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[–] 198 points 10 months ago (24 children)

Back to the days of rip out the head unit and stick one in that does have the features you want?

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  • [–] 114 points 10 months ago (9 children)

    I imagine they’ll try to make this increasingly difficult; maybe even impossible.

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  • [–] 87 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    It already is for a lot of modern cars. Especially EVs. I imagine they are so tied into the functionality of the car that it makes the vehicle impossible to drive without the OEM headunit.

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  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    Couldn't a savvy user just find an exploitable firmware revision, never connect the vehicle to the internet, and install aftermarket software or hardware to bypass the authentication checks? It would be more of a pain in the ass than the previous drop in system, but I'd imagine it's possible.

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  • [–] 38 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Depends on how heavily things are locked down, and how much money this tech-savvy person is willing to risk on a bricked automobile.

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  • [–] 16 points 10 months ago

    The vehicle comes from the factory connected to the internet.

    You'd have to find the exploit before they do, and it would be hard to replicate because once they find out, the only cars vulnerable to your exploit are ones manufactured before the patch who have been disconnected from the internet (which is like 2 cars).

    It's theoretically possible but very hard to replicate. And on top of that theres always the risk of the car manufacturer voiding the warranty on your $50k vehicle and/or cozying up to your insurance company and convincing them any damage is a result of you preventing their systems from running as intended.

    It's a messy high risk low reward game to play. Better option is to just buy a different car if you can.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Right, but that requires somebody to find and document exploitable firmware revisions, create and distribute hardware/software to exploit them, develop the aftermarket software/hardware, and all that potentially separately for each car model. And then that just becomes a war with the manufacturers, who might try to update their firmware more aggressively, lock things down more, and threaten/sue people working on such things.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I doubt it will be completely impossible - we'd just be returning to a situation similar to game consoles and modchips - any aftermarket parts need to lie to the "authentication" checks in place first.

    I would expect that certain aftermarket groups would specialize based on popular models, maybe even prioritizing models designed to be interoperable with others design and parts wise (Subaru and perhaps Toyota comes to mind).

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    If it doesn't affect emissions those mod chips will not violate your warrantee - magnuson-moss was writen decades ago to protect replacing your factory radio. There are a number of other laws around third party access to car diagnostics.

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  • [–] 50 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I just had a little magnetic clip for my air vent where I could attach my phone and put up a map.

    I'd sooner go back to doing that than use a "Gemini-based AI assistant" in my fucking car.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    I'd rip out the touch screen SO fast

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  • [–] 26 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    And then lose control of numerous functions of your car.
    It's simply not an option in modern cars.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    That's the "why I can't do it" part.

    But if it was possible to get knobs and buttons for everything and a small-ish screen only for info, I'd take that. I'd pay for that. Touch screens are dangerous. I'd at most be comfortable to swipe on the screen to show different infos like GPS, temperature/airflow, music/radio. Otherwise I want buttons and knobs with little lights.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child)

    I 100% understand what you mean. I just bought a VW ID.4, and IMO they have a good balance. Everything needed for normal driving is handled with buttons, and although some are touch, they do have haptic feedback, and it works OK IMO.
    I was looking at the Skoda Enyaq, because it has traditional buttons and more things operated through them.
    But it cost about €5000 extra for the same features as is in our fully equipped ID.4 when used and 4 years old. But now I'm happy we chose the ID.4 instead of an Enyaq with fewer features. Because the ID.4 works way better than I expected.
    It's crazy and previously absolutely unheard of that the Skoda version of a similar car to a genuine VW is more expensive.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    And replace it with what? You can't just hot glue knobs on the center console and expect them to work.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago

    That's the "why I can't do it" part.

    But if it was possible to get knobs and buttons for everything and a small-ish screen only for info, I'd take that. I'd pay for that. Touch screens are dangerous. I'd at most be comfortable to swipe on the screen to show different infos like GPS, temperature/airflow, music/radio. Otherwise I want buttons and knobs with little lights.

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