What could your car remember about you?

I recently saw a headline that read “What the web never forgets about you”

This got me wondering as to when you trade in your driverless car what could it still remember about you?

Could the car remember:-

• Any commands/instructions that were put in place by the previous owner i.e. could a new owner find that they cannot listen to Capital Radio because the previous owner had placed a ban on it to punish their kids.
• Any key places that you used to visit regularly with the new owner finding themselves deposited into some seedy areas around where the previous owner used to frequent i.e. local dogging site!!
• Key names and upon them being mentioned by the new owner could the car display possibly embarrassing information about the named person.This could be most embarrassing/enlightening if the car was handed over to friends or family. The new owner could find the car broadcasting comments about them that the previous owner would really rather they didn’t hear.
• How to access the previous owners photograph and videos especially the very private ones that the car might unfortunately allow the new owners access to on the in-car display. Be very interesting if the previous owner was a celebrity though .
• Voices . This could have potential issues for company cars especially when the previous owner gets in and is recognised by the car and it ends up revealing private information that they  wouldn’t want the new owner to know i.e. they are selling the company or making them all redundant.
• The previous owners credit/debit card details that it has stored away for use in times to save occupants having to leave the car to make a payment i.e. toll roads and drive through McDonalds. All of sudden previous owner might see strange debits appearing on their bank/credit card statements
• Telephone favourites list. There is the possibility of the previous owner and/or their friend’s getting nuisance calls from the new owner especially when anything goes wrong with the car
• To stop driving to the previous owner’s home address or work address (assuming they live close by). This could be a real pain if the new owner can’t re-programme the car to go to their new home or work address.
• Any shops/garages… that the previous owner got the car to blacklist because they  had trouble with them or places like Ikea which they had put on their blacklist as they always  spend too much money there!!.
• The previous owners Facebook accounts with access to their private accounts. This could also be fun if the new owner finds that the previous owner had blocked them on Facebook and the car then allows access to the comments the previous owner had been making about the new owner.
• The previous owners Amazon account with the previous owner finding that stuff has been bought from their account by the new owner.
• The previous owners web history might generate on screen product recommendations which might not be appropriate for the new owners i.e. vegans getting meat product recommendations,  inappropriate dating site recommendations, sex toys….

So, should a driverless car always have its memory completely wiped after it has been sold or gets registered?. The obvious answer is Yes BUT what if for instance the car has been used in a criminal way and by wiping the memory authorities are no longer able place the car at certain places and also unable to identify who were the occupants of the car at the time.

I am sure there are various authorities/companies that might want to have access to some of the information that a driverless car has recorded about its owners before it is erased for good.

 As such this begs the question “Who should own the history records of a driverless car?”. TBC….