While wandering the interwebs, I came across an interesting issue regarding cars, dealerships, lenders and insurers of which most car owners or leasees are NOT aware.
The short version is that tracking devices used by insurance companies to track driving habits and used by lenders to track the location of vehicles with outstanding loans are creating unexpected issues for car owners. For one, these plug-in devices connect to the car’s OBD2 (OnBoard Diagnostic v2) interface to intercept the data feeds present on the buses connecting your car’s computers. Car mechanics are finding that electronic placement causes interference with the car’s core ECU(s) in ways which interfere with emissions tests or attempts to diagnose and tune the car for issues. In these cases, auto shops are refusing to work on the car or perform inspections until the device is removed. That brings up the second problem.
These devices are not just being plugged in “externally” to the OBD2 port like your mechanic would plug in when you take it into the shop. The device is being wired IN PARALLEL with the existing circuitry but BEHIND the dashboard. The car owners typically have no idea the device is there, nor is it particularly easy to remove without removing part of the dash to get to the wiring. But the real issue is that the owners have no idea the device was installed in the first place.
If you sign a lease contract for the car or a contract with a bank for the loan that explicitly states in exchange for the lease or the loan, the car will be equipped with a geotracking device in case you reneg on payments so the lender can repossess the car, then there’s no legal problem here. However, it isn’t clear if installation of these devices is limited to just cars involving leases or loans. The devices themselves are cheap enough when purchased in bulk it could be the practice of some dealers to install them in EVERY new and used car they sell. Is the dealer selling the geoloc and performance data to insurance companies? Without the owner’s consent?
A third problem with these devices is they DO consume some power continously. For a car being driven at least occassionally multiple times per week, that driving is enough to recharge the car battery and avoid any problem for the owner. In one case, an owner who found one of these installed in a NEW car not involving a loan didn’t drive his car for three weeks and that was enough time for the device to draw down the battery and kill it.
All the above is bad enough, but this data collected without the user’s consent is being used to deny warranty support. The guy who encountered the dead battery started looking into the possibility of a tracking device after seeing a video from another owner whose car was destroyed after the engine burst into flames. When the owner brought it to the Toyota dealership, neither the dealer nor Toyota could identify what caused the catastrophic engine fire. But they did find something. They pulled data from a tracker that showed the owner drove the car above 85 miles per hour and used that to justify refusing to cover replacement of the vehicle, as if certain that 85 mph trip was the cause of the failure and thus not the maker’s fault.
If you’ve purchased a new car in the last five years or so, you might want to look under the dash of your car and see if you have any unexpected mystery equipment.
WTH