Some off road guys I heard of have gotten so tired of all the extra sensor crap that there is talk about making a virtual vehicle readout which connects to the vehicle computer, and mimics operating conditions. this then allows it to pass smog, as the tech, at a smog check station plugs his connector to the port, and everything reads normal. Meanwhile, all the sensor and actuator controlled items have been stripped, or disabled, and old school physical linkage accel cables, etc run where needed.
I predict that there will be a growing industry (black market of course) to do this more and more, as now vehicles are starting to shut down and become un driveable for reasons that have nothing to do with the actual engine running. In my industry, there are already companies doing this for some of the agencies vehicles, permanently disabling any ability of the vehicle to either transmit, or receive ANY communication with the outside world, in order to prevent outside hacking and remote take over of control. Already self steering, auto brake, fly by wire accel pedals, (parallel park assist, etc) capable systems are banned by some of our industry on their field vehicles.
Many in our industry have been buying older vehicles on purpose as their personal daily drivers, or else they spend $$$$ to have their new vehicles custom retrofitted.
On another note, cell phones and texting are banned because people get distracted and have to take their eyes off the road to look at their display. The new vehicles putting big displays in the dash, creating the very same unsafe driving environment. We rented a Chevy Traverse recently that had this center driver infotainment display, and just to change the volume, or the radio station, you had to scroll through different touch screen menus, totally taking our eyes off the road to to.... we continued our journey with a notebook laid over that screen so we would not be tempted to see what it was constantly displaying... no thanks.... give me a radio with actual physical knobs and buttons, where you dont have to look down to activate.
