privacy

Here's what we know about autonomous cars: 1. They're coming. 2. Their arrival will be piecemeal, via a range of autonomous features, which will eventually merge into fully self-driving vehicles. 3. Autonomous technology could be accepted by the mainstream within five or ten years. 4. Autonomous...Read More»

Like 18 other states, Florida only requires cars to carry one license plate, mounted at the rear of the vehicle. That probably helps to trim expenses at Florida's DMV, but it also means that when a motorist backs into her driveway, law enforcement officials can't read her car's plate. The City of...Read More»

A couple of weeks ago, two hackers made headlines when they wreaked havoc on a Jeep Grand Cherokee by exploiting a weakness in the vehicle's Uconnect telematics system. (Jeep's parent company, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, subsequently issued a recall to patch the security hole.) But as we pointed...Read More»

Earlier this week, we reported on a vulnerability in Chrysler's Uconnect system that allowed two hackers to remotely control a Jeep Cherokee. (They could've chosen any number of vehicles from a wide range of automakers, but determined that the Cherokee was best suited for their demonstration.) To...Read More»

It's finally happened: a vehicle has been remotely hijacked by hackers. We've seen attempts at vehicle hacking before -- none of which were especially awe-inspiring or frightening -- but this? Well, as Wired reports, this is a little different. CHECK OUT: The 2015 Ford F-150 & The $10,000...Read More»

As everyone knows, 2014 was the Year of the Recall. Between fatal ignition switch flaws at General Motors and exploding airbags from Takata, recalls were at the forefront of everyone's mind. It wasn't just the volume of recalls that made 2014 remarkable, though. It was also the fact that some of...Read More»

We do stupid things in the car. We eat, we sing, we shout at other people, we pick our noses. We do all that because, despite the fact that we're surrounded by glass, we think no one can see us. But can they? If you're behind the wheel of a Hertz rental car equipped with NeverLost, don't be too...Read More»

Technology does awesome things. It lets us communicate with loved ones, no matter where they are on the planet. It lets us collaborate with colleagues and entrepreneurs thousands of miles away. And of course, it lets us lounge on the sofa in our threadbare, monogrammed Snuggies and order brand-new...Read More»

Few people like license plate readers, or LPRs. Despite the safety they promise, they're at best imperfect, and at worst, a grievous invasion of privacy. If you're one of those folks who's wary about LPRs, you might want to steer clear of an article recently published in Wired. It makes abundantly...Read More»

Back in November, some motorists in Fort Worth, Texas had an unusual and unnerving experience: according to a report at NBC DFW, "Some drivers in North Fort Worth on Friday were stopped at a police roadblock and directed into a parking lot where they were asked by federal contractors for samples of...Read More»

The entry for "privacy" in the Oxford English Dictionary may look the same as it always has, but our definition of the word is changing day by day. Consider the fact that license plate readers track many -- if not most -- drivers in the U.S. Software is being used to identify pedestrians and...Read More»

We've written before about licence plate readers, or LPRs, which can be found in cities across America. But like all high-end technology, once-pricey LPRs have become more affordable, and now they're being used by mom and pop businesses -- especially repossession companies -- to keep tabs on...Read More»

Dennis Rodman isn't the only person suffering from foot-in-mouth disease this week. Jim Farley, Ford's Global VP for Marketing and Sales, succumbed to it, too, and now, he's trying his best to recover. Farley began to show symptoms on Wednesday night at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas...Read More»

Big data is a very big deal. To be sure, it has plenty of useful applications, like helping us navigate traffic jams and tracking down criminals, all thanks to the aid of GPS devices, traffic cameras, and other gadgets. But there's an insidious side to big data, too. Businesses of every stripe...Read More»

We've spilled a lot of virtual ink over vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-grid communications. Both are promising technologies that could substantially reduce the number of traffic accidents and fatalities by allowing cars, traffic lights, and other elements of the driving environment to "talk" to...Read More»

Last fall, we told you about the widespread use of license plate readers -- cameras deployed by government agencies to scan and track plates as cars move across town and across the country. License plate readers can be put to great use finding stolen vehicles or hunting down kidnappers. The problem...Read More»

Fully autonomous cars are still years away from hitting the roads, and the U.S. probably won't be the first to receive them. But that hasn't stopped car fans from thinking about the inevitable arrival of self-driving vehicles and their many implications. The National Highway Traffic Safety...Read More»

We're all familiar with event data recorders -- or as they're more commonly known, "black boxes". EDRs are standard equipment on airplanes, and any time there's a mishap, news programs are full of journalists making guesses about what the recorders will reveal. If you're a regular reader of this...Read More»