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

Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users

discuss.grapheneos.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 497 posts

Re: Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users

#311

Post by Gigachad »

winstonp wrote: post #243
aka13_404 wrote: post #31

This is sadly not even the full extent of it. What they did is, they locked their api entirely for anything that is not play protect certified. That means, all the cool stuff that was doable via community-driven projects is now dead in the water. The "app" they provide is 60% advertisement, 30% features, and I unironically preferred using a Home Assistant connection instead of of it for everything. Even for automatio…

Car apps, beside Tesla, are universally awful to use. Even Tesla's is not beyond reproach (app size is massive, for one), but at least it doesn't make me want to poke my eyes out. Apple should make a "Cars" app that's like the "Watch" app and let them standardize.

Why does a car even need an app? Don't they have a screen and internet connection on the car itself?

Re: Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users

#312

Post by theeyescanner »

hydrogen7800 wrote: post #272
nicce wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I got an offer from a dealer three weeks ago and was going to order the car, then the API for the community integration got turned off. I decided to hold back and see what comes from it. Now this, which ultimately - since I am a GrapheneOS user - makes me completely cancel my plans. Make sure that dealers know why you changed your mind.

>Make sure that dealers know why you changed your mind. "Some nerd couldn't use their nerd phone." What incentive does a dealer have to know or care about this?

Net Promoter Scores is the only thing that the marketing department cares about. So fill out that customer satisfaction survey, give them a 1 out of 5, and say why. Passives (2-4) are not even considered lol.

Re: Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users

#313

Post by theeyescanner »

moooo99 wrote: post #70

It is amazing how Volkswagen keeps messing up. I am currently in the market for a new car, an EV specifically. Volkswagen brands were at the top of my list for many reasons, among them the excellent driving assist implementation. I got an offer from a dealer three weeks ago and was going to order the car, then the API for the community integration got turned off. I decided to hold back and see what comes from it. Now…

Uh the driving assist is pretty bad for north american roads. I wonder if Germany has immaculately painted and well maintained roads?

My buzz loves trying to jerk the steering wheel when it can't figure out how the lanes work.

Re: Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users

#314

Post by lucb1e »

HybridStatAnim8 wrote: post #279
plqbfbv wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's no way to verify the integrity of the system, and any malicious app can just grab your banking credentials or enable criminals to unlock and drive away with your car. I get that Google doesn't want to be sued for failing to protect its users and indirect users of the mobile phones sold by other companies, but for advanced users there should be an option to update the signing keys used by the bootloader, so…

Note that Fairphone does not provide software updates for anywhere near as long as they claim, and using a modern device with 7 years of support, such as a pixel or iphone, will be far better in the long term. Fairphone is basically e-waste out of the box.

Somehow that stands in stark contrast with the many Fairphone users that I know use their device for many years. One of them uses it as their primary computing device, not owning something like a laptop because the Ubuntu Touch that runs on it plugs into a screen and keyboard and works like a desktop as well as a phone for them. I don't understand why the derogatory statement about that being e-waste out of the box when it obviously works great, at least for those willing to pay the premium for as-fair-as-they-can-make-it part sourcing

Re: Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users

#315

Post by sufficientsoup »

hydrogen7800 wrote: post #272
nicce wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I got an offer from a dealer three weeks ago and was going to order the car, then the API for the community integration got turned off. I decided to hold back and see what comes from it. Now this, which ultimately - since I am a GrapheneOS user - makes me completely cancel my plans. Make sure that dealers know why you changed your mind.

>Make sure that dealers know why you changed your mind. "Some nerd couldn't use their nerd phone." What incentive does a dealer have to know or care about this?

What incentive does a dealer have to know or care why a sale fell through? Bizarre question

Re: Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users

#316

Post by like_any_other »

this_user wrote: post #90
moooo99 wrote: post #70

It is amazing how Volkswagen keeps messing up. I am currently in the market for a new car, an EV specifically. Volkswagen brands were at the top of my list for many reasons, among them the excellent driving assist implementation. I got an offer from a dealer three weeks ago and was going to order the car, then the API for the community integration got turned off. I decided to hold back and see what comes from it. Now…

German companies, especially old school industrial ones like VW, have a very hard time understanding open platforms. The view everything through the lense of liability and compliance first. Their thinking is that if someone runs their app on a custom ROM and uses that to manipulate the app in any way, and that causes some extremely hypothetical damage, that they might be held liable for not having prevented this situ…

> The view everything through the lense of liability and compliance first.

Wow, so they must really want to avoid the liability of spying after their users and keeping all that data, and to be extra sure to comply with the GDPR, they must keep only the absolute minimum of data, right?

Wrong: https://www.theregister.com/security/2025/01/06/data-describ...

https://dailysecurityreview.com/security-spotlight/volkswage...

When a company behaves as your enemy, don't invent wild justifications how they're actually not. At least leave it to their PR team.

Re: Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users

#317

Post by FinnKuhn »

Gigachad wrote: post #311
winstonp wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Car apps, beside Tesla, are universally awful to use. Even Tesla's is not beyond reproach (app size is massive, for one), but at least it doesn't make me want to poke my eyes out. Apple should make a "Cars" app that's like the "Watch" app and let them standardize.

Why does a car even need an app? Don't they have a screen and internet connection on the car itself?

It's for when you are not in the car. E.g. notifying you the car has finished charging or to start heating in winter.

Re: Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users

#318

Post by martin_a »

bogeholm wrote: post #167
bojan wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I'll be in a market soon and I had my eyes on a VW i4 or a Škoda Enyaq, but this makes me seriously reconsider. I really wanted to support local industry and buy a European product this time, but they are making it seriously difficult (no, don't get me even started on Stellantis).

Mercedes has some interesting EV options, and they have some models at the moment that are not necessarily that expensive. Through the grapevine I overheard something about surplus production due to mandate to build a certain number of EVs. If you don’t want/need a new car, the used car market in Germany is pretty active with EQAs and EQBs.

Mercedes is terrible for EVs. Adaptive Cruise Control for example is a paid feature with a recurring subscription. Don't encourage "Car as a Service" concepts.

Re: Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users

#319

Post by Gigachad »

pmontra wrote: post #199

My 2016 car has the old version of Android auto. My phone has the new one, I think from 2019 or 2020. They are incompatible. Did I miss something by not integrating my phone with my car? I don't think so. I call with Bluetooth and navigate with the screen of the phone. The only thing I'm using is the mic and speaker of the car. The mic is probably substantially better than any earpiece I could buy, because I suspect…

That's the thing that gets me about all this car tech. The actual car will last far longer than the tech stuff will be supported. I suspect it's done intentionally to help phase out old cars faster by making them less functional.

I've begun rejecting any hardware that depends on some kind of external service. I won't buy anything that requires an app or a remote server anymore because they always kill the app long before the hardware is dead.

Re: Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users

#320

Post by martin_a »

techpression wrote: post #75
afarah1 wrote: post #36

Driving a rental car in Germany almost makes me cheer for the ongoing bankruptcy of their auto industry. It really needs a full reset at this point. Sad thing is EU law mandates for a modem in the car as well as intrusive driving aids that actually make driving less safe by constantly driving your attention away from the road[1]. So there is no hope to get a minimally decent car in Europe in the near future, unless a…

Whoever came up with the idea that the car should beep loudly even close to the speed limit has clearly never driven a car. The best way to silence it is to constantly be over the speed limit or well below.

Well, just don't drive fast than the speed limit and nothing will beep at you. Simple as that.

Positive side effect: No expensive photos will be taken, too.

Post reply on HN