On the contrary it's relatively simple to understand how it got there trivially.
Most modern cars, especially ones that fit into more "luxury" brands have an app. That app gives you telemetry and location data for a price. It's rather convenient to be able to pre-condition your car, or figure out where you parked in a massive unlabeled parking lot, etc. This is all consented to, but regardless the data is tracked anyway via some GPS/cell system modern cars have. When you pay for it you get more stuff - anti-theft, better tracking, service tracking, etc.
It's a convenience. I'm not entirely comfortable with it but if you want a better-than-decent car made after 2016 you probably have it on-board and unless you rip the ECM out you're stuck with it. Personally, I'd rather pay BMW, for example, for anti-theft and tracking than pay OnStar or another service that is gonna stick me with a ridiculous contract and stuff my car with even more buttons.
Eh, "consented to" is rather weak when you are forced to hit the "I agree" button to be able to drive the car you bought. That and forced arbitration need to die posthaste.
Back in the day, during the original Browser Wars, when the US Department Of Justice was trying to force Microsoft to detach Internet Explorer from Windows, Microsoft argued that it was impossible for Windows to operate without IE baked in. Well, it took a couple of "hackers" about a day to prove them wrong. I ran Windows XP without IE for years just fine. So yeah, cars can run without the app.
The data is collected even if you don't use the app or hit agree. The manufacturer has your personal info attached to the car from the warranty info. They're required to collect it so they can send you recall notices.
It's trivial to put a car in limp mode if the vehicle computers don't detect all the modules the manufacturer put there. It's slightly less trivial to detect missing antennas, but that tends to disable other features people enjoy like directions and data. Manufacturers simply don't care to cat-and-mouse this right now.
You're being deliberately obtuse and that kind of contrarianism is 100% correlated with douchebaggery IMPE. Be better.
Unless you somehow aren't kidding, in which I'll clarify: I'm skeptical that a modern electric vehicle that goes to the trouble of being a computer on wheels can work without an app. And I'll even clarify "can" - the car manufacturer allows you to operate the car without using its app.
Most modern cars, especially ones that fit into more "luxury" brands have an app. That app gives you telemetry and location data for a price. It's rather convenient to be able to pre-condition your car, or figure out where you parked in a massive unlabeled parking lot, etc. This is all consented to, but regardless the data is tracked anyway via some GPS/cell system modern cars have. When you pay for it you get more stuff - anti-theft, better tracking, service tracking, etc.
It's a convenience. I'm not entirely comfortable with it but if you want a better-than-decent car made after 2016 you probably have it on-board and unless you rip the ECM out you're stuck with it. Personally, I'd rather pay BMW, for example, for anti-theft and tracking than pay OnStar or another service that is gonna stick me with a ridiculous contract and stuff my car with even more buttons.