It's not about being cheap. China has been manufacturing high end goods for the global marketplace for a long time, and has also been doing if for their domestic market. The challenge is that most Canadian and American experiences with Chinese products are with white-label, top tier products like the iPhone built to high quality standards, or dollar store trash manufactured as cheaply as possible to be cheap. Until Apple started moving production, most consumers thought of the IPhone as an American product when it was really American software running on Chinese hardware (I know, it's a simplification). From everything I have read, the BYD cars that would be available here would be competitive products, not the cheapest thing you can buy, which means you should expect to pay for them, but the feature set and value will likely be higher (though I will remain skeptical till I can take one on a test drive here).
I am cautiously optimistic about this, and look forward to that test drive.
Meh. The entire geopolitical situation is unstable. If BYD is hoping to build manufacturing and infrastructure here, and they are willing to make significant investments, it makes sense for us (Canadians) to pursue that, while continuing to strengthening our ties to Europe, and making sure that any thoughts of Canada as a vassal state to the United States are consigned to the dustbin.
We had a close relationship with the United States, but we have been burned pretty badly, and it's up to the Americans to show that it's worth returning by stabilizing the rule of law, and eliminating the capricious and nonsensical trade barriers that have been implemented.
I drive a Ford Mustang Mach-E, but would happily switch to BYD car just to get access to that kind of fast charging, especially if it's available across Canada.
Also, it would be great to see aftermarket kits for existing EVs to upgrade to supported battery kits. This is probably a pipe dream, and I don't know anything about what it would take to accomplish this. If that's not possible, there should be much stronger standards on how batteries are built, shaped, etc, and controls on how the batteries can be discharged. Batteries already appear to be the most expensive part of maintenance cross the two EV (one PHEV, and one EV) that I have owned - pushing for standardization should help drive those costs down, and enable longevity for new and potentially existing fleets. Last thing we need is cars becoming as disposable as phones because of battery lock in and manufacturers dropping support.
No one is signing an arms reduction treaty or giving up weapons while Russia has troops in Ukraine. That's an object lesson in relying on paper barriers that the whole world is watching.
I mean, true, but also, nobody is going to give up weapons while the US is kidnapping heads of state, launching decapitation strikes and invading a half dozen new countries.
Don't forget that when they increase export restrictions under the current US regime they signal further that economic ties are on their terms not fair terms. The rest of the world will continue to steer towards alternatives to US tech.
Sure. It would be nice if countries would waive diplomatic immunity for things that are crimes back home. Diplomatic immunity should extend to foreign laws, but the diplomats shouldn't escape domestic criminal or civil consequences.
That gets into a discussion that HN as a whole doesn't excel at: The realpolitik of what goes on in embassies, what staffers might know about ops, and the need to keep those secrets rather than have them spilled in a foreign court. You also have the much grimmer reality that a country almost certainly wants to do their own investigation, since a scandal like this can be weaponized to remove someone or end their career.
All told no country is ever going to shrug and say, "Sure take our guy, wring him out and let us know what he says." That's not how anything works and it's frankly not how it should work. But again... people here tend to have an extremely black-and-white way of thinking and very little actual knowledge beyond tech.
Train it on human content, get human emulating behaviour, including all the perverse incentives and bad acting we see from people, fictional or otherwise.
There are lots of good reasons that are used to paper over the abuse cases.
Microphones in tvs are a useful accessibility feature when they enable voice commands for the user, and allow them to be used as voice assistants.
They also enable tvs with a camera and microphone to be used as video calling or audio calling interfaces. Used well we get star Trek view screens, used poorly we get little brother monitoring.
For those interested, it turns the tv into an interactive terminal for voice and camera powered video games, which are becoming more popular.
Unfortunately advertising and tracking incentives drive the abuse cases to the top and will crush the positive use cases :(
You'd be looking for what's now called a "dumb tv". But those are getting rare, because TVs that can't sell your watch data have to be more expensive to make up for that, and that doesn't sell. Commercial screens are an option, as are computer monitors. Or getting a smart tv and never connecting it to the internet. So far nobody has started shipping TVs with a mobile connection to exfiltrate data, as far as we know. Unlike cars.
The problem is when a helpful friend or family member decides to connect the TV to the Internet for you, they have good intentions and think they are helping but have in fact screwed up your carefully considered plan. Same thing goes when someone agrees to all terms and conditions on a nag screen that pops up (as in the video only a subset of T&C were required to function but agree to all was the default behaviour), or when they go and apply that automatic update/upgrade that you didn't want on a device you own (i.e. from Windows 10 to Windows 11).
There's too many dark patterns and bad behaviour from big corporations these days trying to wear you down and trick you into relinquishing your rights and letting them "get away with murder".
There are plans to build these networks at various stages. Putatively to enable connectivity, but in practice the tech creates a device to device mesh network that enables side channel communication over a secure mechanism that is not necessarily subject to use control.
> So far nobody has started shipping TVs with a mobile connection to exfiltrate data, as far as we know
Yeah, I suspect that it either isn't a big enough segment of the market to make the costs worth it, or they just haven't been caught. Given that it's pretty easy to add amazon sidewalk connectivity to devices with bluetooth radios (which most of these TVs have to support external wireless speakers), I'd be shocked if they hadn't at least experimented and estimated payoff on doing that.
"…as long as you're satisfied with the factory installed firmware version."
Why wouldn't one be? Not that long ago 'dumb' TVs never even had firmware (and that was the situation throughout most of television history). Allowing a manufacturer to update TV firmware online is dangerous and foolhardy. (Same reasons why I never let any of my printers go anywhere near the internet—any driver software is always blocked by a firewall.)
There's no practical reason for most people. Spying is the primary function. Edge cases like accessibility or conferencing can be easily enabled with an add on USB mic. You'd need a USB webcam with mic for conferencing anyway.
People use voice commands on TV remotes all the time if they're using streaming apps. At this point it's the default way to interact with the UI for many people.
Typing out the show you're searching for with an awkward onscreen keyboard is a huge pain compared to just clicking a button and speaking.
HN users are very much in a bubble if it's surprising to learn consumers expect voice control functionality on a new TV.
Whilst most around me do expect voice control to exist... Most expect it not to function. "Hey Siri/Google" was always more of an exercise in frustration than success.
It seems the Australian accent still befuddles most STT with about 1/8 words confused (said as someone who uses STT to use their computer at all).
It would not shock me, if outside of North America and Great Britain, these systems are as effective as the original autocorrect algo.
"HN users are very much in a bubble if it's surprising if it's learn consumers expect voice control functionality on a new TV."
Perhaps a few are unaware but most know. As I said in my post, some (like me) only want traditional FTA — and with it comes anonymity by default.
Smart TVs undermine and subvert the virtues of FDA services. It should be mandated that it's possible for modern smart TVs to switch to FTA-only mode if viewers so desire. Similarly, regulation should ensure that dumb TVs always be available for those who want them.
Accessibility is not an edge case. Every single human being who lives long enough will experience some form of accessibity challenge, either for themselves or for others around them.
You can dismiss the lives experience of most humans over the history of humanity, but it won't win you any arguments.
Like I do with laptops, just snip wires (or pull out header/connector) to microphone and camera. Problem partly solved.
Fully solve it by disconnecting network cable/Wi-Fi so there's no internet.
For me a TV set only receives FTA signals and has connectors for local media/AV input. It ceases to be a TV set when it starts doing what my PCs and laptops do.
(Anonymity is the reason why FTA broadcasting is still so very important, by design it's only one-way — broadcaster to listener/viewer. Unfortunately smart TVs and the internet subvert anonymity by design.)
Don't underestimate the ability of the courts and the state to pull the rug out from under the legal system. Speaking as an outsider from Canada, it looks very much like all bets are off in terms of respecting checks and balances in the United States and it's very realistically possible that unless there is a big upset and turn around the next couple of years any traces of democracy in the US will be a farcical nod to what the founders built as a way to paper over the abuses.
I really hope I am wrong as my perspective is not anti-American, it's specifically anti-corruption and pro-democracy.
I am cautiously optimistic about this, and look forward to that test drive.
reply