{"id":15134268,"date":"2026-06-02T14:49:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/slate-auto-gets-serious-about-privacy-for-its-bare-bones-ev-pickup\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T10:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T14:03:12","slug":"slate-auto-gets-serious-about-privacy-for-its-bare-bones-ev-pickup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/slate-auto-gets-serious-about-privacy-for-its-bare-bones-ev-pickup\/","title":{"rendered":"Slate Auto gets serious about privacy for its bare-bones EV pickup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Slate Auto may be one of the most interesting companies in the American automotive industry right now. Based in Warsaw, Indiana, the startup is taking a completely different approach to building an electric pickup truck. Forget Ford&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/cars\/2026\/05\/how-do-you-design-a-30000-electric-pickup-inside-fords-skunkworks\/\">clean-sheet &#8220;skunk works&#8221; story<\/a>; the Slate Truck&#8217;s design has been <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/cars\/2025\/09\/slate-autos-sub-30000-ev-pickup-is-due-next-year-heres-the-factory\/\">stripped down to just 600 parts and components<\/a>. That minimalism includes the interior, where you&#8217;ll find two seats and manually wound windows, but no infotainment system. If you&#8217;re one of Ars&#8217; many readers who want an electric car that won&#8217;t track you, Slate might have what you&#8217;re looking for.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not an entirely analog experience, though; a Slate smartphone app can manage settings, change drive mode, and provide range and charging info. But only when connected locally to the car\u2014there&#8217;s no embedded modem, so forget about remote access. And the company says that while it may use data from the app to improve its products, it won&#8217;t sell that data.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilityengineeringtech.com\/component\/content\/article\/55318-slates-modem-free-pickup-brings-privacy-back-to-driving\">according to a new report<\/a> from SAE International&#8217;s (and sometime Ars contributor) Roberto Baldwin. &#8220;We are building it around ownership value,&#8221; Slate said. &#8220;We collect data to make ownership better, not to turn the owner into the product. The app will collect data only when it directly contributes to enabling or improving a customer experience. Privacy is paramount. For Slate, privacy is not a compliance footnote. It is part of the product experience.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/cars\/2026\/06\/slate-says-its-electric-pickup-will-never-track-you\/\">Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/cars\/2026\/06\/slate-says-its-electric-pickup-will-never-track-you\/#comments\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"inmi-source\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/cars\/2026\/06\/slate-says-its-electric-pickup-will-never-track-you\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tech &#8211; Ars Technica<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With no embedded modem, the Slate Truck is the antithesis of today&#8217;s connected cars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15134270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[214],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15134268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1.jpg",1152,648,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-620x349.jpg",620,349,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-940x529.jpg",940,529,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1.jpg",1152,648,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1.jpg",1152,648,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-998x648.jpg",998,648,true],"ignition_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-670x446.jpg",670,446,true],"ignition_item_lg":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1.jpg",1152,648,false],"ignition_article_media":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-510x510.jpg",510,510,true],"ignition_minicart_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-24x24.jpg",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-48x48.jpg",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-96x96.jpg",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15134268-blank-slate-headlight-detail_web-1152x648-1-300x300.jpg",300,300,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"news.iNthacity","author_link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/author\/atombo\/"},"category_info":"<a 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