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Comment I have similar problem on my GMC! (Score 4, Insightful) 113

It started 3 years ago. I contacted Sirius two years in a row. The first time they walked me through the menus to turn it off, and it worked. The second year they said it couldn't be turned off and that I'd have to wait for the promotional period to end (see below), so I filed a formal safety notice at nhtsa.gov, but never received feedback.

The alert pop-ups keep blocking part of the navigation map until I press the damned Dismiss button while driving in order to see the full map. Repeatedly pushing the Dismiss button distracts from driving, and so is a safety hazard.

I was told that every November Sirius gave out a few weeks of free service to help promote the service. But that caused the useless and repetitious wind alerts. I live in a naturally windy place such that wind alerts are superfluous; it would be comparable a North Pole freeze alert.

It happened again this year, but I was fortunately able to switch it off via settings menus. I don't know why deactivation is different per year. I suspect they do it to get people to poke around in the menus and see the different genres of music & talk channels they have, hoping to entice sales. It's probably stealth advertising disguised as a defect, or a defect they leave in place that happened to improve sales, so is ignored.

F$CK YOU SIRIUS!

Comment Storm in a toilet bowl (Score 3, Insightful) 72

This "researcher" doesn't seem to know what end-to-end encryption is, or why what the manufacturer says is true. Their blog says that "[t]he term is generally used for applications that allow some kind of communication between users", but that's not true. The most common type of end-to-end encryption is HTTPS, typically between the user and a web server.

Also, they offer an AI powered service to analyse your output, and state that they use the data for further training. That is well within both expectations of what an AI powered service will be doing, and what their privacy policy says they will do.

I dislike how privacy is treated as a premium product, and how many companies feel entitled to our data, this case is nothing special at all.

Comment Re:This is a good thing. (Score 2) 235

The 3 cylinder Geo Metro in the 1990s achieved over 40 miles per gallon. 30 years later you're telling me we lost that ability?

Yes, but only because most Americans are unwilling to drive a Metro-sized car anymore. They've been conditioned to think small/lightweight cars are unsafe or unmanly or etc.

Comment Re:In other words: (Score 2) 235

The fact that the government is mandating fuel efficiency means that most people don't care. If they cared, nobody would buy the inefficient cars so the manufacturers wouldn't make them, no need for government intervention.

The invisible hand of the free market solves a lot of things, but it's never quite figured out how to avoid the tragedy of the commons. Everybody wants to live on a livable planet, but nobody wants to pay for the technology required to keep that way.

Comment Re:CAFE needs reform (Score 1) 235

I traveled to poor countries where traffic is 90% scooters. This is all they can afford. I hope we can do better.

Being inexpensive to purchase and operate is one advantage scooters have over automobiles; the other is that they are small enough to maneuver quickly through heavy traffic and easier to find a parking spot for in congested areas.

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