AI In Scouts 2027

[strider]

GPS being one way tech is one of the greatest lies ever told. The tech was developed in the 60's to track submarines, not so that the submarines could know how to get somewhere lol! With the first satellites launched in the late 70's, it was not even made available to the public until the 2000's simply because there is no way they could convince the public in the previous era's that they could have a technology that could help locate where they were anywhere in the world.

Yeah I'm going to need some actual references for this that aren't from the Ancient Aliens Guy. In order to "track" a receiver, that receiver must transmit back to something. I have a Garmin 12XL GPS unit from the 90s that I use when backpacking. I am 99.99% sure that unit is not transmitting anything. So how does this tracking work? Further, I am not aware of any unique identifier for GPS devices that would be registered and required for identifying an individual device.

Like usual the rest of the world is just now catching up to Tesla. Tesla has and have had the ability to both track and kill their vehicles for many years. If there are OTA updates then the vehicle can be remotely accessed. When I worked at Tesla as long as I had the VIN I had a program where I could remote into the car with the click of a button. Granted there was extremely limited capabilities with my level of access, but I could lock/unlock the doors, flash the lights, or honk the horn. Additionally, it would bring up a map and give me an exact location of the car. But I had a co-worker with engineer level access and he could literally disable the car either in motion or not. As horrible as that sounds when disabling a car the car will turn on the hazards, allow steering input, free rolling, and brakes coming to a safe stop.

Just to be clear, I agree with everything you say here but that has literally nothing to do with GPS. Teslas (and any car with remote connectivity) have cellular modems in them that connect to the Internet and allows 2-way communication. The OEM can receive data from the car and also remotely access the car.

And yes, I agree anytime the government is given more power is a bad thing, but the truth is that if your vehicle has any kind of hands free driving capability there is a camera or "sensor" watching your every move.

I have a piece of black electrical tape over the cabin camera in my MXP. So far I can still use cruise control without the camera and that's all I need. I am not a fan of self-driving anything.

 

[jeremydunworth]

Look, I totally get not wanting to be watched by "the man" or participate in any of the the shenanigans that come with it. But the fact of the matter is if you own any type of GPS guidance system, that's all they need. This seemingly forgotten about technology can give an exact location within a few meters anywhere in the world. The eye tracking tech, speed monitoring, or whatever else AI they can introduce into new vehicles, IMO pales in comparison to the capabilities of GPS in the wrong hands.

This seems to need more clarification than the other post about data collection by car manufacturers. GPS receivers by themselves are receivers, they cannot send out your information.
Tracking requires two parts, first GPS or other position location technologies to know where you are located, AND some kind of data connection to send that information somewhere it can be used, for good or ill.

As of today, you can (at least as far as I understand), disable the data connection by putting your mobile personal communication device in Airplane Mode. I'm pretty sure you can still retain GPS tracking in this mode, but you lose all your sending and receiving of data. At least, that is how it seems to work when I am out of network coverage and I put the phone in airplane mode to conserve battery.

Now, the phone could log your location and send it to some server when you go out of airplane mode, and if you want to prevent that, disable GPS location permission in every app that does not need it, and consider turning your phone off when you really don't want to be found. Because for example you are backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail and you need the phone when you get to your next resupply point but you don't need it while hiking.

 

[jeremydunworth]

GPS being one way tech is one of the greatest lies ever told. The tech was developed in the 60's to track submarines, not so that the submarines could know how to get somewhere lol! With the first satellites launched in the late 70's, it was not even made available to the public until the 2000's simply because there is no way they could convince the public in the previous era's that they could have a technology that could help locate where they were anywhere in the world.

Like usual the rest of the world is just now catching up to Tesla. Tesla has and have had the ability to both track and kill their vehicles for many years. If there are OTA updates then the vehicle can be remotely accessed. When I worked at Tesla as long as I had the VIN I had a program where I could remote into the car with the click of a button. Granted there was extremely limited capabilities with my level of access, but I could lock/unlock the doors, flash the lights, or honk the horn. Additionally, it would bring up a map and give me an exact location of the car. But I had a co-worker with engineer level access and he could literally disable the car either in motion or not. As horrible as that sounds when disabling a car the car will turn on the hazards, allow steering input, free rolling, and brakes coming to a safe stop.

And yes, I agree anytime the government is given more power is a bad thing, but the truth is that if your vehicle has any kind of hands free driving capability there is a camera or "sensor" watching your every move.

Re: specifically "GPS being one way tech is one of the greatest lies ever told"

Cars, especially Tesla which I don't trust farther than Elon's outstretched and slightly upward tilting arm, may be different.

I design the RF chips that go in phones. GPS receivers have no transmit capability. See my other post about how this plays out in phones.
And if you are still paranoid about the phone, which is a fair concern software can play all sorts of shenanigans, get a faraday cage for the phone for when you are not using it.

I don't know if this specific product below is legit but it is in principle an example of what I am talking about. In the context of a car just put the phone inside of a sealed metal box. Those are not that hard to come by.

Faraday Phone Bag - Medium / Black / Weatherproof Nylon - SLNT®

Faraday phone bag with blocks ALL signals for continuous data protection. Shop our phone pouches made for iPhones, and Android smartphones.

slnt.com

 

[speedrye]

Re: specifically "GPS being one way tech is one of the greatest lies ever told"

Cars, especially Tesla which I don't trust farther than Elon's outstretched and slightly upward tilting arm, may be different.

I design the RF chips that go in phones. GPS receivers have no transmit capability. See my other post about how this plays out in phones.
And if you are still paranoid about the phone, which is a fair concern software can play all sorts of shenanigans, get a faraday cage for the phone for when you are not using it.

I don't know if this specific product below is legit but it is in principle an example of what I am talking about. In the context of a car just put the phone inside of a sealed metal box. Those are not that hard to come by.

Faraday Phone Bag - Medium / Black / Weatherproof Nylon - SLNT®

Faraday phone bag with blocks ALL signals for continuous data protection. Shop our phone pouches made for iPhones, and Android smartphones.

slnt.com

What do you do for a vehicle's cellular connection though? The vehicles I've had in the past are modular, so I could just install a switch to the power for the RX/TX box, but vehicles seems to be getting more and more integrated, so I don't know if that still applies to newer vehicles. Some just disconnect the antenna at the roof, but I like being able to have access should I need it.

 

[jeremydunworth]

What do you do for a vehicle's cellular connection though? The vehicles I've had in the past are modular, so I could just install a switch to the power for the RX/TX box, but vehicles seems to be getting more and more integrated, so I don't know if that still applies to newer vehicles. Some just disconnect the antenna at the roof, but I like being able to have access should I need it.

Get a vehicle that relies on the phone for it's data connection, like I understand the Slate will do?

You raise a very valid point that I do not have an answer for. I also would not count on being able to disconnect the antenna as it seems likely that vehicles will have multiple antennas in the future. But I don't work in this area so I don't really know.

 

[speedrye]

The good news is that the NHTSA still hasn't finalize the rules and there's typically a 2-3 year grace period for the manufacturer to comply, so hopefully early model Scouts don't get this "technology". Sometimes being an early adopter is better!

 

[maynard]

Re: specifically "GPS being one way tech is one of the greatest lies ever told"

Cars, especially Tesla which I don't trust farther than Elon's outstretched and slightly upward tilting arm, may be different.

I design the RF chips that go in phones. GPS receivers have no transmit capability. See my other post about how this plays out in phones.
And if you are still paranoid about the phone, which is a fair concern software can play all sorts of shenanigans, get a faraday cage for the phone for when you are not using it.

I don't know if this specific product below is legit but it is in principle an example of what I am talking about. In the context of a car just put the phone inside of a sealed metal box. Those are not that hard to come by.

Faraday Phone Bag - Medium / Black / Weatherproof Nylon - SLNT®

Faraday phone bag with blocks ALL signals for continuous data protection. Shop our phone pouches made for iPhones, and Android smartphones.

slnt.com

I think a couple of folks from this forum already have these and use them when putting bodies in the back (for measuring purposes only)...