On: Nissan Leaf leaks your current position to RSS fee...

[StrawberryFrog]

Aggregating the speed data is usefull too. e. g. based on lots of location and speed data, you can tell that traffic on Highway 1 is moving, but on Route B it isn't; and route incoming cars accordingly.

Or gather data on average speeds and numbers of journeys by time of day for capacity planning.

It can be used for evil; but there are legitimate uses too. it's a hard problem to get the data out to only where it can do good.

[stavros → StrawberryFrog]

That's how Google maps gets real-time traffic info, by monitoring the movements of phones using it.

[JonoW → stavros]

How would it know if you're walking or driving?

[djb_hackernews → JonoW]

any number of heuristics.

average speed, location (are you in the middle of a park, or traveling 65MPH very near to a highway?), ambient noise,etc

[StrawberryFrog → JonoW]

Android phones have a "car mode" with a simple, big button and voice interface that is safer to use when driving.

[scythe → StrawberryFrog]

>It can be used for evil; but there are legitimate uses too. it's a hard problem to get the data out to only where it can do good.

Either way, it's an easy problem to let the user decide if they want to be tracked -- an easy problem Nissan chose not to solve.

[bergie → StrawberryFrog]

True, but I'm not sure RSS subscriptions are the right way to do that.