myself like I did when I was younger but I do take care of my "stuff". The better you care for it the longer it lasts.

    But Kevin - the point here is that they know TOO MUCH.
    The last time Marian went with you on a night time photography journey? And you got frisky with her in the car after? It's probably on the dark web !!!!!

    But technology is great.
    I am still waiting for Apply watches that can monitor your hormone levels to let you know when you have conceived. Imagine going to a Planned Parenthood at 8 weeks to gt a legal abortion in Houston.

  12. cld

    I've told my laptop's microphone never to activate, but does that work? How could i know?

    They don't sell laptops without microphones.

    1. Rich Beckman

      I occasionally say "OK Google" "into" my phone to see if it reacts. If it does, I search again for the setting that lets me turn it off.

  14. robertnill

    If your Subaru is anything like my VW Golf Sportwagen, there's nothing wrong with your tire pressure. But worth checking just in case.

    Years ago, I was attending an IBM marketing conference, when John Iwata, the head of Corporate Comms was talking about surveillance fears. He held up StarTac and noted every 30 seconds his location was being tracked, and so was everyone else in the room. His point was, yes you can track all this data, but there's limited time to process and analyze it, even with the fastest supercomputers. The East German Stasi ran into the same problem but with largely paper-based humint.

Comments are closed.