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VW breach exposes location of 800k electric vehicles

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191–200 of 317 posts

Re: VW breach exposes location of 800k electric vehicles

#191
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Expand this to any product. I should be able to use ANY product fully, without maintaining some kind of communication channel to and/or from the product's manufacturer. When I buy a hammer from Home Depot, I take it home and hammer with it. The manufacturer doesn't know I have it, doesn't know how many nails per month I hammer with it, how many swings it takes on average for me to drive in a nail, how often I use the…

Just wait.... "Your hammer has reached its monthly nail limit. Please upgrade to the pro plan to unlock an additional 60 nails"

I'm having a really fun time imagining how a hammer would physically prevent you from hammering a nail based on a subscription.

Re: VW breach exposes location of 800k electric vehicles

#192
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can convert an old car to EV. There are comoanies speciliazing in this, mostly to convert classics that needed a ton of maintenance. Expensive yes but might be worth it if you value your privacy.

How is a complete rebuild of a car your go-to solution to an easily accessible cellular modem powered through the fuse box

I agree it shouldn't be necessary, but its not like replacing a motor and drivetrain on a vehicle is some super rare thing either, and often still far cheaper than buying a brand new car.

Re: VW breach exposes location of 800k electric vehicles

#193
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you're taking to a bunch of old men shouting (literally) at clouds

Pulling a fuse in a car is peak old maning.

Peak old manning would involve locating all the information needed to be able to identify and remove all the components used to facilitate the tracking (or other bullshit that complicates vehicle ownership) and then following the documented procedures and updating other like-minded owners on vehicle forums so that everyone else can do the same.

In the process some forum threads would pick up hundreds of posts over a decade or more so that removal of every nut, bolt, screw, plastic plug, etc is documented with photos, allowing anyone with the vehicle to see exactly how to take ownership of the vehicle from the manufacturer.

True old-school old manning involves not only removal of all the bullshit, but also covers all cosmetic changes to the vehicle that would be needed to eliminate all signs that any of the offending components were ever installed and would include things like how to accomplish all the trim and body work necessary to permanently fill all the holes in the vehicle like antenna penetrations through the vehicle body and plastic trim mods to fill holes that formerly held buttons or switches that no longer exist.

In the process, old-school old manning would attack the software used in the vehicle, removing all the offending functionality with a custom flash tool so that the only software running on the vehicle after all the mods are completed would be that which controls and monitors engine and transmission functionality since that is actually the only software on a vehicle that adds value by allowing the vehicle owner to track operating efficiency in real time.

Re: VW breach exposes location of 800k electric vehicles

#194
As a former owner of 3 VW vehicles, it does not surprise me that they have skipped obvious steps needed to secure owner data. They cut costs across the board on everything involved in producing vehicles for sale in the US to the point where their interior plastics were half the thickness of competitor's interior furnishings and their wire harnesses used the smallest gauge wire possible to carry the loads expected.

Re: VW breach exposes location of 800k electric vehicles

#195
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wait.... "Your hammer has reached its monthly nail limit. Please upgrade to the pro plan to unlock an additional 60 nails"

I'm having a really fun time imagining how a hammer would physically prevent you from hammering a nail based on a subscription.

Handle has retractable spikes (digitally retractable mincers, perhaps?) to promote compliance.

Re: VW breach exposes location of 800k electric vehicles

#196

We need a way to disable vehicle telemetry. No, a software switch is not enough. We need to be able to physically unplug the cellular modem entirely and have the vehicle work with 100% functionality (barring features which inherently require cellular connectivity like turning the heating on remotely) Car manufacturers' features are mostly useless anyway thanks to Android Auto/Apple CarPlay

Instead, US senators will rail about the security risk of Chinese vehicles while refusing to provide competitive alternatives.

[deleted]

Re: VW breach exposes location of 800k electric vehicles

#197
post #150

We need a way to disable vehicle telemetry. No, a software switch is not enough. We need to be able to physically unplug the cellular modem entirely and have the vehicle work with 100% functionality (barring features which inherently require cellular connectivity like turning the heating on remotely) Car manufacturers' features are mostly useless anyway thanks to Android Auto/Apple CarPlay

Why would turning on the heating require cell service? If you’re out of key fob range do you really need to pre-heat the car? The only possible use of cell service is for infotainment and even that’s questionable in a world of ubiquitous cell phones.

Schedule heating etc through their app

Re: VW breach exposes location of 800k electric vehicles

#198
I had to opt in to this shit to get firmware updates. I'm very angry. This explains the laggy infotainment on my id.3 if these idiots were involved in its creation.

I can't seem to find a link to the leaked data. I want to see if I'm in it.

As per this guy, maybe I should sell my vehicle before VW is sued out of existence. https://www.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/1hnh3sg/c...

Re: VW breach exposes location of 800k electric vehicles

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My solution: Buy an old car...

modern cars are unfortunately much safer

To a large extent this depends on the car and depends what you mean by "old". Modern cars vs. 1970s cars? The older cars are completely hopeless. Modern cars vs. 15 year old cars? The older cars may have had things like ABS and side airbags as options rather than as standard, but you can find one that has them that doesn't have cellular telemetry.

Re: VW breach exposes location of 800k electric vehicles

#200
This is made worse by the fact that they created a really bad UX for their cars in the name of data protection (at least in Germany). Example: you have to accept the T&C of the online services with every(!) start of the vehicle. If you don’t press either the accept or reject button, you can’t enter any of the nav / entertainment/ … screens.

In the name of data protection, you are not even allowed to have two main users of the car. As a result, it’s either me or my SO being able to see the car‘s state of charge in the mobile app. It’s impossible for both to see it except you do account sharing

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