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How To Opt Out Of Your Car’s Surveillance State (Before It’s Too Late)
(www.carsandhorsepower.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2026
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Fuck Cars
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Just don’t buy a new car. Simple as.
That's not going to be a choice forever though. Even the best maintained cars eventually fail.
Can't you get older car rebuilt into electric? Seems like it could give it some more years. Correct me if I am wrong tho, I am not great at cars lol
Sure, but IIRC, there's a federal law requiring certain devices to be included in a new car. That probably doesn't include a rebuild, but it could if that becomes a popular enough option to avoid it. It's also usually quite expensive.
Would hope for EU to not have these laws, but I feel like that would be too much hope
The EU seems to being going full steam on destroying privacy too, so I wouldn't bet on it.
Unfortunately yeah... I believe they are talking about reviving Chat Control 1.0 today... Once again
The institution can propose the unpopular policy more times than a population unable or unwilling to alter the institution can smack it down.
True, so far we've been fighting this peacefully, and they keep coming back... Maybe we need to push harder against
Yeah and even if someone is just making barebones frames for kit builds, I think there are legal limits on the number of kit cars that a single shop can do in a year. But those are corporate protectionist laws that we should probably get rid of.
A lot of states dont have inspections anymore. How would they know if I converted an old car to an EV?
Some companies do offer this for a quite hefty price.
Heftier than a new car?
I looked at it at one point (quite a while back) and yes, it was more than a new car usually. It alone was about the price of a new car, like $30k IIRC (again, many years ago I think pre-covid even). You also need to include the car, so add a few thousand, or more depending on the car.
If I already have a car I like that sounds like an awesome deal.
Yeah, it's definitely something to look into. It's not a bad deal at least. It just costs a lot because it's mostly unique work for a single vehicle, rather than a factory pumping out the same one over and over.
That's fair yeah.. But I wouldn't mind an EV, only an EV with all the data connection and all that bs, so this could be a good deal for me in the future
Closer to $50K. It's a lot of specialized labor and those shops charge $200/hr.
Considering there aren’t any new cars I want and the average price of one is about that much it sounds good to me.
For $50,000 ...then you get an old car no one can fix.
Not quite that much in most cases, but yes a good electric conversion is always in the 5 digits. My old Ranger would be $20K in today's dollars to full convert, if done professionally and correctly. And there's enough rust problems with a frame from the early 90s that you question if something like that is worth it in the long run.
Then I’ll get a horse.
That's a whole new ethical dilemma, ride a bike!
Will a bike walk me home after a night of drinking? I think not.
Drunk Japanese businessmen have been known to steal unlocked mamacharis to get home, returning them the next day with an apology note.
My 2010 Honda is trucking along but I wanted to upgrade to a hybrid... Fat chance of that happening.
Now I'll ride this one until it dies.
So will I. I hope to time it just right.
Physically disconnecting the broadband antenna is always a solid option too
For as long as they let you. Watch, soon they'll be required to connect to the network at least every 30 days to function.
Don't buy it
I'll make the guess our next reply is "what if it's every car!?"
It won't be. Buy ~~used~~ proven.
so you splice a switch into the antenna wire.
They can't require connectivity or all cars would stop in tunnels.
You make switching RF sound easier than it is, but this is quite possibly the solution.
That or taking the train, but those have their own problems (including not being available in all places).
Nope. I'll just upload your data when the mechanic plugs into the computer
I guess if you write this enough times it becomes true. How much data do you think a control module stores?
What data exactly is it going to upload? There's a finite amount of data that can store and I'd imagine with the chip/storage costs on the rise no manufacturer is going to be using a larger onboard storage device. They're all too damn cheap for that
I want to have my cake and eat it too, though (privacy plus electric).
I'm looking at the new electric Slate pickup. As far as I can tell, this is the one EV that might not spy on us.
Burning fossil fuels is not acceptable
It may surprise you, but even older cars can be refitted with an electric engine. It isn't very cheap, but there's no surveillance there.
It can be relatively cheap if you dont care about having an extreme range. I know someone who turned an old beetle electric, and it just runs off of ~10 lead acid batteries if i remember right. Not a huge range, but enough to go to work and get groceries.
My dad used to have a bunch of old Mother Earth News magazines and electric conversion kits were advertised in all of them.
An electric engine is called a motor
Drama queens here...you can unplug the antenna on any car. No need to McGuyer/A-Team it.
Cars break air gaps at the mechanic when they plug into the computer.
This doesn't work
You going to a mechanic every day? Stop buying GM.
Big, ugly, expensive cars that I can’t fix myself with tracking software and touch screens are unacceptable.
Besides, I’ll get more horsepower from E100 and if it’s a diesel I can use fry oil.