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Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by super256 on Monday February 27, 2023 @05:31PM (#34962922)
I would actually prefer VW to not add tracking capabilities to the car in the first place.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by barbazoo on Monday February 27, 2023 @06:43PM (#34963694)
It's opt in and useful for many things people want to do.
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Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by sand500 on Monday February 27, 2023 @06:50PM (#34963771)
It's only opt in if it requires additional hardware to be installed.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by barbazoo on Monday February 27, 2023 @09:43PM (#34965013)
By that logic, is Tesla FSD also not opt in because the capability is already built in, just has to be activated via software?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by 0cVlTeIATBs on Monday February 27, 2023 @11:31PM (#34965641)
The hardware that users must remove from a Tesla to disable telemetry is opt-out.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by hgsgm on Monday February 27, 2023 @11:41PM (#34965699)
The article explains that it's not opt-in when the police order it.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by suddenclarity on Monday February 27, 2023 @06:33PM (#34963599)
"Volkswagen" aka a random first line support employee who most likely never had experienced this situation before.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by waste_monk on Monday February 27, 2023 @06:51PM (#34963780)
Doesn't matter. It was reasonably foreseeable that they would need to coordinate with law enforcement or other emergency services at some point. They should either have had a dedicated emergency centre like other services such as OnStar [1], or at least better training for their first-line representatives.

Luckily the child was unharmed. This situation could have ended up so much worse.

[1]https://www.onstar.com/public-safety/emergency-situations

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by gus_massa on Monday February 27, 2023 @07:25PM (#34964096)
Should the police be able to enable the tracking of my car without an order from a judge?
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Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by dharmab on Monday February 27, 2023 @07:52PM (#34964292)
This clearly falls under exigent circumstances, so yes in such a case.
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Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by waste_monk on Monday February 27, 2023 @08:09PM (#34964408)
They already have that power (or at least in my jurisdiction). Similar to being able to arrest you without a warrant if you are currently committing a crime.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by BoorishBears on Monday February 27, 2023 @08:25PM (#34964537)
VW is almost certainly outsourcing this to SiriusXM, and SirusXM has a fuzzy marketing oriented first responder page too: https://www.siriusxmcvs.com/safety-security/acn-plus/

And they train and provide the same resources as OnStar: https://publicsafety.siriusxmcvs.com/acnplus-training

And they have a number specifically for LEOs... just like OnStar: https://publicsafety.siriusxmcvs.com/vehiclelocationpolicy#S....

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But the reality is, this was an exceptional case with a system that's probably weighted towards the opposite: people falsely trying to get location info.

Honestly while Sirus/VW screwed up here, I'm surprised with an entire child missing no one would have managed to dig up the LEO hotline...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by hgsgm on Monday February 27, 2023 @11:39PM (#34965692)
Impersonating law enforcement is a trivial way to steal data from LE-friendly vendors, because the police care more about buying weapons than setting up competent IT processes.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by jhoelzel on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @04:37AM (#34967441)
If a car rental place would not have handed out a car, would we see the same article here?
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Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by tthhrowawwway on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @04:41AM (#34967463)
"The market will regulate itself"
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Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by DoItToMe81 on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @06:45AM (#34968264)
Volkswagen should not even have this power to begin with. Jesus.
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Re:Volkswagen briefly refused to track car with abducted chi... by my_city on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @07:35AM (#34968567)
"Why communists say that capitalism puts profit above people?":
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