Apps that remotely track and control cars are being weaponized by abusive partners. Car manufacturers have been slow to respond, according to victims and experts.

She stopped responding to him, she said, even though he texted and called her hundreds of times.

Ms. Dowdall, 59, started occasionally seeing a strange new message on the display in her Mercedes, about a location-based service called “mbrace.” The second time it happened, she took a photograph and searched for the name online.

“I realized, oh my God, that’s him tracking me,” Ms. Dowdall said.

  • silence7@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
    151·
    11 months ago

    Yes, they can be repaired but it stops being cost-effective eventually. So almost everybody eventually replaces old cars

    • no banana@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      11 months ago

      Yep. We got a new car since repairs were billed at the fucking value of our old piece of crap. Tired of paying that price every year lol

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      Not really. The insurance premiums on a new car will dwarf repair costs of an old car. That is if you buy it in cash which almost no one can do. Chances are you are going to take out a loan. Plus you are going to lose 5k the moment you take it out of the lot. Go ahead and prove me wrong, there are a whole mess of calculators online that will show you complete total cost of a vehicle.

      Factories are infamous for having old equipment. They pretty much only throw stuff away a machine when they are totally out of room. When you are only concerned with money you repair, when you want to impress your “friends” you buy new.

      • limelight79@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Not arguing, but one thing I want to note: I’ve never had a new car cost more to insure than an old car (well maybe a few dollars, but not a significant change). Most of the time the premium is essentially the same, though one time it went down significantly because the safety features were better - that was going from a 2001 Saturn to a 2012 Honda. Going from a 2012 Honda to a 2020 Mazda did not significantly change our insurance premium.

        Wish I still had that 2012 Honda. Alas, it was totaled in a crash. :(