Just seen this on FEMA’s website. Interesting but early days.
I hope that this doesn’t end up with our vehicles being added to the ‘internet of things’. If vehicles are constantly reporting their position to a centralised infrastructure then it’s effectively total surveillance.
Probably been happening for many of us already for years. My 6 year old Evoque has buttons to call for breakdown assistance/emergency services, there’s a phone app where I can view all my journeys, remotely lock/unlock, start it, etc etc. I can disable features, but does that stop the data getting sent to JLR’s servers - I doubt it.
My 3 year old BMW S1000XR has a similar phone app where I can view journeys, speeds, abs & tc activation, lean angles, max g of acc/deceleration. When I dropped the bike in a Spanish lay-by in less than 1 minute a nice lady was asking (via a hidden speaker/microphone) if I was ok and needed assistance, the wonders of BMW’s SOS system on all their recent bikes.
So if you have a fairly recent vehicle chances are you’re being watched already. So not a huge step to start linking those services in real time I would imagine?
It’s an absolutely massive step if the data if the infrastructure is goverment owned. How long before the police come sniffing around that data?
I don’t use my phone to track journeys because I can’t keep the data to myself or guarantee what it’s used for.
Manufacturers are very tight-lipped about the data they collect from vehicle. It’s wrong - they should be open about what they collect, how they store it, what it’s used for, who they give it to and how long they keep it. They’re way out of step with the (slow) shift towards accountability and the right to privacy.
Agree that manufacturers should be more open/accountable and give the option for privacy, but would we believe them anyway?
Personally it doesn’t worry me if Google or JLR know where I’ve been, it’s of more use to me than them.
When I’m out bank robbing I always use the Speed Triple and leave the phone at home. 
I worry more about so called driver aids that take away their perceived responsibility and thus attention to what they’re supposed to be doing.
Where you go. When. How long it took. How often. How long did you stay. Oh look, here’s some other people who also visit that place at the same time. Ah, someone posted about their AA meeting. So we’ll add that label to this person as well. And so they work everything out about everyone. It’s how they can offer targeted advertising pretty much everything about you to who never asks.
Collectively we are worth a lot more to them than they are to us. There isn’t anything Google does you can’t get elsewhere. We are their product and that’s ok if people don’t mind, but for those of us who do, where is our choice?