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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

#411

Post by floydnoel »

_huayra_ wrote: post #332
floydnoel wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Cybertruck is the only vehicle on the market that has drive-by wire. There was previously an Infiniti model that was partially drive by wire.

I'm guessing that car is "drive-by-wire" via the throttle, which has not been an actual cable in most cars for decades at this point. Steer-by-wire is indeed just the cybertruck at this point afaik.

electronic throttle body controls are extremely common, yes. but they don’t have any downside to driving feel, so i don’t think it would fit what the GP was referring to.

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

#412

Post by moogly »

Someone wrote: post #311
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…

> but the GPS and eSIM that comes with most (all?) new cars All. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECall : “eCall (an abbreviation of "emergency call") is an initiative by the European Union, intended to bring rapid assistance to motorists involved in a collision anywhere within the European Union. The aim is for all new cars to incorporate a system that automatically contacts the emergency services in the event of a ser…

Interestingly, everyone is actually scrambling to get the legislation changed or a replacement for eCall that works over 4G/5G before 2027 because 2G/3G is or is being shut down all over the place. Otherwise, technically, driving these cars could become illegal in the EU.

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

#413

Post by twobitshifter »

op00to wrote: post #306
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.

I love older cars and drove an early 80s Volvo until 2010 or so, but I also love side impact airbags, antilock brakes, and a car that mostly just “works”.

For Volvo, I know that the 850s were the first to have airbags built into the seats for side impact, and I think they had anti lock brakes in those as well.

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

#414

Post by Intralexical »

_huayra_ wrote: post #330
MaxBarraclough wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last year Mozilla did a study on the privacy of modern cars. Every car they tested showed terrible privacy problems. Privacy Nightmare on Wheels: Every Car Brand Reviewed by Mozilla https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37443644 ( edit I see I'm not the first to link this in this thread)

FYI for anyone who owns a Subaru: you can opt out of 3rd-party data sharing here https://www.subaru.com/support/consumer-privacy.html If you don't live in one of the states mentioned in the first paragraph, expect this to take a very long time. For me it took 6 months.

Uh… Can you also opt out of first party data sharing? Or is Subaru still going to be spying you while pinky swearing to at least not share it with anybody else?

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

#415

Post by jspash »

cyberbolt23 wrote: post #366
gcanyon wrote: post #310

Steven Wright: "I have this switch in my house that doesn't seem to do anything. It's in a hallway, so every time I pass it, I flip it: up, down, up, down...up...down. A few months after I got the house, a guy from Indonesia called me on the phone and said...'stop it'"

??

It's all in the delivery

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

#416

Post by chiph »

inahga wrote: post #336
b112 wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days, the better question is in which cars can you disable the esim. Some have a fuse you can pull for the modem, without disabling anything else. Others you can pull the antenna, and add a resistor instead.

In some disconnecting the antenna isn't enough, it just reduces the range of the modem. Another option is if the modem can be physically removed. e.g. http://sandsprite.com/blogs/index.php?uid=7&pid=462&year=201... . I think this head unit is shared amongst Chrysler vehicles, so Chrysler is an option (but then you'll have two problems).

A Lexus forum member went through several attempts to physically disconnect from the Toyota cloud and ultimately had to compromise on this, as the hands-free Bluetooth also went through the data communications module and they weren't willing to give that up.

The interesting part is that even though the antennas were disconnected, there was enough RF making it's way through the plastic sides of the module to give him 2-bars of signal strength. Wrapping it in grounded aluminum foil still allowed enough signal strength for transmission when they were very close to a cell tower. GPS signals were also being routed to the communications module over the car's network from the entertainment module (not sure why the entertainment module needs a GPS antenna or location data).

Ultimately they opted-out from data collection using the Lexus app and will rely on legal protections - in addition to disconnecting the antennas.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gx-2nd-gen-2010-2023/983214...

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

#417

Post by Forgeties79 »

kasey_junk wrote: post #391
Forgeties79 wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2024 to assume a company is not exercising virtually all the rights you’ve given them when you agreed to their terms and services - especially when they stand to make a ton of money doing so - is wild to me. These companies do not get the benefit of the doubt. I do not need proof to assume they are selling us to the highest bidder when they explicitly outline it in their terms and services and have done it time an…

Has Nissan sold this data time and again? Or are you again presenting an assumption as fact. I think assuming a company is selling your data is a completely fair one. But it’s also completely fair to ask that people don’t use language that implies factual knowledge to represent those assumptions. If only to make your argument better you might evaluate your comments and see how your language is weakening it.

At some point you’re just coming off as either way too trusting or playing the steel man. We clearly don’t see eye to eye here. My skepticism of the car manufacturers - especially the ones listed in this very damning report which includes Nissan - is warranted whether you agree or not. Feel free to sign on the dotted line. I won’t be convinced to agree to that nonsense.

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

#418

Post by throw16180339 »

ftrobro wrote: post #280
zfnmxt wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand your position (and it's one I'm absolutely swayed by to a degree and sympathize with), but I can't help but think that you are assigning unreasonable weights to privacy vs. safety/convenience. (Or, perhaps more honestly, I have to remind myself to be reasonable about these weights in my life.) Do you think preserving your privacy in this one aspect of your life will have a greater net benefit to your lif…

Privacy is a safety concern. If some government agency can control your car remotely, chances are that others also will find a way to do that.

This is especially true if you keep a car for decades. My car is a 2001 and I've had it since 2008. It's possible that a manufacturer could provide security updates for a comparable period, but that seems like an extraordinary claim.

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

#419

Post by twobitshifter »

p1necone wrote: post #211
_ea1k wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, its the same stuff that I've been told for decades now. TBH, it is probably less true with a lot of EVs than it was with the gas cars. ECUs are pretty strict and sometimes hard to hack. Meanwhile, third party motor controllers for Tesla motors exist, and the batteries aren't exactly magic. There's really nothing about electric drivetrains that makes anything vastly more locked down.

Yeah if the world went in the direction that prepper types seem to get wet dreams about petrol ICE cars would only be usable for a year or so - petrol has a shelf life, and you ain't running your own refinery. A lot of diesels can run off of any vaguely fuel-like liquid you decide to put in them, so I'm sure sufficiently knowledgable people would keep those running, machining parts for them etc. But electric vehicles…

You can make an ICE run on wood gas which is arguably more apocalypse proof than electric.

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

#420

Post by DennisP »

wrycoder wrote: post #112
mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The average electric car is a nightmare kludge. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41970406

That's not "the average electric car," it's just a Leaf. It doesn't necessarily imply anything about a modern Tesla, Lucid, or BYD.
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