Does Your Electric Car REALLY Need Telematics?

Pretty much every modern EV today comes with some form of Telematics as standard - and we're often asked if it's something that people should activate, make use of, or instead ignore it in order to insure maximum security.

But in a world where telematics and OTA updates are intrinsically linked, it might not be the easiest question to answer. Nevertheless, we're going to try and give it a go.

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00:00 - Introduction
02:07 - This video might appear pretty easy to answer but...
02:58 - We've survived without telematics for years
04:34 - If charging is predictable, you might not need telematics...
05:08 - Knowing when someone is screwing with your car is a big telematics plus
07:13 - Automakers can help your EV stay healthy via remote diagnostics
08:01 - Tracking your car...
08:31 - OTAs are a big bonus to telematics, too.
09:07 - Concerns of hacking, cybersecurity breaches
11:41 - ...But you're the weakest link, goodbye!
13:34 - There's no shame in NOT having Telematics
14:23 - Insruance tatle-tales? (Here's the real facts)
15:38 - READ before SIGNING!
16:23 - What happens if you don't use telematics?
18:12 - Telematics for no-longer supported EVs
19:03 - OVMS - an alternative to examine...
20:05 - Thanks, and Goodbye!

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Presenter, Script, Audio: Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield.
Camera, Editor, Colorist: M. Horton
Art and Animation: Erin Carlie
Producer: Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield
© Transport Evolved LLC, 2024

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[PotteryLife]

It would be great to see manufacturers have an in-car, on-screen telematics check list showing 1. Passive (Always on/nothing you can do about it) 2. Recommended (Can be toggled on/off but when off will impact the on-road performance or functionality of the vehicle) 3. Optional (Can be toggled on/off but when off will not impact the on-road performance of the vehicle) ... or some such EASY and clear way for the vehicle owner to understand the system at a glace and choose the level of telematics they wish to use.

[ArielBatista]

The funny thing is that my 2021 Nissan Leaf S Plus has no telematics. And frankly it's great. No issues with the car and 3 years old with 42k miles driven it's been great. Our other car, VW ID.4 has it. Also hasn't been an issue. It came with 3 years of connection. Now our older Bolt 2020 LT came with a limited function one which requires OnStar. Which we do not have connected. Just not really worth the cost. Thanks for the video.

[stevewausa]

M’s cameo at about 6:00 always makes me laugh

[teardowndan]

Your car doesn't need telematics for you to know how your charging session is doing: you can simply log into your fast-charging network's app and monitor your charging session from there. For many networks and non-Teslas at superchargers, you need the app to initiate charging anyway.

[AlainODea]

I am definitely interested in seeing more about OpenTelematics. The idea of eventually having cars as hardware with open software running on them is very compelling to me.

[mister_jon_jon]

The only function I feel is good with telematics is controlling charging and heating of the cabin. But the telematic unit broke on my car and it took almost a year before I got a new one under warranty, so it was possible to live without it.

[DevAnubis]

Can confirm the technical terminology is inner tubes. 👍👍

[roguebullet]

Good episode. I'd definitely like to see an episode on OVMS. The telematics in my Smart EQ is quite unreliable, so an alternative could well be a consideration. Especially if they could offer mire functionality.

[theairstig]

Janus had cell level monitoring on its trucks. The telematics worked fine and the manufacturer was tracking a cell operating out of specification … for quite a while right up until it burnt to the axles in Melbourne

[shanefiddle]

OMG, I wish agreements were readable!!! That would be amazing. Another great show!

[mrxmry]

11:24 or, as steve gibson from the security now podcast likes to say: "what could possibly go wrong?"
11:32 really? i heard that he actually said "we seem to be having a problem here". hmm... but you're right, in the movie he says "houston, we have a problem."

using telematics has another advantage that i don't think you mentioned: if the car is stolen you can find out where it is and guide the cops to that location. of course it is possible that the thieves disable the telematics unit as soon as they get to their home base, which is why it would be a good idea to record the last few known locations of the car.

[countertony]

Telematics for use while public charging is something that I'm aware of not having in a rental EV - while it's simple enough to work out roughly how long you should wait to get 100 miles of driving out of a 50 kW rapid charger if everything goes entirely correctly, it would be nice to actually go back to the car actually knowing that you'd got enough for your needs.

[ArtiePenguin]

Thank you for bringing my attention to the open vehicle monitoring system. That open source software sounds really interesting and you should definitely do a video about it!

[patreekotime]

Some of the vehicle features actually make more sense than the laptops they sell today where all the files are stored in the cloud and you dont actually own your data, and the software will refuse to work if you dont connect regularly to the internet. The data broker world is total insanity.

[mikapeltokorpi]

My first engineering job was about a telematics unit. In 1997. Actually it was my thesis. CAN busses were totally unencrypted ten years after.

[shanefiddle]

I'd be very interesting in seeing a Bolt EV open source telematics upgrade video!

[christineburns]

I enjoyed the limited telematics functionality of my first LEAF for several years before (a) it stopped passing driving/charging data to the app and (b) in 2021 the cellular modem started flattening the 12V battery. Faced with the absurd cost of getting Nissan to replace the modem I took the local HEVRA garage’s advice and got them to take it out altogether. Nothing stopped working and, as I was already used to getting nothing useful from the old style app, I really didn’t miss it. That said, I enjoyed getting online functionality back in my new LEAF e+ last year so I’ve gone back to using the app.

[ReallyNS]

Telemetry is something I always avoid at any and all costs in terms of convenience, in all my devices from watch to car.
Not because of any inherent flaws of telemetry, but the flaws it inherits from being created in a system of capitalism where customer data is a commodity.
Cool to hear about the open source telematics project though, thanks for mentioning it.

[Stepbystep]

The only thing I really need is the battery level, for older cars I would imagine you can get an obd2 plug which could give you aftermarket telematics?

[JorgTheElder]

Great video. I am used to it being called "telemetry".
"*Telemetry* is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring."
"*Telematics* is the branch of information technology which deals with the long-distance transmission of computerized information."
I am sure it is a correct usage, just not something I am used to.