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I saw this article earlier:
Tesla 'going bankrupt' is endpoint of protests, says local organizer
In the spirit of right to repair, self-hosting, giving a second life to old devices, and limiting data collection by car companies:
- What are some considerations?
- Are there any projects worth keeping an eye on?
An example that came to mind was Valetudo, which is a cloud replacement for vacuum robots enabling local-only operation. Some robot vacuums are easy to install this on, and others require more invasive modifications.
What I've found so far:
First, second and third most important point is : Tesla needs to allow the connection to an alternative server.
The fourth should be access to the api and data that are exchanged.
You shouldn't mess with the FW of your own car even for some innocent feature like this one, you don't know/understand the interactions that may happen between different Sw components and the hw layer, you can not provide a similar of level of testing, including some worst case scenarios, that can make your car unsafe during some problems or unforeseen conditions. And perhaps also, the car could loose its license for driving....
If tesla allows that, then we can start speaking about it. But last time I check on that was not possible
That mentality is how we got here in the first place. A person should have a right to understand and repair/modify everything happening in devices they own. Because they don't, we get stuck in the shitty situation where Elon Musk can unlock any Tesla he pleases and I can't refuse to send my data to him. Or any other car manufacturer. Or tractor manufacturer. Or IoT manufacturer.
Mixed feelings on this. Yeah, you buy it you should own it. But if your ability to fuck with a two-ton rolling death machine puts my ass at risk, we've got a fucking problem.
I have some bad news for you - any random idiot with a driver's license and a two-ton death machine already puts your ass at risk, all the time. We call it "traffic" because we've just gotten used to it
I'm talking 'I disabled the awareness requirement of autopilot' or 'I fucked with the object detection and here goes my beta test yolo' or 'I added a button to disable all the lights so I can covertly street race' or...
And? People can already do this with most cars.
There's a difference between 'physical work required' and 'plug in this dongle and run the exe' though
Imagine thinking Tesla has all-that-much in place to prevent those things in a stock configuration. Full-stop, any self-driving is one of the first features anyone trying to disconnect their cars from Tesla servers would lose outright.
Ehh doubt, but I don't have a tesla to verify. If I can sever the connection to the home base, I can fuck with it however I want, and their kill switch is useless. Maybe they implemented the kill switch in the modem or something, but again I can't test. I highly doubt that when you're road-tripping in bumfuck nowhere the ap disables itself...
Anybody want to give me $40k? We can be besties.
Have you never heard of tunes?
Any idiot can make substantial software changes to almost any modern car with easily available inexpensive hardware. Look up Cobb, ECUtek, openflashtablet, Hondata, etc
You literally just plug it into a port and flash the software
See above nested comment; tune aren't inherently a safety concern.
It is not comparable, not even by far.
Assuming your are not a psycho, to safely drive a car is orders of magnitude (in plural) easier than modifying the Sw in a safe and deterministic way.
It is not only that bad people exists, it is about that making a small mistake can kill you
Nothing has stopped people with ice vehicles.
People fuck with two ton rolling death machines every day. What are mechanics? What are car enthusiasts? You just have accepted that you can't touch the computer because they told you you can't. That's stupid.
See above nested comment
Then don't buy tesla, or force legislation about introducing such feature.
But make yourself a favor and don't play Russian roulette with something that you can not understandbecause there are not data available.
And for final tip, if you really cares about that then enforce the fsf (fsf.org)
I agree we should legislate it! But in the US, that isn't going to happen, and the EU also doesn't seem to quite have enough teeth yet to do it.
And buddy, we play Russian roulette all the goddamn time. The people that modify their cars start off not knowing shit. Why would the computer in said car be any diferent?
Because the modification of that computer is order of magnitudes more difficult than a mechanical modification of a moving part. The humanity / regular human is able to understand much better the interactions of the mechanical parts that usually are always local and well defined.
This does not exist in the Sw, FW and digital hw, the interactions are not local and are millions timesmore complex to understand and properly modify.
It would be an utterly irresponsability to modify (blindly) the Sw of an xray machine that could make it unsafe and ultimately it could kill humans, and it is the same concept with the car. It is irresponsable to make a modification that can make the system unsafe.
For the rest? Regulations, free software foundation and good selfhosting Cheers
Yeah, the potential for real hazard to life and limb is very high here. This isn't like fucking around with your IOT lightbulbs. This could kill somebody.