Turret3857
As far as I am aware, most of them aren’t directly transmitting data back to the manufacturer, but the data is stored on the car so if you ever have it worked on the dealership can just pull that shit without consent. I could be wrong though, maybe there are cars now that are doing that. I do know that a a lot of cars are taking the iPhone route of having “encrypted” parts, where if one is missing or replaced, the car just won’t work.
I believe it is making light of the fact that this is the direction we are heading in as a society. See the recent ford patent that listens to you while you are driving to serve ads over your stereo, the $800 child’s toy that will now be nothing but e-waste, BMW having you “subscribe” to your heated seats, or a more relavent to this conic example, the thousands if not millions of new “smart” devices that now require an app to perform functions that older technology could perform without needing a smartphone.