As someone who was on the R&D Infotainment team on the US side of one of the big Japanese manufacturers, I had many heated debates with management over these "features," which became a big enough deal for me that it was one of the main reasons I left the company. The executive suite on the American side R&D were always pushing these dubious features for the underlying data underneath. This was masked as "value" for the customer, but it's mostly a smokescreen so that the manufacturer can sell the data on the open market. There is a large Silicon Valley/MBA influence when it comes to data and how to monetize it.
One may or may not be surprised of the philosophies here - the idea is to monetize the vehicle and data every step of the way. The data doesn't belong to the customer even though they bought the car. Given the pervasiveness I saw at this specific company and it's software suppliers, I would assume every supplier and manufacturer for newer model vehicles are doing this now.
I'm a little old-ish school. At this point just give me a bluetooth connection that always works with my phone and I'm good. These newer vehicles are basically just another mobile phone on wheels, riddled with bugs and data collection services. No thanks.
One may or may not be surprised of the philosophies here - the idea is to monetize the vehicle and data every step of the way. The data doesn't belong to the customer even though they bought the car. Given the pervasiveness I saw at this specific company and it's software suppliers, I would assume every supplier and manufacturer for newer model vehicles are doing this now.
I'm a little old-ish school. At this point just give me a bluetooth connection that always works with my phone and I'm good. These newer vehicles are basically just another mobile phone on wheels, riddled with bugs and data collection services. No thanks.