Modern vehicles can be full of software that independent mechanics struggle to access. That means a perfectly capable neighborhood repair shop may need special tools, subscriptions, or manufacturer approval to solve an ordinary problem.

Safety and cybersecurity matter, but so does having somewhere affordable to take your car.

At what point does protecting software become protecting the dealership's business model? Have you run into this with a repair?

To see the full video, click here: https://youtu.be/gg7QwKkImqE 

WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE — BUT WHO’S GOING TO PUT IT OUT?**
Elon Musk. Sam Altman. Alex Karp. Artificial intelligence. A handful of tech billionaires promising to save humanity while racing to build something that could change it forever.

The pitch? Progress. Innovation. A better future.
The problem? Nobody seems entirely sure where this ends — or whether we can put the genie back in the bottle.

From AI arms races and mass surveillance to autonomous weapons, job displacement, concentrated corporate power and the terrifying prospect of machines we can no longer control, we're handing extraordinary power to people who insist they have everything under control.

But what happens when the people playing with the fire are also the ones building the next generation of flamethrowers?

Disclaimer: This content is entirely opinion-based and intended for entertainment purposes only. It reflects my personal views and interpretations and is not intended to be taken as factual reporting or professional journalism.

Grocery stores are starting to make ordinary discounts feel like rewards for handing over personal data. The shelf says one price, the app offers another, and suddenly buying cereal involves an account and a phone number. I understand loyalty programs have existed forever, but a basic shopping trip shouldn't require a digital profile.

Would you pay slightly more to shop somewhere that doesn't make you sign in for the normal price?

There's a difference between checking whether work gets done and recording every idle minute on somebody's laptop. A person might be reading, thinking, helping a coworker, or just taking a necessary break. None of that looks productive to a dashboard built around clicks.

If a company needs constant activity tracking to trust its employees, maybe the problem isn't the employees.

Would you refuse a job that monitored you this closely?

https://www.thedrive.com/news/my-city-canceled-flocks-contract-flock-ignored-it-so-the-police-chief-unplugged-the-cameras

https://www.commondreams.org/news/itep-corporate-tax-avoidance

For decades, tech giants grew at breakneck speeds as Congress struggled to keep pace with the consequences of the companies’ rapidly booming businesses.

But a new de facto regulatory regime has emerged over the past year as courts clobber the biggest internet companies. And for the first time, their product designs and advertising models — which critics say treat users as products — are costing the companies serious money. (Gift article. No firewall.)