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

What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

blog.koenvh.nl

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 525 posts

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#141

Post by akira2501 »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #20
gr33nq wrote: post #15

At first glance this reminded me of some Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor models which had similar unlabeled buttons. One would disable all exterior lights, including brake lights, for going into stealth/surveillance mode. An adjacent button was used to be able to remove the key and keep the engine running, while preventing the car from being shifted out of park until the key was inserted again. I haven't seen…

> … used to be able to remove the key and keep the engine running, while preventing the car from being shifted out of park … I’m pretty sure (not 100%) that new cars with contactless keys have this feature by default. You can get out (with the key) and leave it running, but the shifter won’t work until you return with the key.

Contactless keys and fleet vehicles do not go well together.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#142

Post by 6SixTy »

dylan604 wrote: post #137
6SixTy wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem with gathering data off cars is that it's really not that effective vs your phone. A car realistically just sits around doing nothing 80% of the time, while a phone is with you 24/7, likely powered 24/7, and already has telemetry mechanisms built in. An old car with someone using a phone probably still collects the same data as you assert. And an EV without smarts is legitimately just a golf cart.

> likely powered 24/7, This is a weird thing to call out. I'd suggest a car is powered as much as a phone. I'm trying to decide for people that have a car and a phone which is more infuriating to not have power.

Kill switches across the battery aren't terribly uncommon

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#143

Post by dylan604 »

tomrod wrote: post #120
madaxe_again wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not so. My mother bought a house in France in 1988. The previous owners had a mountain of stuff in the barn that they would come collect “soon”. 25 years passed. My mother started variously selling and disposing of their slowly rotting crap that they evidently were never going to collect, as she wanted to fix the structural issues with the barn, and their stuff was in the way, as it literally filled the entire ground…

That's a super dumb outcome for your poor mother. Abandoned property is just that.

Your mom should have provided them a bill for storage fees the equaled or surpassed €100k.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#144

Post by quailfarmer »

Etheryte wrote: post #57
mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does any of that have to do with a car being electric?

Electric cars are essentially black boxes. When you take it apart, you have largely no idea what any of the chips do, even if you chase down what they're connected to. Is this the infotainment system or is it the infotainment system and a data gathering system that sends all my data off seas? There's no way to know. Old cars don't have that problem. Here's an engine, here's a gearbox, add a radio if you'd like, but b…

They’re not black boxes, you’re just not an electrical engineer. They’re actually way simpler than ICE in a bunch of ways that really improve reliability. We just need to develop a collective understanding of how electric drivetrains work, the kind of understanding that we had developed in previous generations for ICE cars

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#145

Post by dylan604 »

ilikeatari wrote: post #47

So this was a gps tracker that was installed by a fleet and never removed. The larger issue is that most car companies in the US are reselling your data on newish vehicles (2016+) anyway. I am still amazed that this is not a larger issue.

Why? It is quite clear that the mass populace just doesn't care. That's the bigger story. So many people are quite happy giving away data that they don't fully understand or even want to take time to try to understand as long as they get free/discounted service/fees and use the same equipment to keep up with the Jones. Another study should be why otherwise smart people cannot come to terms with this.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#146

Post by clarkmoody »

afh1 wrote: post #25

The scary part is not the GPS installed by the fleet company that previously owned the car, which in all likelihood was just forgotten there, but the GPS and eSIM that comes with most (all?) new cars and that in most (all?) new cars cannot be disabled. Apart from privacy concerns of your data being used or sold by the car vendor, government outreach is also a concern. There was a bill announced in the US for all new…

Self driving + conversation monitoring => lock the doors and drive you to the nearest reeducation camp for uttering wrongspeak.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#147

Post by bluGill »

pixl97 wrote: post #32
afh1 wrote: post #25

The scary part is not the GPS installed by the fleet company that previously owned the car, which in all likelihood was just forgotten there, but the GPS and eSIM that comes with most (all?) new cars and that in most (all?) new cars cannot be disabled. Apart from privacy concerns of your data being used or sold by the car vendor, government outreach is also a concern. There was a bill announced in the US for all new…

The longevity of our car not only on how good you drive, but how bad others drive.

While not false, careful defensive driving makes a big difference. But most people hate someone cutting in front of them and so won't maintain large follow ng distances

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#148

Post by maccard »

JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B wrote: post #76
jhugo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless I would have carefully taken these down and put them in a box on the day I moved in. And then called them (or better, written to them) and given them a reasonable amount of time (maybe a couple months) to collect their property, making it clear that I would dispose of it after that time expired.

> given them a reasonable amount of time (maybe a couple months) to collect their property Why waste your own time with this? If it's your house, you own everything inside. I would put all the cameras in the trash and forget about it.

Doing that is illegal in many places. Here’s a decent summary in the Uk [0]

[0] https://jebaring.co.uk/involuntary-bailee-what-to-do/

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#149

Post by wrycoder »

quailfarmer wrote: post #144
Etheryte wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electric cars are essentially black boxes. When you take it apart, you have largely no idea what any of the chips do, even if you chase down what they're connected to. Is this the infotainment system or is it the infotainment system and a data gathering system that sends all my data off seas? There's no way to know. Old cars don't have that problem. Here's an engine, here's a gearbox, add a radio if you'd like, but b…

They’re not black boxes, you’re just not an electrical engineer. They’re actually way simpler than ICE in a bunch of ways that really improve reliability. We just need to develop a collective understanding of how electric drivetrains work, the kind of understanding that we had developed in previous generations for ICE cars

LOL, you should give it a try IRL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41970406

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#150

Post by bluGill »

snowwrestler wrote: post #81
josephcsible wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's not a gas vs. electric distinction, but rather an old vs. new one. Modern ICE cars have all of those problems too.

Yes but the point is, this technology is a blocker for people who might otherwise be interested in an electric powertrain vehicle. If you want an old car without all this crap, you can get one. But it pretty much has to be an ICE.

You can convert any ice car to an ev. I takes time but is straight forward
Post reply on HN