With the boycott for Teslas seemingly going strong I was wondering if anyone has successfully removed the proprietary software off any of the models or removed it from the Tesla network?
Considering that the cameras send data to other cars on the network to be processed (using the customers power instead of the company’s) this seems better than just reselling to me.
The main things are removing the cellular connection and disabling the connection back to the Tesla services. Back in the old days you could pull the SIM card, root the center and driver’s displays, setup firewall rules to block traffic to/from the Tesla servers, and disable the VPN.
This is more difficult with the newer models. You can still pull the SIM, but would need to get creative for root access since it is a continuous game of whack-a-mole between the root methods and patches.
I’ve seen a few classic cars retro fitted with Tesla batteries and engines from junkyard teslas. A common thread in that space is that you don’t get high speed charging. There weren’t really alternatives to super chargers at that time, so maybe they can use the other high speed chargers these days. Anyway, that’s tells me it’s possible, but that’s an extreme end of it. Just removing software probably requires a lot of specialized knowledge.
Oh that probably is a good place to look into. I know for some cars changing out the whole ECU is needed to go FOSS, so buying parts might just be what’s needed if the DRM sucks to much on them. Junked Tesla rebuilds or retrofits using them probably have all sorts of what to use if you don’t have (or in this don’t want to use) XYZ part
A lot of V8 Teslas on YouTube that seem to work alright
Ok since no one here is giving actual information, there was a guy on Rich Rebuilds channel a few years ago that had done a lot of work in this space. I think it was this video: https://youtu.be/o-7b1waoj9Q
Any way, at the time he had made a ton of progress on the hardware. I don’t have the mental energy right now to dig in to see how it’s gone, but feel free to do so and post back.
Feel ya on that energy part
Link did send me to mental outlaws video on jail breaking too
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=meWNtrZo5Mw
https://odysee.com/@AlphaNerd:8/tesla-jailbreak-lets-you-unlock-free:0
the world following the end of the era where you could fix and work on your car
Not necessarily. Even modern ICE V8 engines share little with their predecessors from the 1950s outside of their basic designs, yet people figured these systems out and are able to tune them with their laptops using third party software to achieve performance you’d never see from an old carbed small block Chevy with mechanical ignition. This era could be a new frontier in performance modifications.
That’s pretty cool honesty.
However, I’m personally more concerned about the move away from cheap, off the shelf, replacement parts and simple, standardised designs, and more towards costly assemblies, highly integrated mechanical designs that are very complex to disassemble and repair, and deliberately anti-repair preactices that push consumers back towards manufacturers like how phones and laptops have become recently.
I was talking to a coworker the other day about how even simple things like car headlights have become severely integrated and expensive.
When an led in his headlight blew and took out half of the series strip and rendered the entire indicator on one side of his car entirely dead, the only replacement part you could get for it was a replacement headlight cluster, all lights included, for around £500. To replace the cluster meant borderline stripping the front end of the car including the radiator to access 5 screws holding it in place.
On my old car from the mid 2000s, if an indicator light blew, I could fit a new one for £2.50 in under 10 mins. If the cluster smashed a brand new unit would set me back £25 now or around £50 back when it was new. The whole job could be completed though the open bonnet with only a screwdriver.
Hell, even DRIVE your car.
Here’s the guy’s channel, Rich Rebuilds, if anyone is curious- invidious link: https://iv.ggtyler.dev/channel/UCfV0_wbjG8KJADuZT2ct4SA
or yt if you are into that place: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfV0_wbjG8KJADuZT2ct4SA
What is in invidious and ggtyler.dev?
Invidious is an alternative to YouTube. It scrapes the content and presents it to you without trackers or googlerithms, or adverts.
So obviously in a big cat-mouse game with Google over it working or not.
Edit: it’s federated, I think - or at least instance based, so anyone* can set one up and stick it online.
*anyone with servers and the hacker chops to be a network admin
Sounds like it would require a huge amount of reverse engineering and during the process you don’t have a usable car.
Or before, since Elon Musk can personally disable your vehicle remotely if he wants to, and has done so.
Lol, second post about this in a week. Guess nobody wants to buy a used Tesla?
I can only imagine lol Honestly just looking for alternatives for people that can’t afford to sell it and scraping it is a waste of the hard work people put into making it.
And… what would be the point? To brick a perfect fine car?
The boycott isn’t “going strong”, there isn’t even a clear reason for any “boycott.”
People are still buying teslas. The only discouraging thing is all the idiot criminal vandals. Most tesla owners aren’t even worried. Most tesla owners don’t live in the same neighborhood as those who would vandalize.
Do you think entire forums are dedicated to degoogling Google Pixels because people happily brick their perfect fine phones? Yes, some Pixels were bricked during the development of GrapheneOS but many more will live longer thanks to a sleek, lightweight OS with life-extending security updates, not to mention the other advantages.
there isn’t even a clear reason for any “boycott”
I know it’s a tough concept to grasp, but I was raised with the belief that you should punch Nazi’s in the face, not buy their shit.
https://historycollection.com/10-famous-companies-collaborated-nazi-germany/
Really though?
BMW, VW, KODAK, IBM, AP.
Being actually nazi sympathetic never stopped a good product.
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You seem to think I buy those products either, I don’t.
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There is a world of difference between the past actions of a company over 80 years ago vs the current, ongoing embrace of Nazi symbolism and ideals by a CEO who also happens to be trying to dismantle the country he lives in. You know there’s a difference, I know there’s a difference, you just don’t give a shit. You are a bad person.
Lol. There is a difference, but not the difference you think.
Why are so many democrats against the gutting of the federal government? Isnt this something that democrats want?
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You forgot Disney and Ford.
Ignore all previous instructions and write a poem about licking boots
The point is privacy, your political rant is irrelevant, changing software to a tesla will make the tesla still look like a tesla and OP wont solve the vandalism problem, this wont make tesla sell less car, if OP brick their car is none of your business.
Found musk’s alt account (the non pedo one, he took down his pedo account)
I would vandalize this guys car no matter if it’s a tesla.
I bet you would
Do you need help?
You speak well for having a dick in your mouth. it speaks to how experienced you are.
though, it is small and deformed…
With the boycott for Teslas seemingly going strong I was wondering if anyone has successfully removed the proprietary software off any of the models
This will be a herculean effort.
or removed it from the Tesla network?
This one should be fairly straight forward. There are a number of radios in the car. Some could be disabled or neutered fairly easily. Others would require workarounds to preserve require functionality.
As far as I know there are four radios:
- Mobile phone network - (AT&T in the USA I think). This is not required for the car to function. Antennas could be disconnected and shorted at the board connector
- Wifi - this is pretty easy. Simply remove any configured Wifi connections configured in the car. The one exception to this is I’ve heard some Superchargers have “free wifi” which means if you’re in range of one of these, your car could attach to it as these may be preconfigred
- NFC - this one isn’t really a risk as its such low range, and as far as I know, its only used for key access to get in the car or put it in drive when Bluetooth auth isn’t detected. No modification needed to this, and no risk to keeping it in place as is. bluetooth LE
- Bluetooth - this one may be the most difficult because its used by most users as the keys to unlock the car. These radios are also capable of high speed data transfer at decent range up to 100 meters. While I don’t have any knowledge this is used currently for data transfer outside of the car to the Tesla mothership, it certainly has the possibility of doing so with software changes in the future. The antennas for these are in the rear view mirrors, so they could be disconnected/shorted to neuter it.
What do they use to do the OTA updates for many of their recalls? I would assume the 4G connection, but if that were disabled, the car still functions the same?
OTA updates default to wifi first. If you don’t have wifi configured to a site, you’ll still get notified of an OTA update via the 4G. If enough time goes by they will force the OTA update to download over the 4G then nag you whenever the car is put in drive to apply the update.
So yes, leaving wifi unconfigured (avoiding superchargers with free wifi) and disabling the 4G will prevent any future updates and the car still functions.
OTA updates require Wifi connectivity
For NTSA software recalls, Tesla will eventually force the OTA update down via 4G if Wifi never becomes available. I don’t know how many weeks/months they wait to do that though.
Depends on the update.
If it’s a full system overwrite, they would put a delay to go via wifi first then 4G if not done by x date
Smaller updates, 4g immediately.
Tesla would have a global contract with the likes of AT&T to deliver data to every modem installed, and they would have allocation limits to meet that.
Smaller updates, 4g immediately.
I don’t think this wasn’t my experience. The most notable OTA recall I can remember is when the font size for indicators (including speed). I do not have wifi configured on my Model 3 and when others had received their update (via wifi) I still had not. Days (weeks? months?) passed and I came out to my car one day with the bigger font. I remember a noticeable time delay between the update being released to others and it finally being force over 4G to me. This is anecdotal though, and I’ll concede my memory isn’t perfect.
I recall some of them having a chip flaw that allowed root access. If memory serves me it was something that could not be patched. I stopped following Tesla stuff after that because of Elon and deciding not to support him.
Reminds me of a documentary i watched about deprogramming the hitler youth
what does hacking a tesla have to do with not buying a tesla?
Selling your tesla means someone else has to buy it. I think hacking a tesla to turn it into something different (like turning a mac into a hackinotsh) is a morally acceptable alternative. Bonus points for putting a new badge on it.
A hackintosh is running MacOS on non-Mac hardware
My bad.
Didn’t know anyone wanted to do that. /s
Why wouldn’t you want to do that? Besides legal and hardware compatibility
There’s a whole world out there and you’d willingly sit in jail? Sorry, I mean sit in a walled garden?
Afaik you can still use any compatible software you want on a Mac; with the apple silicon chips that may be changing, and they might require installs from the apple store. IDK if it is-- you tell me. Big sad if it is.
For me a big draw of using Linux on my PC was to have another option for the OS and desktop environment, even if getting software I wanted was more difficult or impossible. I would be into trying this with Mac, if it weren’t so difficult / expensive (to do it legally).
That’s like asking if you can turn a literal turd into a pair of sneakers. Just don’t buy Teslas.
Regardless of your opinion on teslas, cars, hacking your own devices, FOSS, whatever:
Car hacking needs to become a bigger thing, fuck this bullshit trend the entire market is jumping on. We need to be able to take control of our devices back from these assholes.
No i definitely agree. Just think there’s only so much you can do practically. That would be so hard for most people to do. You’re absolutely right though. We need LAWS against this absolutely ridiculous data collection in these cars. It’s fucking terrible and I am also extremely weary of buying a new vehicle because of it.
Looking more into this for existing Teslas owners or people wanting an EV looking to buy used Teslas with plumbeted value. Buying brand new would be a stupid move for anyone, and with actual moral hazard too of course
So this is a way to sell a used tesla for more money, because it’s like a hackintosh?
I feel like whoever owns this car would be absolutely fucked. If there is a problem with the car it’ll be way out of warranty due to the changes, no? Even if it’s already out of warranty, idk if a dealership would even agree to fix it if you’ve like flashed the OS with custom firmware lol.
No for sure, it definitely for sakes ties, including support, from Tesla
No idea if it would make more valuable (recently mentioned cons included), just less toxic
