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.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
    20·
    4 days ago

    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.
    • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
      11·
      4 days ago

      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?

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
        9·
        4 days ago

        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.

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
          6·
          4 days ago

          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.

          • 50MYT@lemmy.world
            2·
            4 days ago

            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.