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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

#421

Post by Forgeties79 »

RobRivera wrote: post #405
Forgeties79 wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it matter? We can split hairs over whether or not they are actually doing the thing they give themselves the rights to do, but that feels unproductive and disingenuous.

YES!!!!! there's plenty of REAL privacy matters to address than to invent demons and then undermine genuine issues with 'boy who cried wolf'!!!

NO!!!!!

We can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time, and frankly I’m not going to wait to find out I got screwed. When it comes to privacy you have to be proactive, you can’t claw it back.

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

#422

Post by lawaaiig »

ninalanyon wrote: post #401
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If modern EVs are anything to go by, the battery weight will be substantially more than the weight of an ICE engine plus gearbox etc. But yes, it'd be for the hobbyist to figure out the details and whether it is safe enough to drive.

The EV version of the Hyundai Ioniq is only about 60 kg heavier than the hybrid version and at about 1 500 kg is not much over the average for cars of its class. EVs really are not a great deal heavier than the ICE versions of the same or similar vehicles. The Jaguar I-Pace EV is lighter than some variants of the F-Pace ICE.

Hyundai offers an EV version of the Casper: it's 1335kg vs 985kg for the petrol variant. Surely that's a great deal heavier? The Aygo finds an all-electric competitor in the Renault Zoë whose battery pack alone weighs 300kg, a hefty increase compared to the 70kg engine of the aygo. Volkswagen's up! comes in at 929kg; the e-up! registers at 1229kg.

Regarding the I-pace vs the F-pace I was unable to find more than a single version with a greater weight than the I-pace, though I admit I haven't analyzed the specs of all 108 editions. That single example weighing more was, of course, a hybrid.

EV versions are, primarily due to the weight of their battery packs, significantly heavier than their ICE counterparts and that's fine.

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

#423

Post by MisterTea »

Soon as I saw the round thing I knew it was an iButton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Wire

I have seen them on Home Depot forklifts. Lift operators have the iButton key fob to allow the machine to stay operating. Years ago I was with a guy who though the could load our truck himself, started the lift, alarm goes off and it shuts down.

Used cars can have all sorts of crap in them from mods or whatever. And who knows what abuse a used car has seen but this car was fleet maintained and GPS monitored so likely a good used car.

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

#424

Post by haswell »

brookst wrote: post #348
Forgeties79 wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it matter? We can split hairs over whether or not they are actually doing the thing they give themselves the rights to do, but that feels unproductive and disingenuous.

Yes it matters. Or at least it matters whether the claims you make are true, and there is a difference between “had a right to” and “did”. Have I told you about my neighbor who uses a leaf blower nonstop from 7am until 8pm? Well, he doesn’t actually, be he has a right to, and it’s splitting hairs whether he actually does or not.

> Have I told you about my neighbor who uses a leaf blower nonstop from 7am until 8pm? Well, he doesn’t actually, be he has a right to

While I think it’s reasonable to split hairs about whether or not they were actually collecting the data, I think this is a really problematic analogy for a number of reasons.

I think a better comparison would go something like this: “My neighbor told me he might record everything that happens in my back yard”.

Your neighbor having the right to run his leaf blower constantly isn’t analogous to your neighbor directly claiming they might do something that impacts your privacy. Even if they never actually record anything, coming out and saying they might is more newsworthy than an unstated “right to be annoying” that never occurs.

It’s still worth distinguishing between “my neighbor said he might” and “my neighbor is actually doing this”, but just the claim on its own is still worth paying attention to if you care about your privacy.

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

#425

Post by Flozzin »

madaxe_again wrote: post #227
IncreasePosts wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how is there any record of what was in the barn, or how much it was worth, or either it has been stolen or collected by the owner any time in the past 30 years. I don't want to call OP a liar, but a lot of times when I hear outrageous stories like this the details are very different than what was provided.

Among other stuff, there was a bunch of Italian modernist art from the 50s-70s. It was literally decomposing in there, and my mother sold a few pieces at auction at about the 25 year point, which was then used as a reference point for the value of the collection as a whole, and as evidence that she was acting maliciously, that she knew the value of what was in there. The owner died in the early 90s - the folks who ro…

I'm really shocked that 'soon' can be considered 30 years. So you agree to store someones stuff for a short time, and then you are locked in for 30+ years? I thought america had crazy lawsuits...

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

#426

Post by snozolli »

milesvp wrote: post #86
londons_explore wrote: post #72

Most of those GPS trackers for corporate use require a data connection, which is probably costing someone $€£ 10/month for the line at least. Usually when you stop paying for that subscription, the line gets deactivated. So probably nobody is getting that GPS trace.

I work in this space, and I’ve seen advertised components (most likely SOCs) that had “lifetime” cell data included in the price, costing, on the order of, $50. It is becoming increasingly cheap to have low bandwidth cellular connectivity.

Can you post an example of one of these products?

I've been dabbling in this space and I'm having a hard time finding any data service under about $2 - $4 per month.

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

#427

Post by kordlessagain »

simonjgreen wrote: post #288
herczegzsolt wrote: post #287

More than likely an iButton reader to identify the user and a business/personal use switch. The switch basically does nothing, but tha state of it is logged in the tracking system along with the routes the car takes. In many EU countries you tax differently for personal use, so the switch is sort of important for tax reasons.

If you continued reading to the bottom of the article you would find validation for your hypothesis

The article doesn't specifically mention iButton or one-wire systems. It just describes a metal plate "to hold a magnet next to" that's connected to a fleet tracking system for driver identification. While this is similar to how iButton/one-wire systems work, it's not fact since the article doesn't confirm the specific technology used.

I have one of those buttons and readers from a project kit from a long time ago, and it's not magnetic.

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

#428

Post by Moto7451 »

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…

For what it’s worth a lot of the transmitters for in car connectivity are in the headliner lighting unit. A lot of electronics end up there like front facing cameras for driver assists. You can in my current Porsche, my past Camaro, and a couple other cars I’ve looked at just unplug the module there. Sometimes you lose your Homelink garage door transmitter.

If you lookup the repair procedure for the cellular unit you will have found the way to disable it.

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

#429

Post by rglullis »

samatman wrote: post #410
rglullis wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not about usage . I am not saying we should live without cars. I am saying that there is a very bad systemic issue if people simply can not live without owning a car . If you want to make a comparison with utilities: The fact that people in Flint are getting bottled water delivered from distant cities (and the fact that some people prefer to drink bottled water anyway) does not mean that this is not a serious…

The Flint water crisis has been over for a very long time.

You understand this pedantry does not take anything away from the point being made, right?

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

#430

Post by b112 »

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).

That's why I said, add a resistor. It turns the energy into heat instead.
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