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

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

#171

Post by fwip »

3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #88
staticautomatic wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IAALBNYL it’s not theft because they’ve been abandoned and are in the new owner’s possession. If the prior owner can’t be reached and the security company which claims to own them won’t take them, they’re probably fair game.

I do not see any way in which this property could still be considered the previous owners. Let's say the camera was in the bathroom pointed directly at the shower. You just have to suck it up forever, knowing that someone could be watching? In fact, I could imagine it being a criminal charge for trying to capture people in the nude. What if someone has a child who bathes there? Now they were trying to create CP.

Even if that were the law, you could disconnect the cameras or cover the lens.

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

#172

Post by hoistbypetard »

focusedone wrote: post #153
hoistbypetard wrote: post #10

> “can I get free data from the SIM card embedded in the device that I now technically own?” That seems like the next-most-interesting question now that you've determined what the device is. Possibly followed closely by "can I use that free-to-me data in a fun way that might teach the people who installed the SIM to deactivate their devices when they sell them?" i.e. Could you send and receive enough on the connectio…

I work at a place with LTE GPS trackers on fleet vehicles. Tracking boxes get moved from old -> new vehicles when possible. Otherwise the cell and tracking services are deactivated ASAP to avoid paying a monthly fee on an unused tracker. I'd personally be equal parts creeped out and curious about the hardware if that showed up on a car I bought. If it's a former fleet vehicle, its probably deactivated. The particular…

That was also what the sound made me think of, but I don't think the sound would've happened with deactivated hardware. (?)

But you're right, I don't think I've heard my phone cause that sound since I switched to an LTE phone.

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

#173

Post by jhugo »

vkazanov wrote: post #119
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…

Both times my, ehm, good friend bought a house in uk the docs included a very thorough list of things that had to stay, as well as things that HAD to go. Does England count as Europe?

Geographically, England is part of Europe, but regardless of the EU membership thing, UK domestic laws have always been very different from those in continental Europe due to very different legal histories. They aligned on the kinds of things that the EU regulates, but when it comes to something like property abandonment I’d expect them to be wildly different.

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

#174

Post by hnlmorg »

6SixTy wrote: post #91
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…

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.

> And an EV without smarts is legitimately just a golf cart.

Not really no.

There’s a gulf of difference between a car and a golf buggy.

And we can prove that by turning your argument the other way and saying: if that were true then ICE vehicles would just be petrol-powered golf carts.

Clearly that isn’t even a remotely accurate way of describing your average car

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

#176

Post by jfim »

brailsafe wrote: post #104
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.

> A car realistically just sits around doing nothing 80% of the time A bit besides the point, but isn't it wild how inherently wasteful personal cars are? Every time the thought crosses my mind to get another one, if I don't stop at the cost, I stop at the fact that I'll have this giant chunk of metal sitting idle on the street or somewhere else nearly all the time. It'd be useful in an extreme minority of cases (for…

Depends where you live, and how much of a hassle it is to get a rental car.

If you live somewhere with decent public transportation and good car sharing infrastructure (eg. walk to a nearby car share and unlock the doors with an app or a card vs Uber to Hertz and wait for an hour to sign paperwork), then yes that's a viable option. For many places in the US and Canada, that's not viable unfortunately.

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

#177

Post by BigGreenJorts »

hnlmorg wrote: post #174
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.

> And an EV without smarts is legitimately just a golf cart. Not really no. There’s a gulf of difference between a car and a golf buggy. And we can prove that by turning your argument the other way and saying: if that were true then ICE vehicles would just be petrol-powered golf carts. Clearly that isn’t even a remotely accurate way of describing your average car

I mean, besides shape and speed, what is the difference that most people are concerned about. I wasn't aware that golf carts are all electric. I just thought of a golf cart as a car used specifically to traverse golf courses and resorts.

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

#178

Post by 3eb7988a1663 »

fwip wrote: post #171
3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not see any way in which this property could still be considered the previous owners. Let's say the camera was in the bathroom pointed directly at the shower. You just have to suck it up forever, knowing that someone could be watching? In fact, I could imagine it being a criminal charge for trying to capture people in the nude. What if someone has a child who bathes there? Now they were trying to create CP.

Even if that were the law, you could disconnect the cameras or cover the lens.

What if it has microphones which are not so obviously obscured? I do not see why it should depend upon my technical acumen to non-destructively disable a surveillance device within my private space.

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

#179

Post by dclowd9901 »

don-code wrote: post #163
dclowd9901 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you here. I have an 89 BMW (which is old enough to have an actual servo motor attached to the intake manifold for cruise control) and an 83 Land Cruiser (whose most advanced feature is that it controls its emissions using vacuum controlled pneumatic circuitry). I'm very glad I've put in the time to learn how to work on cars because I have zero interest in the tech direction of modern vehicles.

87 BMW here. I believe my servo is controlling the throttle cable itself. When the cruise control commands the vehicle to accelerate, the pedal physically moves. It's not my daily driver, but I would absolutely love to one day get another one as a project car - one that's not in such good condition that I'd feel bad removing the engine - and drop an electric motor in it. That likely _would_ become my daily driver. Th…

Yep, you explained it better than I did! It's a really charming setup.

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

#180

Post by akira2501 »

javawizard wrote: post #157
akira2501 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contactless keys and fleet vehicles do not go well together.

I'll bite. Why not?

Loss of keys. If you expect the vehicle to be used by multiple different shifts then a lost key removes a vehicle from service unless you can reprogram it. Some cars let you program new fobs up to a limit then you need a dealership unlock to continue doing that.

Easier is just to key all the fleet vehicles with the same standard non chipped key. Then any key operates any vehicle which removes a ton of operational friction. When I drove cab we also just used fleet keys, but only because we bought old police interceptors, which also meant, our cab keys could open and drive police cars. Which is why police fleet cars sometimes have an extra interlock button or switch in them which disables the shifter so it can't be taken out of park. Similar to the switches in this post.

Vehicles assigned to a single officer may be different and will likely use the fob but the shift vehicles in a lot of jurisdictions just use fleet keys even today.

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