Researchers drove a NIO ES8 electric SUV deep into a Norwegian underground mine specifically to sever its external connections. The car kept attempting to reach servers, most of them located in China. These findings echo broader concerns about hidden data collection, similar to how a surveillance app was built to covertly target users without their knowledge.
That finding sits at the center of Project Lion Cage, a multi-year study initiated in 2022 by Tor Indstøy, a risk management and threat intelligence executive at Telenor Group. Indstøy purchased the NIO ES8 as a dedicated research platform.
The project arrives as Chinese EV brands expand across European markets with assurances about local data processing. Observed network behavior appears to contradict those assurances.
The point was to try what happens when the telemetry system fails to contact home for a prolonged time.
So they proved that a telemetry system attempts to phone home in areas with limited connection? Truly groundbreaking. Nobel Prize incoming.
So if I take my phone into a parking garage, and I see the little icon for roaming, have I suddenly done an experiment worthy of publishing?
Are you being purposely obtuse? It was to see if ANYTHING would happen specifically after it has been “offline” for an extended period of time. Its really not that hard to understand.
And nothing happened… This whole attempt a gotcha is self-defeating at best, vacuous at worst.
If you have had a reason to assume that the phone might get bricked by you doing that, yes. How is that not obvious?
I don’t have any reason to assume this.
Then why would you even make that experiment in the first place?