Mercedes was my car of choice for decades. Then a late model one decided to phantom brake twice and put me in danger. Never again. That's the kind of thing I would expect from brands with a different reputation. That doesn't say they are playing fast and loose with privacy, and if they do not then that's a point in their favor. But their software absolutely sucks and if that passed QA then who knows what else is going on.

Also: working in R&D doesn't necessarily give you insight into what operations people are up to and what kind of access they have to sensitive data. I've looked at plenty of companies in Germany and not all of them are lily white in this respect. MB may well be one of the better ones, I haven't looked at them in particular. But they use an awful lot of components from companies that have a less good reputation.

And then there was this:

https://dieselgate.legal/news/bosch-leaks

Which mentions MB explicitly.

They also had things like this happen:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/mercedes-benz...

I'll reserve judgment, but this is a less than stellar record from my perspective.