Is it always connected or do drivers need to pay a fee for connectivity?

Always connected, no fee. Although the car (at least my 21) also offers a cellular wifi hotspot that appears to use the ATT network[0]. No clue what the monthly pricing is, I've never signed up for that trial.

I have the lowest spec, cheapest car Ford had available and it still has the cellular antenna. I checked, and at leadt on an ecosport the cell antenna is very easy to remove and doesn't impact functionality of the car. That being said, I did reconnect the cellular antenna since app-enabled remote start is a genuinely useful feature. I can warm the car up from my desk without having to walk within range of the keyfob, so I am accepting that bit of privacy loss.

[0] https://www.ford.com/support/category/fordpass/fordpass-conn...

Thanks for the info. I wonder if anyone's repurposed these radios/SIM/whatever for free 5G/LTE traffic.

How would that work?

Take out the SIM from the car's network interface module and put it in a phone/modem. If they're restricting by IMEI you may need to spoof that.

Do we think ford even bother with SIM cards? Lots of modern 5G devices have e-sims etc, much easier for the factory floor if SIM card can be loaded via software too. None of my families cellphones have physical sims anymore either.

In this case, take the modem chip itself. Most off-the-shelf USB/Mini-PCIe/etc modem cards use the same underlying chips, so you can just move the chip over which would contain both the eSIM as well as the original IMEI.

> you can just move the chip over

I can't help but chuckle at the use of the word "just" here. Sure, if we are now into reverse engineering hardware module interfaces and potentially desolder jobs on a (at a minimum) ~$20k vehicle, of which many features will stop working once you remove the module as well as triggering how many warning and service lights...

You're assuming that the traffic sent is free to be whatever. I could easily see telcos restricting this "5G for IoT" stuff to be just traffic to designated servers, with the more permissive hotspot use a separate extra service -- at which point, you're paying for it regardless of this hack.

Car connects free for itself, and loads navigation, traffic, location on app etc. If you want a wifi hotspot, thats $300 a year from ATT network 2ith 22GB fast speed per month.

Source: my car.

Cool, thanks. What happens if it doesn't have a connection with the cell network? Do those features still work?

No, GPS Shows a red circle & Line if car is far in basements or in downtown. No Traffic Data if no mobile coverage (although no symbols to show how much mobile coverage it has). App shows only last known location (& gas level, odometer, tyre pressure etc) from last point in time connected. Remote start & doors lock/unlock will not work if car is not connected.

My 2013 F150 periodically asks me if it should upload a “Vehicle health report”. I have always declined.

The idea of a vehicle repossessing itself does bother me. In the early 2000s I bought a vehicle from Mitsubishi, financed through them. At the time, setting up an automatic payment through them cost a monthly fee, so I set it up through my bank instead.

About 3 years later I got a call from them threatening repossession because I was three months behind on payments. I checked and every payment had been sent.

It turned out that Mitsubishi Motors East had transferred my loan to Mitsubishi Motors West, or something like that, and I had missed that. It was probably in one of the statements I never bothered opening.

Yeah what happens when someone gets out to pump gas with their child and phone in the car and fords automated repo algorithm decides is the optimal time to drive away.

Ford stock goes down 5%, media hushes it up

Everyone assumes the tech will be self driving, but it doesn’t need to be.

The repo man can just use the 5G connection to locate the car, drive to it, unlock the car start the ignition and drive it away.

This would work today just using the APIs all modern Fords already have.

There are rumours this already happens for some car models:

> https://tiremeetsroad.com/2021/03/18/tesla-allegedly-remotel...