There is a saying that goes, if you’re not paying for the
product, you are the product. But what if you’re paying for it
– and you’re still the product?
Welcome to your next new car – previewed at the Consumer
Electronics Show in Vegas earlier this month – in which you’ll be surrounded by
new technology designed to “monetize” everything from your musical preferences
(it knows which stations you like) to where you like to go (it keeps track of
where and when) and what you like to eat.
Perhaps even what you look at as you drive.
The cameras so many new cars come with already will
soon be pointed at you. You’ll be surrounded sensors, too – in the seats, in
the dash – anywhere they can be put where data about you can
be mined.
That data used to construct a pastiche of your inclinations,
which will then be sold to a company interested in trying to sell you something
based on that knowledge of your inclinations.
And the insurance mafia is interested as well. Have you been
buckling up? Accelerating – or braking – “aggressively”? It’s no longer just
between the two of you – you and your car.
Your car is now a narc – one you get to pay to
narc you out.
Some of you reading this may recall the 2002 Tom Cruise movie
adaptation of sci-fi writer Phillip K. Dick’s novel, Minority
Report – which was written decades earlier (1956) and long before
there was an Internet, email or a government-corporate cyborg intelligence in
your dashboard.
In the movie, Cruise’s character is practically hag-ridden by
holographic product peddlers, who personalize the peddling of their products to
him (and everyone else) via data acquired much as it is already being acquired
right now – via what you search online, the things you read and of course, the
things you buy.
This information – formerly between you and whomever you bought
something from – is collected and collated and then sold, without you being so
much as sent a royalty check. Instead, you get pitched. In the mail. Via
e-mail. Texts. Phone calls. A relentless juggernaut of Act Now –
Before It’s Too Late!
Our cars used to be a refuge from this. Now – soon – in addition
to Big Brother riding shotgun, you’ll have Big Shyster in the back seat, too.
GM was the first major car company to fit its new cars with
in-car peddling capability, in addition to data-mining capability – which
GM cars have had since the ’90s, when the OnStar system debuted. It was
represented as a kind of helpful helperson service – everything from roadside
assistance to EMS could be summoned to the car’s exact location at the touch of
the OnStar button. But it wasn’t necessary to touch the button for OnStar to be
watching – and listening.
Around 2004 – some 15 years ago – I was test-driving a new
Cadillac with OnStar. Unbeknownst to me, GM was watching. After hustling the
car through some corners at speeds above legal, a woman’s voice (of
course) erupted out of the dash, asking whether I “needed assistance.” The G
forces triggered alarums at OnStar.
A prequel of things to come.
The EyeSight Safety box… it
sees all.
Things already here. Anticipatory and predictive things.
One of the companies developing this tech, Eyeris, uses artificial intelligence
in conjunction with the cameras and sensors – to calculate what you are likely
to do based on what you’ve already done – and then take the appropriate steps
to correct for “undesirable behavior.”
The Partie Line is, of course . . . saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety.
You are to be monitored and catalogued for your own good, in
your own car. “Sensor technology that watches and analyzes drivers, passengers
and objects in the car will mean enhanced safety,” says a Reuters story as well as (here you
go) “ . . . revenue opportunities in the future.”
The “emerging technology aims not only to cut back on distracted
driving and other undesirable behavior,” the Reuters piece elaborates “but
eventually (will) help automakers and ride-hailing companies make money from
data generated inside the vehicle.”
And you won’t even get a coupon.
Note that no one seems to be asking for any of this.
It is one of the Weirdnesses of our age that products are foisted on
buyers – as opposed to being developed and made available in
response to buyer demand. And – new twist – this time it is not being pushed on
us by the government but by corporations.
Although, increasingly, the two are indistinguishable and use each other’s
respective strengths to their mutual advantage.
Why, for example, offer air bags – or
health insurance – when you can force people to buy them? This is the new modus
operandi. Eyeris, Israel’s Guardian Optical Technologies and Sweden’s SmartEye
have – according to Reuters – already signed “undisclosed” deals with
automakers to begin installing their tech dreck in some new cars as soon
as next year.
As always, follow the money – when it comes
to corporations. Just as one should always follow the power (the
lust for it, the desire to exert control) when it comes to the government.
And both operate on the same key principle: We are
to have no say in the matter. We are like cattle given the “choice” of Chute A
vs. Chute B – but never the option to leave the corral.
. . .
Got a question about cars – or anything else? Click on the “ask
Eric” link and send ’em in!
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