This is just about what venue the FTC needs to use to prosecute its case.

Cars with Chinese Communist Party spyware or the means to remotely install it are not.

Net result: I'll welcome a Chinese build of a totally disconnected,* manually controlled car if it met US safety standards and was cost-effective to own and operate. "Totally disconnected" pretty much rules out modern EVs.

* obviously connecting to the power grid is allowed, and I'll want to add an aftermarket AM/FM terrestrial radio.

If this were implemented today, by "tomorrow" users would effectively lose control because the governments would find a way to either legally change things so there is no control, or make it very inconvenient to live without giving up that control.

For the sake of maintaining some privacy it's best to not go down this path unless there is a way to prove to independent observers that it can't be hijacked or abused.

No, they don't. Or if they do today, they won't tomorrow.

It's only a matter of time before robots actually have actual fingerprints to defeat this exact thing.

Not unusual.

VPN user or was traveling.

The trick is to ask the right questions without coming across as so nosey that you make well-qualified legit candidates not only say "pass" but tell their friends to do the same.

Only two reasons I can think of:
*Pending transfer to regular police. For example, if I assault an immigration officer, he has every right to arrest and hold me but only as long as is reasonably necessary to call the "real cops" and transfer me into their custody to face assault charges.
* If he has a reasonable belief that I am an alien subject to arrest and I don't identify myself as a citizen. Once I identify myself as a citizen, he is obliged to quickly determine if I'm telling the truth. Once he no longer has a reasonable belief that I'm an alien subject to arrest he has no reason to keep me, assuming I'm not being held for other reasons like having just punched him in the face (see above).

There's also the issue of "quiet economic boycott" - boycotting an event but not saying the quiet part out loud: That you are staying home because the hosting country's policies.

If I were an award-recipient but had no other reason to come to America that week, I might come, or I might choose to say "sorry, I have other plans that day."

You knew the costs of travel-related vaccinations before you booked the trip. Or you should have at any rate.

Oh wait, you mean $BRIBE or $FINE, sorry, carry on.

It would've been cooler if Harvard, MIT, and Boston University had opened a temporary joint campus in Montreal, preferably in a preschool or elementary school.

Montreal is close to Boston and can host big events.

A preschool has exactly the right vibe for something like this. It might not have a big enough room though.

it's feature not a bug, right?

You forgot the big one: Industrial or state espionage. It is one of the big drivers behind making sure company data doesn't walk out the door when it's not supposed to.

As to why people do this: The usual reason - money.

Dial down the power to shorten the sniffing range?

Randomize the "ID" code every time the car starts or every time the wheel is idle for 10 minutes?

Enable some simple encryption?

Each of these has some costs.

I would consider this as a portable replacement for a low-end/used Mac Mini if it supported decent video output. The 13 in screen means it won't be my "daily driver."