7 ms·
Why would a car be online at all, especially when parked? What is the benefit to consumer?
by kofejnik 11y ago
Why would a car be online at all, especially when parked? What is the benefit to consumer?
- SlashmanX 11y agoExactly my thoughts, what is the use of the OnStar stuff in the first place apart from just being a "gimmick": "Hey look, I can beep my horn from my phone!".
- atlbeer 11y agoWhere is my car in this parking lot? "Hey look, I can beep my horn from my phone!"
- SlashmanX 11y agoSurely there's better ways of achieving the goal of finding your car in a car park
- toxican 11y agoIt's a shame we don't have like little keychains that can unlock or beep our cars from afar. We're not living _that_ far in the future though, I suppose.
- JustSomeNobody 11y agoYeah, it's called being observant when you park your car. I mean, how hard is it to look around and remember a few landmarks?
- thfuran 11y agoThat kind of depends how drunk you are. And that might matter a lot more once the cars start driving themselves.
- zyM7A6bQzJKBHnS 11y agoWhich is incredibly stupid, and forbidden in most European countries: you cannot use your horn unless it's an emergency. Finding your car is not an emergency.
- coldpie 11y ago> you cannot use your horn unless it's an emergency Hahaha, you've never been downtown in a European city, have you?
- balabaster 11y agoLOL I've done this so many times... who ever remembers where they left their car? I lose mine at the station almost every day :D
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- rogeryu 11y agoIt's kids paradise. If you're smart enough, you can create your own symphony in the local parking lot. Starting up all those engines will be fun too!
- lrm242 11y agoOnStar provides all sorts of nifty things. Lock your keys in the car? OnStar can unlock your doors.
- andy_ppp 11y agoAll those "nifty" things are potentially available to hackers too though!
- shultays 11y agoI am not sure if you are joking or not, I wouldn't want my car to be opened without keys. Especially after such news
- Loughla 11y agoYou wouldn't want to be able to open your car door if you lock your keys in it, without needing to worry about whether or not the locksmith is going to mess up your door? It's a matter of good idea, bad implementation. They push for features, they push for ideas, they push for new, new, new, better, better, better. But no one thinks about safety and security until something like this happens.
- shultays 11y agoI would use the spare key. Maybe it is me but I don't trust my phone with my car.
- saiya-jin 11y agono, I wouldn't. exactly because of f*uckups like these, that always come with features for lazy or stupid. if I ever, ever be forced to buy such pathetic excuse for a car, first thing I'll do is find sim card and burn it. next will be wi-fi module. heck, I'll even pay some garage to turn it off forever. I am software engineer and that's why I don't want anybody messing up with crucial systems. It's so easy to break things, there were quite a few reports about horrible quality assurance processes in car manufacturers... just NO. I buy car, and I'll be happy with v1.0 of firmware, no updates, thank you
- Ironlink 11y agoOne example is that you can turn on the heat using your phone. Very nice if you live in a place with cold winters. Volvo does this.
- balabaster 11y agoOne annoyance with Volvo though is that you can remotely open the windows by (accidentally) holding down the unlock button (i.e. by sitting on your keys), but you can't remotely close them again. You have to get into the car to do that from inside... apparently a safety feature (I called to find out how to do this).
- acomjean 11y agoOne of the thing they advertised about OnStar is it detects when your car is in crash. Then they (OnStar) can remotely talk to you and dispatch help. There is a button you can push to talk to someone and get help manually. I think it does stolen vehicle tracking too. In this day when everyone has a cell phone (versus the late 90s when Onstar first showed up), its less useful than before but if your car goes over a cliff, you are knocked out and none sees it, it could be helpful. Why this needs to be connected to the driving functions of your car is another issue..(they'd claim "diagnostics"). https://www.onstar.com/us/en/services/emergency.html https://www.onstar.com/us/en/services/emergency.html
- dangrossman 11y ago* In the winter, you can start the car's heat while you're inside so it's warmed up when you get in. * In the summer, you can start the car's a/c so it's cooled down when you get in. * Send the address I just looked up in Google Maps to the car's navigation system, so I don't have to re-type it when I get in, I can just start driving. * I drive an electric car, and also check battery level from inside so I'm sure I have enough range to get to my destination, and can tell the car to start charging remotely, or schedule charging windows in advance. I find all of these internet-enabled features useful.
- malka 11y agoI agree that hey are useful. However, I do not think "having a warm seat" is worth connecting your car to an unsafe network.
- kofejnik 11y agoheat/ac/overall status/engine start have been a feature on car remotes for 10 years now, although they do get hacked all the time, too as for Maps, that might be a point, but why not use the phone for nav, normally you don't need to type as voice recognition is good enough
- kuschku 11y agoFun fact: The first two use cases are actually illegal in Germany. You may not run the motor or any in-car appliances while the car is not moving, and you may not move the car if it is not desperately necessary (yes, taking the car to visit your neighbor 20m away is actually illegal)