“Your new Chinese EV shows up. It’s slick. Quiet. Affordable. Feels futuristic. Big screen. Facial recognition. Voice commands. Seamless phone pairing. Friends are impressed. You feel ahead of the curve.

You shrug off the privacy talk. Everything collects data now. Teslas do it. Phones do it. Credit cards do it. If Western companies already know everything about you, what’s the difference if China does too?

You drive it everywhere. Work. Gym. Kids school. Late night stops. Weekend visits. Friends pile in. Conversations happen. Phones sync. Contacts upload. Cabin mics stay on. Cameras stay active. The car learns your routines better than you do.

Then the world shifts.

China moves on Taiwan. Or Ottawa gets caught red-handed in another China scandal. Public sentiment turns. You’re angry. You post. You argue. You mock the regime. Maybe you donate to a cause. Maybe a friend does and you support them. It feels harmless. This is Canada. You’re entitled to an opinion.

Two days later, something changes.

Your employer calls you in. They’ve received an anonymous package. Screenshots. Private messages. Audio clips. Context stripped. Innocent jokes framed as threats. Conversations spliced together to make you look unstable, extremist, dangerous. HR is concerned. They put you on leave pending investigation.

That night, your spouse gets a message. Someone knows where your kids are. Knows the route you take to school. Knows which days you’re late. Knows when your house is empty. They don’t threaten directly. They don’t have to. The implication does the work.

Then comes the ultimatum.

Stop posting. Stop associating with certain people. Distance yourself publicly. Calm things down. This isn’t about punishment, it’s about preventing escalation.

Or maybe they don’t even contact you.

Maybe your data gets sold. Your habits. Your biometric profile. Your routines. To criminal networks. To foreign intelligence cutouts. To anyone willing to pay. Suddenly you’re dealing with identity theft, false criminal tips, police at your door responding to anonymous calls. A bomb threat traced to your IP. A wellness check that escalates. A knock that comes at the wrong time.

All deniable. All indirect. All impossible to prove.

And that’s the point.

This isn’t about listening to everyone because everyone matters. It’s about harvesting everything so pressure can be applied selectively. Quietly. When convenient. At scale.

A car that knows where you live, who you love, what you say, where you go, and when you’re vulnerable isn’t just transportation. It’s leverage.

And the people telling you just don’t buy one if you don’t like it are missing the point entirely.

By the time it matters, the choice is already gone.

You don’t need to be important.

You just need to be useful.