@HansMahncke A few weeks ago, I was staying at an airport hotel in Nashville. I went to sleep with the rental car parked outside and woke up to an email from the rental company telling me that I had returned it. Except I hadn’t.
The day last spring when my rental car was remotely disabled by the company while I was driving from LA to Las Vegas — an "error"– was the day I realized I wasn't actually driving at all. I was merely riding.
— Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) August 13, 2026
Music Row can do that to you, but it’s always a good time.
Find me a truck with 3-on-the-tree … and I’ll be just fine.
“And the car itself, which was just a totally ordinary GMC, had obviously transmitted all this information about itself, without me knowing anything about it.”
Going through life oblivious to OnStar must be a pretty good trick. Everything on the CanBUS is available with the correct hardware or addon
“Telematics module”
Usually zip tied somewhere down by your feet.
https://www.gmfleet.com/onstar/telematics
Built in for a long long time.
Seriously it’s not all evil. My son worked at a call center for a summer. He was answering calls from people who had rented cars but got lost or needed directions. There are some places where people shouldn’t get lost. Anyways he could direct them to where they needed to go on the phone. Would I want one of those systems on my personal car? Hell no. But me don’t have no fancy service on ma car. In most user agreements nobody reads when you buy a car, on page 845 para 5 section IV e iii, all data are belong to us. And our business partners. And the data the system snags on any phone connected to the system. You, me, your grandma, kids, your dog. Some keep a log of speeds and acceleration and actually know what the speed limit is on a stretch of road. THAT is some serious bullshit.
There is a woman named Danielle Brissett who rented a vehicle from Enterprise for (October 3, 2016 to October 31, 2016). She returned the vehicle and received confirmation of the return via email from Enterprise. However, that didn’t stop a criminal complaint being filed in Nevada on Dec. 9, 2016, alleging a felony charge against her for embezzling a rental vehicle on Aug. 5, 2016, which was more than two months before she even had rented it.
Go forward over six years later (nearly 7) and Danielle gets pulled over in for a minor traffic violation and the Felony Warrant pops up on her from Nevada (she now lives in Pennsylvania). She gets cuffed in front of her one year old child AND spends six days in jail until it gets sorted out.
gawd l wish they wd give me an expressway to a lucrative LAWSUIT
proof of the pudding? its ALL out there on da compooter.
undeniable. even the pukcuf wherever it is. tqvm.
‘now l never have to rent again with my $180,000 luxury Mercedes’