I have a pretty effective way of maintaining privacy in my car, simple too: don’t buy anything that doesn’t have a carburetor.

It’s the before times, analog days, and the Internet was in it’s infancy. Stephan Hawking, a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author, said the following:

For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind’s greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn’t have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.

Computers have been very effective applied to vehicles. In my life I’ve seen the advent of the aluminum block, anti-lock brakes and stability control, variable ignition and valve timing, more aerodynamic body, paddle shift and continuously variable transmissions, drive by wire, now even hybrid and electric drives. This has allowed leaps forward in safety, efficiency, and performance.

Then, we enshitified. Today there’s barely choice in the vehicle market. Toyota/Honda; Hyundai/Kia; Ford/Chevy/Chrysler and a trim package defines everything but trucks. 1/2 ton trucks as symbols of identity break repeatedly if regularly used for payload and towing. “Choice” is a 1/4 Ranger, 1/2 Chevy diesel, or 3/4 Ford/Chevy/Ram. They didn’t make the first two for decades, still scarce and expensive for what they are. And, for all vehicles one now often needs to remove inaccessible bolts in tight spaces, for several parts, to get to the part that’s broken.

Profit optimization through technology is why there’s little choice in vehicles; Why you can envision a Walmart and Lowes strip mall and every American knows exactly what it looks like and where the closest couple copies are; Why we can’t replace phone batteries and screens. An out-of-the-box idea from AI that’s also conveniently practical for humans will probably cure cancer. AI is also what’s analyzing all the data being collected, just as inhumanely. The vehicle manufacturers want their cut.

Did Herbert envision that the spice of prescience was computational cycles?

Can…we also get gdpr style protections please. I think we deserve nice things, too. 🥺

Note, just to be clear, that this is federal legislation, not Oregon state legislation.

Betcha we will see insurance companies come out of the woodwork to lobby against this like crazy.