Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Right-to-Repair causes Subaru to disable telematics in Massachusetts

thetruthaboutcars.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 71 posts

Re: Right-to-Repair causes Subaru to disable telematics in Massachusetts

#31

Post by autotech »

aetherspawn wrote: post #14

> Subaru’s problem is that no such standardized system yet exists, forcing it (and eventually other brands) to have to nix its Starlink telematics offerings and related data harvesting. It does exist, it's called J1939 and it is popular already in trucks and non european truck-like consumer vehicles i.e. pickups. It also allows the effortless integration of aftermarket systems like F+R sonar emergency braking, traile…

J1939 or CAN is a network protocol many vehicles use for control module to control module communication. The “standardized system” you were commenting about is referring to access to the server side info. Currently manufacturers can pull telematics data like odometer, trouble codes and PIDs (data items like speed, brake status and very much more) which helps with service reminders and streamlining the repair process. Aftermarket shops are at a great disadvantage in this regard.

Re: Right-to-Repair causes Subaru to disable telematics in Massachusetts

#32

Post by brokenmachine »

rurp wrote: post #29

Somewhat related to this, I've recently been shopping for a new car to replace my current Subaru that I've had for over a decade. It's been a great car so I figured I'd get another Subaru but, man, some of the newer "features" have completely turned me off to the company. One is a system called DriverFocus that monitors the drivers face, runs some sort of facial recognition software, and alerts anytime it doesn't thi…

My current car is pretty old, but it had a really loud buzzer that went off if you started the car without the seatbelt on.

I never drive without my seatbelt, it's just automatic for me to put it on, but I often start the car and let it warm up a bit while I rummage with my stuff on the passenger seat or whatever.

I had to buy an ELM device and hook the car to my laptop and use some dodgy Russian software to disable that stupid buzzer.

I dread buying a more recent car because it seems they're rapidly adding more and more stupid, annoying, and privacy removing anti-features that you can't disable.

And touchscreens. Touchscreens have almost no reason to be in a car. Volume and AC control on a touchscreen, over my dead body.

Re: Right-to-Repair causes Subaru to disable telematics in Massachusetts

#33

Post by rootsudo »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #23
dmitrygr wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Predictably, manufacturers keep making this harder and harder. They make money from the data and don't want to lose that. In my old corvette, it was a simple as pulling fuse 27. In the 2022 model that breaks other things (compass, Bluetooth), so I’m going to go find the lte antenna connectors and replace them with 50ohm resistors whenever I have a free weekend next.

That's exactly the fix I want: Make it impossible for the software to know it's been disabled. It should behave as if the car is perpetually in a tunnel. I don't care if it stops maps from being downloaded--most cars have vastly inferior navigation software compared to phones.

That is a great idea, just make it think it's always in a tunnel.

alternatively you can flash the computer to basic trim or international models. On Ford, it's quite easy to remove.

But for Mercedes/BMW I doubt so, even 20yrs ago they had advanced telematics/telephone/sos that integrated nicely into everything.

One example: https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/disabling-fordpass... you can find more via good old fashioned car forums.

Re: Right-to-Repair causes Subaru to disable telematics in Massachusetts

#34

Post by lttlrck »

rurp wrote: post #29

Somewhat related to this, I've recently been shopping for a new car to replace my current Subaru that I've had for over a decade. It's been a great car so I figured I'd get another Subaru but, man, some of the newer "features" have completely turned me off to the company. One is a system called DriverFocus that monitors the drivers face, runs some sort of facial recognition software, and alerts anytime it doesn't thi…

My 2013 E350 MB monitors driver alertness through steering, brake and throttle input alone. And it's surprisingly good, facial recognition is not required. The only time it gets triggered is when I'm doing late night or very early morning driving, when you'd expect deteriorated attention - I don't feel drowsy so it's beeping is quite annoying but that's the whole point...

Re: Right-to-Repair causes Subaru to disable telematics in Massachusetts

#35

Post by jim-jim-jim »

advael wrote: post #30

I may never buy a new car again. Literally zero “smart” features that have ever been advertised in cars sound like a net benefit to my use case, but they all sound like a massive breach of my privacy and sometimes even autonomy. I support every law that makes this sort of telemetry and tracking harder - up to and including completely illegal - and don’t care in the slightest if it destroys the extant industry altoget…

Forreal. That's the monkey paw about the shift towards electric vehicles: every single one of them is going to be a user-hostile piece of shit.

Re: Right-to-Repair causes Subaru to disable telematics in Massachusetts

#36

Post by userbinator »

advael wrote: post #30

I may never buy a new car again. Literally zero “smart” features that have ever been advertised in cars sound like a net benefit to my use case, but they all sound like a massive breach of my privacy and sometimes even autonomy. I support every law that makes this sort of telemetry and tracking harder - up to and including completely illegal - and don’t care in the slightest if it destroys the extant industry altoget…

I've "smartened" my ~50-year-old daily driver with a bunch of electronics and various upgrades. There's plenty of options in the aftermarket, which you have complete control over. Or put another way, I'd rather have more smiles per gallon than miles per gallon...

Re: Right-to-Repair causes Subaru to disable telematics in Massachusetts

#37

Post by quantified »

danShumway wrote: post #28
maxwellb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

r.e. the state deciding for you - this was a statewide ballot measure, and passed with ~75% of the vote.

That's a good point -- even if you approach this from a very strict Libertarian perspective, this regulation is pretty definitively an outcome that resulted from the free decisions of the majority of people who chose to live inside the state. So I guess taking the traditional Ancap question about free markets, and reapplying it, it's reasonable to ask: how can regulation that is the result of people's free voting cho…

It doesn’t take much cynicism to state that the economy and politics are oriented to the interests of large business. Rare win for the citizens here.

Re: Right-to-Repair causes Subaru to disable telematics in Massachusetts

#38

Post by mayama »

rurp wrote: post #29

Somewhat related to this, I've recently been shopping for a new car to replace my current Subaru that I've had for over a decade. It's been a great car so I figured I'd get another Subaru but, man, some of the newer "features" have completely turned me off to the company. One is a system called DriverFocus that monitors the drivers face, runs some sort of facial recognition software, and alerts anytime it doesn't thi…

EU upcoming mandatory safety feature list includes driver attention monitoring system. These kind of features might be included in all cars going forward.

Re: Right-to-Repair causes Subaru to disable telematics in Massachusetts

#39

Post by maxerickson »

autotech wrote: post #31
aetherspawn wrote: post #14

> Subaru’s problem is that no such standardized system yet exists, forcing it (and eventually other brands) to have to nix its Starlink telematics offerings and related data harvesting. It does exist, it's called J1939 and it is popular already in trucks and non european truck-like consumer vehicles i.e. pickups. It also allows the effortless integration of aftermarket systems like F+R sonar emergency braking, traile…

J1939 or CAN is a network protocol many vehicles use for control module to control module communication. The “standardized system” you were commenting about is referring to access to the server side info. Currently manufacturers can pull telematics data like odometer, trouble codes and PIDs (data items like speed, brake status and very much more) which helps with service reminders and streamlining the repair process.…

J1939 is layered on top of CAN. You can have CAN that isn't J1939.

Re: Right-to-Repair causes Subaru to disable telematics in Massachusetts

#40

Post by monkeybutton »

rurp wrote: post #29

Somewhat related to this, I've recently been shopping for a new car to replace my current Subaru that I've had for over a decade. It's been a great car so I figured I'd get another Subaru but, man, some of the newer "features" have completely turned me off to the company. One is a system called DriverFocus that monitors the drivers face, runs some sort of facial recognition software, and alerts anytime it doesn't thi…

The manual transmission versions of their models are lacking many of these new features because they are not compatible. Its almost enough to make me want to learn.
Post reply on HN