A Honda dealership posted a video of a phone call between its reception desk and a customer who says her brand-new Pilot is, in her words, "snitching" on her. She explains that her husband had just opened the HondaLink app and seen the driver behavior report showing she had hit 94 mph on the highway.
The TikTok has drawn more than 16,900 views, with debate in the comment section about who Honda is actually sharing the data with.
Hall Honda Elizabeth City (@hallhondaelizabethcity), a Honda dealership in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, posted the skit on its TikTok channel as part of a series of customer encounter shorts.
"Sometimes, technology feels like a double-edged sword, doesn’t it?" the caption reads. "A recent customer was shocked to find out her husband could see her 94 MPH highway sprints through the HondaLink app."
"Why Is My Car Filing Reports On Me?"
The skit opens with the customer’s voice on a recorded phone call to the dealership. "I bought that Pilot from you guys last week, and I need to know how to stop it from snitching on me," she says.
The customer continues: "My husband just showed me a report from the app saying that I broke aggressively and accelerated aggressively."
"Yeah, that’s the Driver Behavior Report," the receptionist replies.
"Why is my car filing reports on me? Is it linked to the police department?" she inquires.
"No, it’s mainly just for safety, fuel-efficiency tracking."
"Well, it just told my husband I hit 94 miles an hour yesterday."
"Did you?"
"Uh, what? Um, look, that’s not the point."
The customer then asks whether the dealership can disable the reports from its end. The answer is no, because the feature is controlled in the HondaLink app. The customer mentions that her husband is "now asking questions about my accelerating at specific times of the day." The dealership rep then delivers the punchline. "Ma’am, I’m going to be honest. This might be more of a marriage conversation than a vehicle feature," she says.
What Does HondaLink Track?
The feature the customer is talking about is real and mostly accurately described—even if the phone call itself is a marketing skit.
HondaLink’s Driver Feedback feature uses in-vehicle sensors to evaluate five components of every trip. These include Smooth Driving (as opposed to hard acceleration and hard braking), Speed Responsibility (with speeds over 80 mph dragging the score), Consistent Driving, Driving Time, and Time Behind the Wheel. Honda routes the data through Verisk Analytics, which scores it and feeds it back via the HondaLink or AcuraLink apps. Honda’s framing positions the system as voluntary, fuel-economy-coaching technology available on most Honda models from 2018 and Acura models from 2019.
What gets less attention in Honda’s framing is the second layer of data routing.
The Bigger Privacy Picture
In 2024 the New York Times reported that General Motors, through OnStar’s Smart Driver, had been storing similar detailed trip-level driving data in proprietary databases that insurance companies use to set premiums. After public outcry, GM dropped the program and replaced its trust and safety officer.
Industry coverage of the NYT investigation noted that Acura, Honda, Hyundai, Kia and Mitsubishi all offer driver-scoring features similar to OnStar’s Smart Driver, with the key distinction that those manufacturers require explicit customer opt-in before sharing the data with insurance companies. The Verisk pipeline that scores HondaLink data for the user-facing app is the same Verisk that aggregates driver data for the insurance industry.
Several commenters under the dealership’s video were concerned. "How much money and who is Honda selling this data to?" wrote Big Snuffy68. LumpyTaters wrote, more bluntly, "They sell it to LexisNexis, who in turn sells it to your insurance company so they can raise your premiums. Google it."
How Can You Disable The Driver Behavior Report?
The dealership rep is correct that the dealership can’t turn it off. But the customer can.
In the HondaLink app, the Driver Feedback feature can be toggled off in the participant settings: open HondaLink, select the vehicle, open Driver Feedback under the dashboard, then tap to disable.
Honda separately treats vehicle-level data sharing as a different switch, which needs to be turned off inside the car itself.
There’s some friction here. As Sherwood News documented in 2024, fully opting out requires downloading the HondaLink app, toggling it from inside the car rather than in the app, and accepting a persistent orange warning notification that remains visible while data sharing is disabled. Honda also restricts consumer data-deletion requests to residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia.
The Skit Versus The Real Feature
A handful of commenters caught on to the fact that the phone call was staged. "At least make the conversation skits believable…" wrote Big. It’s a marketing piece for the dealership, not a real customer call. But the data routing is real and the dealership is correctly telling viewers exactly where to find the off switch.
Motor1 reached out to Hall Honda Elizabeth City via TikTok direct message and to American Honda Motor Co. via email for additional comment. We’ll be sure to update this if either responds.
@hallhondaelizabethcity Sometimes, technology feels like a double-edged sword, doesn't it? A recent customer was shocked to find out her husband could see her 94 MPH highway sprints through the HondaLink app. While the Driver Behavior Report is meant for safety and fuel efficiency, it’s also a real-time log of every aggressive brake. The dealership can't turn it off from their end, but the settings are right there in the app for anyone wanting a little more privacy. It turns out that some vehicle features are better discussed before the first test drive is over. Click the link in bio to learn more about the smart features in your next Honda! #HondaPilot #CarTech #RelationshipDrama #ElizabethCityNC #FamilySUV ♬ original sound - HallHondaElizabethCity
