Hacker News

Removing the Modem and GPS from My 2024 RAV4 Hybrid

102 points by arkadiyt 2 hours ago | 32 comments

everdrive 7 minutes ago

The 2024 Ford Maverick has a single fuse for the telematics unit that you can remove without throwing a code or an error. No idea if this remained true after the 2025-2026 refresh, but worth knowing.

https://www.mavericktruckclub.com/forum/threads/telematics-f...

drnick1 4 minutes ago

Older Toyotas also had a DCM fuse, and this was the easiest way to get rid of telemetry. I am not sure if partially disassembling the dash and physically removing the DCM is now necessary.

nurple 50 minutes ago

> Even after the modem is removed, if you connect your phone to the car via Bluetooth then the car will use your phone as an internet connection and send all the same telemetry data back to Toyota. However, if you use a wired USB connection then it does not do that (see the discussion here and elsewhere), so I exclusively use CarPlay via USB.

The problem with this is that both carplay and android auto capture their own vehicle telemetry. So even though the car is not able to use your phone as a general data pipe, Google and Apple still get access to this data when you're connected.

They are both very cagey with how they talk about this (or don't).

everdrive 6 minutes ago

What about if it's just paired as an audio device rather than through an app?

drnick1 8 minutes ago

You need GrapheneOS to sever the link to Google. You can also deny specify apps and services Internet access.

zackify 46 minutes ago

I use android auto through grapheneos thankfully! this is crazy!

b00ty4breakfast 10 minutes ago

this sounds like donning a TNT vest to diffuse a bomb

andrepd 36 minutes ago

Can you clarify? Does it feed it bullshit data? Because android auto expects car telemetry data which it streams to Google's servers. Which is a big no-no for me for obvious reasons.

arkadiyt 37 minutes ago

In a perfect world they wouldn't collect it either, but I'd rather Apple have it than the car manufacturer (or rather, only Apple vs both Apple and the car manufacturer)

downrightmike 39 minutes ago

They are cagey because they get nearly $100k upfront with crazy interest rates, and then they make a ton of money through their spyware.

pfortuny 38 minutes ago

Honest question: what do you mean?

downrightmike 34 minutes ago

You pay inflated prices for the car and then they still steal and sell your data. This isn't hard to understand, same thing smart TV mfg do.

epicide 31 minutes ago

I think you mean "subsidized" instead of "inflated".

Rooster61 20 minutes ago

No, they meant inflated. Cars are quite expensive right now, and dealers are notorious for raking in cash through financing. If they were subsidized, prices would be lower to increase user base, as in the aforementioned dynamic present in the current smart TV market.

I think the inital point was that car manufacturers/dealers are double dipping through initial cost/interest AND data harvesting.

alext5 20 minutes ago

Both an high end tv or a car are expensive items where the manufacturer shouldn’t be making additional income on your personal data.

A free 55 inch tv supported by ads would be subsidized. A big ticket item price likely does not change even if it intrudes on your privacy and the manufacturer makes additional income on your data. In that sense it’s not subsidized it’s just greedy business practices.

Barbing 12 minutes ago

> Unfortunately I think it’s only a matter of time before the modem and GPS become more deeply integrated into the car (making this blog post infeasible), or cars have more drastic failure modes when the modem/GPS is removed, or anti-right-to-repair laws get passed to further clamp down on this behavior.

Guaranteed

venussnatch 53 minutes ago

What is the suspected method of Bluetooth communication?

Afaik phones do not share their internet blindly to Bluetooth devices.

max8539 35 minutes ago

Also thought about it. It’s possible, but requires enabling hotspot on the phone. Without it, it will not share internet via BT.

buran77 19 minutes ago

The author probably means CarPlay and Android Auto. In wireless mode they share the phone's internet connection. The adapter linked in the article is a CarPlay adapter, not plain BT.

fragmede 27 minutes ago

It would also require that my phone not show my car using the hotspot, when it does show my laptop, and also for my cellphone plan to not show that usage (I have limited hotspot data), which is theoretically possible, but now we're talking three companies having to collude in a totally undetectable fashion, which seems a little far fetched.

jeroenhd 28 minutes ago

Bluetooth PAN seems to work pretty seamlessly once you've paired your phone and set it up. It's possible some kind of "seamless hotspot" functionality is remotely activating PAN on a paired device.

bee_rider 5 minutes ago

Who’s responsible for presenting the privacy policy to passengers of a car, anyway?

p00ter 2 hours ago

There's going to be a lot of this going on in the future. RabbitLabs CAN Commander go BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

threecheese 36 minutes ago

I though this was just a crazy commenter, but here:

https://rabbit-labs.com/product/cancommander/

Crazy commenter, tell us a little about this. Can I use it on any Can bus?

dingdingdang 41 minutes ago

Excellent practical guide and pictures, if OP is around on this thread: well done! Your future self is going to appreciative too when this needs repeating at some point!

summermusic 23 minutes ago

I dread the day I will have to start doing this when the 2015 vehicle I have finally goes

java-man 56 minutes ago

Maybe two metal pins through the GPS and the cellular antenna coaxial cables would do the trick?

foobarian 46 minutes ago

You would be surprised how leaky RF can be and how hard to completely suppress. There is a reason things like anechoic chambers and test labs are very expensive.

java-man 37 minutes ago

Leaky - possibly, but we are dealing with the real world where you have plenty of background noise. The cell tower will likely fail to receive the signal.

kevin_thibedeau 43 minutes ago

You just need to cap the connectors with a terminator.

java-man 39 minutes ago

It might easier to find the cable than disassemble the car to get to the terminals.

TheChaplain 5 minutes ago

[dead]

aframemodular 24 minutes ago

Great guide! After getting to the end, I had no idea what AirPlay was so I looked it up... bro, all this effort to avoid telemetry and you are using an iPhone XD