CNBC explains 'Why Automakers Are Invading Your Privacy,' a double driving update

I told my readers to "stay tuned" as "I plan on finishing the month with a double driving update" in the conclusion of I return after a power outage spanning four days and three nights. I begin with CNBC explaining Why Automakers Are Invading Your Privacy.

Cars are collectively a ‘privacy nightmare’ that has gone unaddressed for far too long, according to the Mozilla Foundation. A 2023 report from the group says privacy policies give automakers like GM, Nissan, Tesla and Toyota far too much access to personal data and latitude in what they do with it. Some high profile lawsuits highlight how car companies can and in some cases have collected data on drivers without their consent and passed it on to third parties, including insurance companies. Regulators and elected officials have taken notice and are planning legislation and other measures.

I just gave my first lecture in environmental science Thursday, just before my wife and I checked into a hotel so we could have electricity, and I opened it with a statement about values relevant to manufacturing and purchasing cars, such as profit, comfort, efficiency, and sustainability, the last of which was the subject of the lecture.* It looks like I might have to add privacy to that list, which put together in the run-up to GM's bankruptcy, before technology had reached its current level of sophistication and connectedness.

Speaking of which, this is not a new issue. Five years ago, Washington Post uploaded Cars now run on data. We hacked one to find out what it knows about you..

Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler cracked opened up a Chevrolet to find hundreds of sensors, an always-on internet connection and data from his smartphone — but few controls over his data.

Yikes, and that level of surveillance came from a 2017 car, which would now be seven years old, possibly eight if it had been made at the beginning of the 2017 model year! As the video pointed out, newer cars collect even more data. It's time to repeat what I last wrote in CNBC, The Hill, and Forbes report on the impact of cryptocurrency on the midterms, "this is another example of our living in science-fiction times or, as my friend Nebris says, 'SciFi is now.'"

That's the overall driving picture. Follow over the jump for my family's driving update.


Both cars' odometers turned over this month, with Pearl passing 65,000 miles and Snow Bear sneaking through 13,000 miles. I begin with Pearl the Prius, which took 86 days since it rolled over 64,000 miles on Wednesday, June 3, 2024 to reach 65,000 miles. That translates to 11.63 miles per day, 354.65 miles per standard accounting month, 4,244.19 miles per standard year, and 4,255.81 per leap year. On the one hand, that's less than the averages of 13.51 miles per day, 412.16 miles per standard month, 4,932.43 miles per standard year, and 4,945.95 miles per leap year between passing 63,000 miles on Thursday, March 21, 2024 and June 3, 2024. I attribute that to the usual decrease in driving because I commute to only one campus during the summer in contrast to two campuses during the winter and spring as well as not making a special trip to watch the 'Great American Eclipse'. On the other, those are slightly more than the equivalent period last year, when I drove Pearl averages of 11.36 miles per day, 349.59 miles per standard month, and 4,147.73 miles per standard year. I attribute driving a few more and longer errands this summer, like buying an Ethernet cable and replacing one of my tires that blew out when I ran over a pothole and driving to the dealership for routine maintenance plus fixing the air conditioning in June, to explain the marginal increase in miles driven. I think both would be sufficient reasons for driving a fraction of a mile more per day.

Before I move on to Snow Bear, I'm making another year-over-year comparison. It's been exactly one standard year since Pearl passed 60,000 miles on August 29, 2023. This yields averages of 13.70 miles per day, 417.81 miles per month, exactly 5,000 miles per standard year, and 5,013.70 miles per leap year. While that's more than the 10.44 miles per day, 318.54 miles per standard month, and 3,812.01 miles per standard year between August 10, 2022 and August 29, 2023, it's still less than the 7,000 miles per year I drove Pearl during 2017.

Now for Snow Bear. I missed exactly when she passed 13,000 miles, but I noticed that she had 13,050 miles on the way home from the hotel yesterday evening. Using the average of 3.82 miles per day from January 2024, that would be 13 days, so I'm estimating that happened on Friday, August 16, 2024. This means that it's been 211 days since Snow Bear rolled past 12,000 miles on Thursday, January 18, 2024 for averages of 4.74 miles per day, 144.55 miles per standard month, 1,729.86 miles per standard year, and 1,734.60 miles per leap year. That's significantly more than the 3.82 miles per day, 116.41 miles per standard month, and 1,393.13 miles per standard year my wife drove her between May 1, 2023 and January 18, 2024, but still less than the 5.99 miles per day, 182.63 miles per standard month, and 2,186.35 miles per year my wife and I drove her between November 15, 2022 and May 1, 2023. There is definitely a seasonal pattern because I drive Snow Bear more during bad weather in the winter and that persisted this year despite my driving her less than the year before because this past winter's weather was less severe. Also, my wife and I took three trips to and from emergency rooms and the hospital the week of August 12th to 15th. I'm sure that added up.

Now for the final year-over-year comparison before I examine our combined driving. It took my wife and I 473 days to drive Snow Bear 2,000 miles between May 1, 2023 and August 18, 2024, which translates to averages of 4.23 miles per day, 128.96 miles per standard month, 1,543.34 miles per standard year, and 1,547.57 miles per leap year. That's actually slightly less than the 4.61 miles per day and 1,682.03 miles per year we drove Snow Bear between February 7, 2022 and May 1, 2023, the last time I calculated this particular statistic. Better winter weather makes a difference!

For our combined driving, I'm adding Pearl's averages of 13.70 miles per day, 417.81 miles per month, exactly 5,000 miles per standard year, and 5,013.70 miles per leap year and Snow Bears averages of 4.23 miles per day, 128.96 miles per standard month, 1,543.34 miles per standard year, and 1,547.57 miles per leap year for totals of 17.93 miles per day, 447.5 miles per standard month, 6,543.34 miles per standard year, and 6,561.27 per leap year. That's slightly more than 17.57 per day if I simply add the averages together, but 535.89 miles per standard month if I multiply the combined daily average by 30.5, and 6,411.74 miles per standard year if added together or 6,413.05 miles if I multiply the combined daily average by 365 from January 2024. Sigh, rounding errors. Still, my family is following along with driving more since the depth of the pandemic, but still less than before the pandemic, as shown by this graph from Advisor Perspectives.


That's a wrap for this month's blogging. Stay tuned for the first post of September. I don't know if It will be the Sunday entertainment feature or the 20th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Return tomorrow to see if I do one or both! I was confused. The 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is next year, so entertainment it will be!

*The first time I gave that lecture to students, one of them mentioned safety. That was 17 years ago, but is still relevant, as I quoted Ray "CityNerd" Delahanty mentioning that the U.S. experienced 46,980 traffic deaths during 2021 in CityNerd explains 'All the Ways Car Dependency Is Wrecking Us'. Maybe I should update my lectures to include both the suggestion and the statistic.