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Comment by nwellinghoff | Hacker News Reader

Ok hackers. Tell us how to disable this crap. Surely all of this is easily defeated by removing the hardware that has the radio transmitter. Would love to see more technical articles on how all this stuff works such that it can be defeated or even better fake pumped.

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I killed the OnStar module in my old car by cutting a wire.

Willingness to violate manufacturer warranty is the #1 barrier. If you don't care, there isn't much to stop you from figuring it out on your own. Angle grinder will get you into anything. Just be careful with those high voltage systems in EVs...

I think technically they would still have to honor the warranty on anything not directly effected by wire you cut, but you would probably have to fight them on it.

Just like how warranty void if removed stickers are a lie under: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson–Moss_Warranty_Act

The term you want to search for is "Telematic Control Unit." If there's a fuse for it (or if you can remove it entirely), that should take out most of this stuff. I found this thread[1] where people reported pulling the fuse for it in a Ford truck and the rest of the vehicle still working properly.

In good news, if your car is old enough and came with a 3G transmitter, data transmission won't work anymore since most 3G networks have been shut off [2]

If someone knows of a wiki somewhere that lists the years/car models and what types of tracking they actually perform (not just what's theoretically in their privacy policy) that would be much appreciated. It would be nice to know if, when I get in someone's car, the conversation might be recorded and sent somewhere. Or which car models are sending the recordings of the cameras installed on the outside (or inside?) that can be viewed by the employees and shared around the office (not theoretical) [3]

[1] https://www.mavericktruckclub.com/forum/threads/experience-w...

[2] https://jalopnik.com/here-are-the-ways-shutting-off-3g-is-go...

[3] https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-workers-shared-sens...

Well in Toyota's, DCM modules were recently moved behind the nav screen, have to pop the dash and remove the fuse itself to cut power to module until replaced. There's videos on youtube to help, as well as included in car manual[0]. Before recent, DCM was clearly marked in the fuse box, easily pulled there.

[0] https://www.toyotanation.com/threads/disabling-the-dcm-in-my...

From what I have seen on my 2013 VW the antenna on the roof is for the satellite/gps/phone (up to 3 wires in it, mine only has 1) the antennas for the FM/AM are incorporated into the windows...based on the brief stuff I read on the internet.

So removing the roof antenna might do it...but then again it may render the system unable to start entirely (in the future it likely will). I suspect this is going to need to be reviewed on a car by car basis. And all of this assumes there isn't another antenna hidden somewhere else in the vast wiring loom (or on a pcb).

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