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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

#441

Post by bigfatkitten »

stavros wrote: post #299
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…

Cut the antenna on the modem?

On a modern Ford, just pull the fuse for the TCU. Everything else keeps working as it always did.

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

#442

Post by bigfatkitten »

_huayra_ wrote: post #337
ddingus wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends doesn't it? I keep my cars for a long time. 200k miles is the usual, and that has held true buying used a little ways north of 100k miles already on the board. If we designed for very long car life, the waste equation would look different. Toyota does, and there are a small number of people planning on half a million miles. Recently there is evidence Toyota is either struggling on this metric. Quality pr…

> Recently there is evidence Toyota is either struggling on this metric. Quality problems or deliberate design intent change? I'm hoping they fix this. There's almost no other reason to buy a Toyota other than this reliability reputation. It seems like the way to go now is a naturally-aspirated Subaru, which I ended up after all the Toyota dealers near me treated me like a chump (which apparently is common; Toyota do…

Subaru CVTs are not famous for their longevity.

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

#443

Post by risenshinetech »

This entire article is clickbait.

- Headline "My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch".

No, this is not a new car. This is a used car. Finding undocumented switches in a vehicle someone else owned is very common. People modify their cars all the time. Finding an undocumented switch in a new car would be wild.

- "And that’s how the search comes to an end. After a bit of perseverance I figured out what it is."

You literally took your car to a dealership, and the mechanic told you what it was. This ENTIRE ARTICLE boils down to this statement. You did the bare minimum to investigate what it was: took the panel off and confirmed that the wires went __somewhere__.

How does this get upvoted so heavily on Hacker News?

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

#444

Post by throw16180339 »

ajuc wrote: post #270
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…

Why are kill switches in cars bad? It's a vehicle that can easily kill other people. It often does. It's reasonable to require drivers to be in good enough shape before trusting them with lives of random innocent people.

I'm not against enhancing safety, but I have serious concerns about whether auto manufacturers can implement such a feature securely, reliably, and without leaving it vulnerable to misuse by third parties. That said, I would support mandatory breathalyzers in all new cars. While this idea is likely too controversial and complex to become reality, I believe it could significantly reduce fatalities.

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

#445

Post by steelframe »

My 2024 Toyota GR Corolla has a fuse that, when pulled, disables the Data Communications Module (DCM). It also disables the in-car microphone. At first I was mildly annoyed at not being able to make phone calls over a Bluetooth connection between my phone and the car's computer because of that, but the more I thought about it, I realized I was actually okay with the car's microphone also being disabled.

I often put my phone into Airplane Mode when I'm not actively using it, and I prefer to avoid the distraction of a phone call while I'm driving because I'm a terrible multitasker. If it's too easy for me to receive an incoming phone call when I'm driving then I'm too likely to do it when I really shouldn't.

In general I want as little data collection and reporting capability built into my car as is reasonably possible. I wish more auto manufacturers would make it as easy as Toyota did with the GRC -- and a few other of models, as I've heard -- to disable telemetry.

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

#446

Post by foobarian »

_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.

The only opting out I would trust would be to take a screwdriver to the cellular modem and disable it. Of course this would probably bubble up various exceptions so best way to do it may be to isolate the antenna, though that may not be 100% reliable.

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

#447

Post by foobarian »

slowmovintarget wrote: post #221
gr33nq wrote: post #15

At first glance this reminded me of some Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor models which had similar unlabeled buttons. One would disable all exterior lights, including brake lights, for going into stealth/surveillance mode. An adjacent button was used to be able to remove the key and keep the engine running, while preventing the car from being shifted out of park until the key was inserted again. I haven't seen…

I was astonished to learn that Ford no longer sells sedans (Fusions) of any kind. Neither does GM. I dislike SUVs, and it seems the only choices for American sedans are a Cadillac or a Tesla. Hondas and Toyotas are selling like hot-cakes, but when they had to compete on quality American automakers just decided to walk away from the market. So no need to worry about that feature on Fusions... they don't sell them anym…

> I was astonished to learn that Ford no longer sells sedans (Fusions) of any kind

It has been a very long time for Ford now. I was heartbroken when they discontinued the Fiesta/Focus ST/RS trims in the US, those were peak car models for me.

Story: when I was buying my Fiesta ST I did all the usual dealership prep tactics to avoid getting overcharged. I researched the dealership cost and all that jazz, and told the salesperson I have that much + a few hundred bucks which seemed a fair offer. They immediately accepted it and got me out the door with that car within the hour; I got the sense they were not selling well even back then.

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

#448

Post by soueuls »

risenshinetech wrote: post #443

This entire article is clickbait. - Headline "My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch". No, this is not a new car. This is a used car. Finding undocumented switches in a vehicle someone else owned is very common. People modify their cars all the time. Finding an undocumented switch in a new car would be wild. - "And that’s how the search comes to an end. After a bit of perseverance I figured out what it i…

Maybe because "My new car" does not imply that the car itself has never been used?

Just that it's YOUR new car.

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

#449

Post by behringer »

j-bos wrote: post #308
behringer wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also just not very nice. It is ok to be nice to people. Do unto others and all that. And before I get called naive, courts do look very favorably upon defendants that are nice.

It's not nice to stick eyeballs under people's vestiments. It's not nice to put hands on a stranger. Bad faith actions can be responded to without malice but there is no need to be nice. Non consentual cameras in a private dwelling are never good faith.

why would anyone leave such a system running?

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

#450

Post by 77pt77 »

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…

> GPS and eSIM that comes with most (all?) new cars and that in most (all?) new cars cannot be disabled.

I believe the name of that module is DCM

You can disable some models, but I have my doubts.

In rentals you can forget about it.

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