A ‘Connected Car’ Can Generate Up To 25 Gigabytes Of Data An Hour, But Where Is It Going?

I was reading a report on the challenges presented by connected cars, and a bit of data struck me: A connected car can generate up to about 25 GB of data every hour. That’s a lot of data! To put it in Napster-era MP3 size, that’s the data equivalent of downloading multi-platinum Nebraska alt-rock band 311’s hit song “Amber” a whopping 6,200 times in a single hour. That’s over 100 times in a minute.

But who owns that data? Who gets to sell that data? Where is it going? These are the concerns of regular people as well as the US government, which is planning to issue new rules on these connected cars later this year.

It’s feeling like a numbers-heavy TMD this morning, so let’s throw out two more numbers: $8 million and $65 billion. That’s what GM’s Cruise is reportedly paying to settle with the woman it dragged with one of its robotaxis and what Honda plans to invest in electrification.

Am I writing this next to a snoring David? Yes I am. [Ed Note: It’s a problem. -DT]

A Modern Car Produces A Ton Of Data

The folks over at S&P Global Mobility put out these reports full of data and analysis I regularly enjoy reading, especially when I find a little nugget of data buried in there that toggles some switch in my brain into the “ORLY” position. Today, it was this brief on connected cars.

If you’re not aware, a ‘connected car’ is basically any vehicle that can communicate data back to the automaker (or other third party). Most modern cars are connected cars, whether as simple as a Subaru that can report back crash data or as complex as a Tesla Model Y that’s sending a stream of your driving back to the automaker.

It’s a lot of data! Here’s how S&P describes it:

As cars transform into rolling data repositories, more lingering concerns over data privacy and security are beginning to hinder the full potential of connected cars, which collect a lot more data than expected. A typical connected vehicle can generate nearly 25 GB of data per hour and collect information from more than 100 different datapoints, thanks to embedded features including geolocation and navigation, companion apps, biometrics, voice recognition, on-board diagnostics and driver assistance.

Additionally, cars can collect data in the background via cameras, microphones, sensors and connected phones and apps. Sensitive data captured from connected vehicles can include personal identifiable information (PII), location, behavior and financial data from customers, as well as intellectual property related to the vehicle and services provided.

The rest of the article goes on to talk about the risks associated with holding that data, and we’ve already seen automakers admit to sharing driving information with insurance companies. Some of this is the cost of modern life. We get cheaper electronics with the implicit promise that the makers of those products get to squeeze as much info out of it as possible for their own financial gain.

I don’t love this and, while I think we sort of understand this with phones and Alexas, I do wonder if people think about their cars as the ultimate data-sharing devices. Let this be a reminder, then, if you have a modern car it’s probably ratting on you.

Connected Cars Are ‘Really Serious Stuff’

In addition to massive tariffs, the Feds are planning to clamp down on connected cars. This started back in February when everyone panicked about Chinese vehicles and the Biden Administration said it was going to learn something about the vehicles. According to this Reuters report, it has!

“We expect to have a rule out this fall,” Raimondo told a U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday, adding: “The national security risks are quite significant … We decided to take action because this is really serious stuff.”

Raimondo said connected vehicles “have thousands of sensors, thousands of chips – they’re controlled by software, which is coming from Beijing in the case of Chinese-made cars. They know where the driver goes, what the driving patterns are, what you’re saying in your car. It’s a lot of data around U.S. persons that goes right back to Beijing.”

This is all true and I think it’s important we are careful about data we send to Beijing, but I also think we should be careful about data we send anywhere. It would be nice to have a rule that covers all data sent to any cities or automakers or companies.

Report: Cruise To Pay Woman Dragged By Robotaxi At Least $8 Million

A Chevy Bolt robotaxi deployed by GM’s Cruise unit was involved in an incident last year that resulted in serious injuries to a pedestrian. Specifically, the woman was struck by a Nissan being driven by a human and then collided with a Cruise Robotaxi. Uncertain of what to do, the robotaxi pulled over to the side of the street, unaware it was dragging the woman with it. This led to the unit shutting down all driverless operations, temporarily.

With robotaxi service set to resume soon, we’re now getting a little information on what’s happened to the victim in the months since the action. Specifically, Fortune reports that the woman has reached an $8 million to $12 million settlement with Cruise.

The victim has decided she would rather remain anonymous and therefore we don’t know much about her other than that she’s now out of the hospital.

Honda To Spend $65 Billion The Rest Of This Decade On Electrification

Honda’s sole electric car in the United States for a while is going to be the Prologue EV, which wasn’t even developed by Honda. The Ultium-based Prologue is more GM engineering than Honda engineering. And while EV sales are leveling off a touch, most automakers still see broader EV adoption in the future.

It’s therefore sensible that Honda, now swimming in yen, is going to up its spend on electrification for the rest of the decade.

Per Reuters:

Japan’s Honda Motor, opens new tab pledged to double its electrification and software investment to about $65 billion over the 10 years running through the 2030 business year, it said on Thursday.

Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe told a press conference the automaker planned to spend a total of 10 trillion yen ($64.88 billion) on electrification and software over the period, doubling the amount it had pledged in April 2022.

What’s the point of having the money if you can’t enjoy spending it?

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

This song is a lot smoother than I remembered, but since I made the joke at the top of the post I had to include it. Man, that dude’s hair is straight Wendy’s frozen dairy desert. Also… is that Nicole Sherzinger in the video?