Here's Why Driving Will Become More Expensive

Issue #110

Happy Thursday! Today, we address the critical issue of driver privacy. This wasn't a problem a couple of years ago, but it has now become an ever-present reality.

Market News

• Canada could employ this peculiar strategy to help its automotive sector. 

• Move over, Tesla Cybercab. Uber partners with this company to create a worthy competitor. 

• Porsche denies inventory is being held up at ports in the US. The problem is that dealers say it is. So, who's telling the truth?

• The underrated importance of Pope Francis's final Popemobile. 

• Hyundai could bring this SUV to reality, and it looks awesome. 

• It's been a while since BMW produced a new Halo car, which could come soon. 

• This VW-owned brand could come to the US, and it's exciting news. 

• This article showcases how vehicle assistants can drive us to distraction. 

• Volvo's CEO faces massive struggles, even with this bestselling vehicle as an option to lure American buyers. 

• What's one of Dodge's biggest flaws? It's all about preventing theft. 

Safety and Recalls

• Subaru accepts paying for cracked windshields, but with a very unpleasant catch.

• Mercedes recalls more than 6,000 cars due to this lighting issue.

• Honda recalls 152,000 Acuras due to an important taillight issue. 

• GM issues a "stop sale" notification and recalls nearly 900,000 vehicles. Here's why. 

Car Culture

• This guy bought a Honda Civic. It turns out it was his, but thieves had stolen it. Now, there's an insurance nightmare.

• What are the best cars on sale today? Readers voted, and here they are.

• Do you want to outrun a Porsche? These used sedans do the job at half the price. 

• Has F1 turned itself into a documentary maker?

• What's the secret to buying a Hellcat-powered Jeep for $80,000 below its sticker price? This. 

• Roush built the truck that Ford was scared to build. Here it is. 

• Who invented the four-door coupe, Mercedes or this company fifty years ago?

• We can't get this Chevy S-10, but we'd love it. 

• Here are some of the craziest cars in history. 

• This rare "barn find" is commanding $145,000. Here's why. 

Video Of The Week

Why would someone buy the most-hated Land Rover ever? For views, that’s why. Here’s what TFL did.

Power On The Go

The 2nd Best Gift I’ve Ever Given My Dad (Hands Down)

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That’s why I joined Bluetti’s affiliate program. Their lineup of solar generators is incredibly solid—and they’ve got models for everything from emergency home backup to road trip charging stations.

Personally, I have the EB3A. It’s compact, perfect for camping or tossing in the car to charge phones and laptops. But if you want to power bigger stuff—like a fridge during an outage—you’ll want one of their larger units.

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Yes, that’s an affiliate link. No, it doesn’t cost you anything extra. But every click helps support this newsletter and keeps the content coming. Win-win.

In The Know

Driving is about to become much more expensive. Here's why. 

It has been one year since GM shut down its tool that collected data on the driving style of millions of drivers.

The catch? GM was tracking them (and probably, us) without our consent.

When the automaker announced that it would stop doing so, many drivers said they didn't trust it would fulfill its promise.

Instead, a barrage of DIY tips on how to avoid them flooded forums and YouTube channels.

Here's a summary if you don't remember the case. 

However, GM is not the only one tracking us. It's a reality that we will have to accept, whether we like it or not.

Practically all automakers are tracking us. Why are they doing this?

Or, perhaps more importantly, does that mean that every company tracking us has a bad intention?

The answer is complex, but if you look at the bigger picture, you realize it will likely be yes. (Likely.)

Vehicle data collection forms a thin line in the automotive sector, especially as vehicles become more complex.

With self-driving becoming mainstream in the near future, automakers must ensure that their vehicles are safe.

The only way to achieve this is by collecting as much data as possible from every driver out there. Calculating patterns is crucial for any software to create repeatable situations.

Plus, you're doing it on public roads. That's how GM justified tracking our data and here's more on the topic.  

The downside here is logical. The more technologically advanced our cars are, the more data they collect.

As this article explains, the most evident consequence is that they become a privacy nightmare. 

Many states, including California, Texas, and Arkansas, are partnering up to counter vehicle tracking. Their coordinated attack is against General Motors, but not only it.

For example, California is also lashing out against Honda, one company that flew under the radar with the data tracking scandal but was also collecting plenty of data.

Legal actions and probes are only some of the ways these states are fighting to regain control of drivers' privacy. Plans also include heavy fines and partnering with the FTC. Read more about this crusade here. 

As we said when we started this article, this doesn't mean every company uses our data for bad. Waymo recently announced that it wouldn't use interior cameras for this particular goal, but users are still distrustful. 

In fact, we wanted to know how you felt, so we created this short survey.

How do you feel about car data tracking?

Meanwhile, we return to the main topic at hand. How does this affect the cost of our driving? Well, it does in many ways.

The first and most evident way is that aspects such as insurance and service bills could change (most likely, increasing) as data reveals to insurers and dealerships who we drive.

But that's not the only way. Our article below explains how driving could become much more expensive.