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> Numerous automakers (e.g. General Motors) have likewise shown presentations stating that data acquisition would soon become an important revenue source for th

> Numerous automakers (e.g. General Motors) have likewise shown presentations stating that data acquisition would soon become an important revenue source for the industry. Does anyone have any links referencing these presentations? I know selling data to data brokers is a hot topic, but from my (extremely limited) exposure to this topic in the industry I got the impression that the actual value of such data was almost negligible. Certainly minimal relative to the price tag of a car.

maxerickson 5y ago
Yeah, I wonder too. Location data has a clear use case, but I get the idea that it's "worth collecting" vs "a goldmine".
ungawatkt 5y ago
Speculation, but the obvious market to me is insurance providers. I'd think that data is worth a decent amount to them, both for good and bad reasons.
- landemva 5y ago
  I think the obvious customers are IRS and FBI, who pay for data with our money.
jbverschoor 5y ago
Programmers and technical people should store this data hoarding fetisj. “Just in case” or “will be very valuable in the future” are bad reasons
- lazide 5y ago
  It’s paid off handsomely for many. Until it’s clearly a liability, it isn’t going to stop.
chrisjc 5y ago
I think the statement is to be interpreted different ways. It's not just the data itself that can be sold to external parties as a revenue source, but also the value that can be derived from the data and used both internally and externally. For instance, being able to determine when a vehicle is due for maintenance and preemptively directing the customer to automakers preferred service department via email/txt/phone. From what I understand money is no longer made on the car itself, instead it's made on the financing and maintenance. Moreover, there is also a lot of value that can be derived from telemetry data long before it reaches the customer's driveway. Transportation from factory to dealership, hot/cold dealership lot locations, test-drive analytics, stolen/lost assets, etc... Everyone seems to be concerned about location information being collected and sold (due to the privacy concerns obviously), but the value in the data collected is not just based on location.

maxerickson 5y ago

Yeah, I wonder too. Location data has a clear use case, but I get the idea that it's "worth collecting" vs "a goldmine".

ungawatkt 5y ago

Speculation, but the obvious market to me is insurance providers. I'd think that data is worth a decent amount to them, both for good and bad reasons.

landemva 5y ago
I think the obvious customers are IRS and FBI, who pay for data with our money.

jbverschoor 5y ago

Programmers and technical people should store this data hoarding fetisj. “Just in case” or “will be very valuable in the future” are bad reasons

lazide 5y ago
It’s paid off handsomely for many. Until it’s clearly a liability, it isn’t going to stop.

chrisjc 5y ago

I think the statement is to be interpreted different ways. It's not just the data itself that can be sold to external parties as a revenue source, but also the value that can be derived from the data and used both internally and externally. For instance, being able to determine when a vehicle is due for maintenance and preemptively directing the customer to automakers preferred service department via email/txt/phone. From what I understand money is no longer made on the car itself, instead it's made on the financing and maintenance. Moreover, there is also a lot of value that can be derived from telemetry data long before it reaches the customer's driveway. Transportation from factory to dealership, hot/cold dealership lot locations, test-drive analytics, stolen/lost assets, etc... Everyone seems to be concerned about location information being collected and sold (due to the privacy concerns obviously), but the value in the data collected is not just based on location.