Opinion: Are digital cockpits bad for data privacy?

The other day I attended an auto-tech conference. In one panel discussion, bossmen of the industry were explaining how connectivity and digital cockpits are for the good of the customers. The benefits are of three types – preventive maintenance and interventions, entertainment and enhanced safety. Through the ever-growing touchscreens, customers are going to be given a plethora of cool apps and interfaces that will make lives convenient. You could order pizzas, pay bills, create music lists, listen to the news, watch videos, switch on your home appliances and a lot more. Operating systems like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are going to make your drives ‘wholesome’!

Who owns the data? You, the customer, of course, echo the bossmen. Everything is done with the customer’s consent. Awesome! So, if I own the data, can I delete it as I want? Hmmmm…now why would you want to delete data? It is actually helpful, as ML and AI help you more in predictive actions. Like, you will get a reminder to buy a dozen bananas every Friday night back from office because you have done so the previous three Fridays. That’s fine, but it’s still my data and I can choose to delete it, right? I will keep only the vehicle diagnostics data and delete all other digital footprints, okay? Er…ummmm…we will have to get back to you on that.

By the time you ask this question, the data has already been monetised by the automaker! All the cool apps you use and online mumbo jumbo you do is a goldmine for the metaverse. Data is oil, and as more vehicles are shunning oil anyway, data is the new energy that will keep the automobile world purring.

Automakers do not make money on sales anymore. The importance of sales will further deplete when subscriptions and leasing become the norm. More consumers, less customers. Service intervals will get longer to a situation where even an entry-level vehicle needs to go to the service centre only once a year. With more electrics and electronics, revenues from wear and tear will reduce further. Software will run the vehicle and updates will be ‘OTA’. So, why the hell should an automaker make an auto in the first place? Philanthropy? Not at all. The revenues will come from all that software crammed into the tablets and hypervisors. Royalty for using some specific software and promoting specific apps. Higher bids for switching from one to the other. Service revenues will come from the metaverse and not necessarily the vehicle user.

As long as the user keeps fiddling with the tablets and shares information, opinion and choice over voice activated controls, the cash registers keep ringing. Deleting data you own is just not game for those who wish to control you! Remember the song “Killing me softly”? It went, “Killing me softly with his song, telling my whole life with his words, killing me softly with his song.”

Today it would go,  “Billing me softly with his soft[ware]!”

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