TBH…

It's funny that all these MAGA folks who worry about government and police surveillance cheered on Elon Musk for quickly giving over data about Matthew Livelsberger, the Green Beret who died in the Cybertruck explosion, to the authorities.

It's also scary just how much Tesla…

— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) January 4, 2025

What she’s talking about is Tesla had a record of everywhere the car went on its trip to Vegas. But this is standard for almost all new cars with GPS. “New” being a relative term, you understand.

My Volvo (now four years old) can tell me what street I’m on, and provide maps to destinations. I have an app on my phone that can tell me where my car is and when it’s in use.  I’m pretty sure that means Volvo has that information.

If I’m in a wreck, or need help, I can push a button and the car calls Volvo for me. If I’m not sure where I am, Volvo could accurately direct emergency services because if my car’s internal GPS. I imagine Volvo can even unlock my car, and start it remotely, two things I can also do from my phone.

Elmo is really just keeping up with the Joneses, here.  OTOH, my Volvo would never do this:

hi @elonmusk - FSD v13.2.2 just drove me to a train line here in Santa Monica. sending this video clips and hopefully you guys can fix it fast. (i was shaking and i had to ran a red light to save my life). pic.twitter.com/GOERJSEcTq

— Jesse Lyu (@jessechenglyu) January 2, 2025

to all people saying that why i didn’t take over, i did. from my experience it’s really hard to predict how the FSD would turn the wheel during turns. (and during FSD turns you don’t keep your hand on the wheel) the previous FSD handles this turn correctly and i saw the wheel starts to turn so i disengaged immediately when i saw the radius is wrong. this case is particularly tricky cuz i can not back up nor i can make lane changes (fence on the left and curb on the right, with single lane traffic). my immediate reaction is to check if there’s a train approaching behind me and there is. so my only option is to drive forward and exit at the very next exit. not knowing for sure how this particular train will react, i figured i should move out of it regardless. i just hope tesla fix it and make improvements.

— Jesse Lyu (@jessechenglyu) January 3, 2025

That tweet drew a reply that clearly he didn’t do something right, but the issue is: why should he have to? The worst my Volvo has done is plot a route that’s the long way ‘round. Of course, the most my car will do by itself is back into a parking space, and I don’t even trust it to do that. But Tesla is largely the reason why.

I'll stick to walking. It is amazing how those who get into a swivet about one act of extremely intrusive surveillance will be entirely OK with another, even more intrusive one or even many which they voluntarily permit. Or what I learned in the Edward Snowden caper.

Yup. I should have added that my car won’t spontaneously combust on a parking lot, or while charging. And if it does catch fire, it won’t lock me in.