News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Future Fords Could Repossess Themselves and Drive Away If You Miss Payments. Parent comment

Re:Future Fords Could Repossess Themselves and Drive Away If... by zrobotics on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @08:30PM (#34977589)
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...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Future Fords Could Repossess Themselves and Drive Away If... by heavyset_go on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @10:58PM (#34978596)
Thanks for the info. I wonder if anyone's repurposed these radios/SIM/whatever for free 5G/LTE traffic.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Future Fords Could Repossess Themselves and Drive Away If... by tru3_power on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @12:56AM (#34979234)
How would that work?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Future Fords Could Repossess Themselves and Drive Away If... by Nextgrid on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @11:30AM (#34984219)
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.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Future Fords Could Repossess Themselves and Drive Away If... by giobox on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @01:31PM (#34986372)
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.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Future Fords Could Repossess Themselves and Drive Away If... by Nextgrid on Thursday March 02, 2023 @07:22PM (#35004032)
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.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Future Fords Could Repossess Themselves and Drive Away If... by giobox on Friday March 03, 2023 @01:58PM (#35013598)
> 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...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Future Fords Could Repossess Themselves and Drive Away If... by yencabulator on Friday March 03, 2023 @01:19PM (#35013177)
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.
[ Parent | on HN ]