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

Can I disable all data collection from my vehicle?

rivian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 367 posts

Re: Can I disable all data collection from my vehicle?

#281

Post by aembleton »

lstodd wrote: post #274
aembleton wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you disable telemetry in a new car. I have a 2022 Kona. It's the first car I've had with telemetry. No idea how to disable it.

1. get a _real_, unabridged service manual. that takes some darkweb experience nowadays. 2. identify anything that looks like capable of housing a cell modem. that takes some understanding of contemporary car electronics 3. deny RF interface to units identified. that takes some understanding what RF = radio frequency interface is and also getting rid of fear of disassembling significant portions of your car. All in a…

If I disable the modem, does that disable the SOS feature? Do I need to tell my insurance company?

Re: Can I disable all data collection from my vehicle?

#282

Post by throwaway132448 »

fainpul wrote: post #258

The user wants to "disable data collection ". The manufacturer offers only a kill switch for all connectivity , with all the unwanted effects (which they helpfully list). I've seen this pattern before. It's a lame cop-out. "Of course you can do that, but you'll have to accept all these negative consequences. There's nothing we can do about it. You brought this onto yourself."

Google loves this pattern. It's what pushed me away from them.

Re: Can I disable all data collection from my vehicle?

#283

Post by lstodd »

aembleton wrote: post #281
lstodd wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. get a _real_, unabridged service manual. that takes some darkweb experience nowadays. 2. identify anything that looks like capable of housing a cell modem. that takes some understanding of contemporary car electronics 3. deny RF interface to units identified. that takes some understanding what RF = radio frequency interface is and also getting rid of fear of disassembling significant portions of your car. All in a…

If I disable the modem, does that disable the SOS feature? Do I need to tell my insurance company?

That is the least of your troubles. SOS is the telemetry you wanted to get rid of in the first place.

And chances are you would have to get rid of 2/3 or more of oem electronics.

It'll end up a prototype vehicle or something, with custom ECU and stuff. On the bright side it will belong to you and not to the some mckinsey guys running those insurances and whatnot. It has been done too, although I personally prefer to just use vehicles that do not require this level of effort.

The other day there was a thread on unclouded tractors what I missed and I must tell I love my Universal 445 made in Romania in 1989. For all its quirks, it just gets the job done, no connectivity, no nothing, it's an unbreakable 3-cylinder diesel that just works.

Re: Can I disable all data collection from my vehicle?

#284

Post by Fnoord »

yason wrote: post #253
rmunn wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've only used Google Maps for navigation myself so can't speak to what Rivian does. But Google Maps uses Internet access to determine the speed of traffic on your route, allowing it suggest alternate routes if there's a traffic jam. (It also uploads the speed that you're traveling to Google servers, which is how they know about traffic jams to begin with: in many cities they could buy data from traffic cameras, but…

Google Maps uses Internet access to determine the speed of traffic on your route, allowing it suggest alternate routes if there's a traffic jam. My phone can pre-download maps into Google Maps for offline use, I've done this in foreign countries where I didn't necessarily have full data connection. There's no reason you couldn't cache the necessary maps on the car's navigation system and let it operate based on that…

FWIW, this was precisely my point (I didn't mention it well). I'm totally cool with a car not having live data (such as traffic jams) when the device is offline, but the navigation ought to function without networking. Heck, it could download the maps from WiFi at home. You guys do have WiFi at home?

Re: Can I disable all data collection from my vehicle?

#285

Post by Tangurena2 »

Loughla wrote: post #190
UqWBcuFx6NV4r wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assure you that “old cars costing as much as new ones” isn’t the result of the market force of people reading contractual fine print and/or freaking out about telemetry. Concentric circles of echo chambers over here.

I agree. I have never met anyone in real life that's concerned about telemetry on their car. They're worried about the cost of a new car, and the cost of all the electronics, should they go bad.

The Chinese government banned Tesla vehicles from entering (Chinese) military bases. This is due to the prolific number of cameras streaming live video to a hostile (to China) organization/government. One can find blogposts by analysts who show that the upload stream from Tesla vehicles includes cabin audio.

Re: Can I disable all data collection from my vehicle?

#286

Post by Tangurena2 »

porknubbins wrote: post #233
AlotOfReading wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, a vehicle with an outstanding recall technically isn't roadworthy, though consumer level enforcement of this is non-existent in practice. It's mostly enforced on dealers, who can't sell a vehicle with active recalls. The only way I can imagine it mattering to a consumer is if they sold it.

Doesn't being legally non roadworthy only apply to NHTSA safety recalls while there are other types of recalls for non compliance or manufacturer voluntary recalls?

Having worked (on the vehicle registration system) for a state agency that is a combination "department of motor vehicles" plus "highway department", there could be a case made that since your vehicle does not meet NTSB/DOT standards, that it isn't roadworthy and the best you could get would be a SALVAGE title. Which would require expensive inspections if you try to sell it or register it.

In Europe, car manufacturers have to show that their cars meet safety standards. In the US, car manufacturers only have to say/certify that their cars meet safety standards. This is the huge sticking point for Trump's attempt to force EU countries to accept cars that have not been proved to meet safety standards (it is portrayed as "unfair/uneven trade barriers" in the US media).

Re: Can I disable all data collection from my vehicle?

#287

Post by magguzu »

brokenmachine wrote: post #226
dylan604 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What ever happened to take it to a dealer or authorized repair place to have it done? While I may be willing to take certain things apart that, the one thing in life I have resisted is any kind of monkeying with my car. There are certain things where I'm willing to accept that I took it apart and it no longer works because I bricked it, shorted something, or otherwise damaged it beyond my skill set to undo. My car is…

The perfect modern consumer/sucker... My car needed another key. The stealership quoted me >$400 for it. I took it as a personal insult and did the research and ordered an OBD device and also discovered you can order replacement keys on aliexpress, and they'll even cut them for you with a good picture of your existing key. It was actually a fun project and very satisfying when I was able to successfully program and l…

Which I read this a month ago. Mazda dealer charged me $450 for mine. I figures the entire system is propietiary, so they can charge whatever they want.

Re: Can I disable all data collection from my vehicle?

#288

Post by windowsrookie »

dylan604 wrote: post #181
bri3d wrote: post #33

> limit or disable certain functionality in the vehicle: ... over-the-air updates, which provide new ... safety enhancements ... I wonder what happens if you disable the e-SIM (in the US) and then a safety recall appears via software update - do dealers have any way to update control modules besides OTA? This is a huge unresolved issue with EVs IMO; ICE cars are required to provide emissions-relevant updates over sof…

What ever happened to take it to a dealer or authorized repair place to have it done? While I may be willing to take certain things apart that, the one thing in life I have resisted is any kind of monkeying with my car. There are certain things where I'm willing to accept that I took it apart and it no longer works because I bricked it, shorted something, or otherwise damaged it beyond my skill set to undo. My car is…

There's really no reason to be scared working on your car. I have no formal training and I have never paid a shop to fix my car in my 20 years of car ownership.

The mechanical parts of a car haven't changed much in the last 25 years, and are easy to understand just by watching a few YouTube videos.

The electronics have certainly gotten more complex, but if you can understand basic computer networking and low voltage electronics it's still quite simple.

If you are interested in learning how to fix your own car, there is a great guy who runs an auto repair business on YouTube and his tagline is: "Remember folks If I can do it, you can do it."

https://www.youtube.com/@SouthMainAuto/videos

Re: Can I disable all data collection from my vehicle?

#289

Post by magguzu »

Spooky23 wrote: post #212
rootusrootus wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nothing about this has anything to do with EVs

EVs and luxury cars tend to have more fancy features that enable these issues than ice or hybrid cars. That’s changing as more advanced tech filters down.

This is the part that's seriously sucks. We need greener alternatives (current state of things especially highlighting that) and car dependency has crushed us, so instead of just giving us the basic EV most of us want, they've taken the capitalistic approach of giving us massive luxury cars with premium features often cloud-tied, that happen to also be EVs.

You can count the exceptions to this on one hand.

Re: Can I disable all data collection from my vehicle?

#290

Post by freeopinion »

Barbing wrote: post #243
porknubbins wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be a violation of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty act of 1975 which requires they show the work done directly caused the failure. If this were a widespread policy I bet class action lawyers would be all over it without you having to pay for it.

Maybe they researched customers’ backgrounds and only screwed the ones they thought wouldn’t lawyer up

This doesn't require research. Just reject by default and concede if a lawyer shows up. It doesn't cost any money to have a default denial policy and saves millions.
Post reply on HN