SIM removal - how to?

[nuMach]

A thought occurred to me, one could sell/trade a vehicle that has been reporting, then the new driver operates it irresponsibly, and the original owner's insurance doubles.

I don't believe there is a reliable process in place to ensure 'stolen' data is attributed to the proper party, as the last used vehicle I purchased from a dealer had all the previous owners contacts, etc.

My last mustang, despite un-pairing my phone, and deleting contacts in the car, was still accessible by the ford app months later. IE the new owner never set-up the app. The dealers in both cases did nothing to assure privacy during the re-sales.

kind of the wild west out there.

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[Jeffvisor]

Allstate gets visibility into the miles you drive not what you estimate. I have several cars and asked why an older one was more expensive than a newer one? I generally report I use about 7K miles a year which is normally accurate my son who drives the older one did 12K miles he said even though I report 7K they saw I drove 12K, so my insurance went up.

 

[bbulkow]

ersonally I have nothing to hide. If they wanna find you they can. I’m not going to buy a car made in China (see Cadillac CT6 plug in) that may give me some concern.

Its not a matter of feeling like I have something to hide.

It's' about being exploited for the benefit of corporate greed.

I think it's more fair to say you don't trust Ford. They have options for disabling data reporting, and a few different levels.

If you are concerned about privacy, you'll also need to disable wifi. These kinds of systems are called "telemetry" and they create a log in the car, and when it gets to a network it uploads. Therefore you'll need to prevent all connectivity including wifi, simply removing the sim is unlikely to do what you want.

Especially since you don't trust that Ford doesn't have a back door of some sort.

I would suggest finding the antenna and detaching it. A little extra insulation (aluminum foil and paper) around whatever unit the antenna goes to would provide some extra insurance. You can test by using the "connect to wifi" and seeing that there are no networks visible. Not sure how you'd test the cell connect disable.

With connectivity disabled, you'd need to get updates from a dealer or probably get an FDRS account? There of course would be logs that you visited a dealer and/or used FDRS. If the car is at the dealer, they may reattach an antenna or upload various logs, so you probably shouldn't visit a dealer.

Removing a sim really wouldn't do much at all.

 

[bbulkow]

A thought occurred to me, one could sell/trade a vehicle that has been reporting, then the new driver operates it irresponsibly, and the original owner's insurance doubles.

I don't believe there is a reliable process in place to ensure 'stolen' data is attributed to the proper party, as the last used vehicle I purchased from a dealer had all the previous owners contacts, etc.

My last mustang, despite un-pairing my phone, and deleting contacts in the car, was still accessible by the ford app months later. IE the new owner never set-up the app. The dealers in both cases did nothing to assure privacy during the re-sales.

kind of the wild west out there.

If an insurance company is using invalid data to set rates, that's a major class action lawsuit and a report to your state's insurance commission. You'd probably make a lot of money.

You could also consider moving to a state that doesn't allow any insurance company to use this kind of data to set rates.

 

[Shepherd]

However far as I know phone aren't sending info to the insurance companies and providing warrant less responses to law enforcement about driving information. I have no idea how much of this is true, but some pundits feel it's already ongoing.

Haven't made a tinfoil hat yet (because buying one, it probably has spyware from China

Thought were there a simple way to 'cut the cord' , I'd be more than tempted.

I’m not being snarky here. The only way privacy as you want it will happen is if you vote for people who will pass laws, allowing opt out or restrictions or whatever. No corporation with data will ever ever restrict themselves from selling it.

 

[Shepherd]

Are you able to currently buy a non-modern new car?

Yes you can, sort of, from Barretts or other auctioneers who sell restored cars.

 

[Jerrytball]

Huh... That's an interesting way to do it. That seems unnecessary. Plenty of systems are capable of updating software securely downloading the updates from untrusted networks. Ford even signs their software updates and requires the ECUs to validate the signature to install an update.

This is where I throw in a dilemma question. So when I got in the car the other day check for software updates nothing and when I got to where I was going, I went to shut off the car and it asked me to reschedule or continue that I had an update now this was probably a half hour after I left the house so in the parking lot I just said install cause I was gonna be away for a while and it installed so I don’t know for sure but it sure look like cellular to me?

 

[Snakebitten]

Confirming that at least some OTAs do download over WIFI. 6.14 was a few gig, and here it is being downloaded on 9/18 for me over WIFI. mmota-cdn.autonomic.ai resolves to all the 3.163.125.x addresses listed below.

The actual files that FDRS downloads all come from the domain vehiclesoftware.ford.com
(or at least the FDRS log files record the URL for each file with that prefix)

Which the prefix resolves to a very different subnet than the ip's in your log snapshot. (35.241.21.x)

Having said that, OTA delivery of files could very well arrive from a completely different cloud source. Or so it certainly appears.

By the way, mmota-cdn.autonomic.ai resolves very differently for me. Non authoritive (A bunch of 18.160.172.x ip's)

Thanks for the post.
This stuff is interesting to me

 

[leehinde]

Haven't made a tinfoil hat yet (because buying one, it probably has spyware from China

But, you're so close.

Following concerns about car companies sharing data with insurance companies, I requested a printout of my personal data from LexisNexis.

The data they gave included nothing from Ford. And the data they did have was mostly incorrect or out of date. I feel for anyone making marketing decisions based on it.

 

[Babbit]

The actual files that FDRS downloads all come from the domain vehiclesoftware.ford.com
(or at least the FDRS log files record the URL for each file with that prefix)

Which the prefix resolves to a very different subnet than the ip's in your log snapshot. (35.241.21.x)

Having said that, OTA delivery of files could very well arrive from a completely different cloud source. Or so it certainly appears.

By the way, mmota-cdn.autonomic.ai resolves very differently for me. Non authoritive (A bunch of 18.160.172.x ip's)

Thanks for the post.
This stuff is interesting to me

Looks like Ford is using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) as you can see from the URL mmota-cdn.autonomic.ai. So, the IP address will typically change depending on your network (ISP) location. My connection to mmota-cdn.autonomic.ai resolves to 3.161.213.21 right now. Looking a little deeper you can see that the domain autonomic.ai is actually a Ford owned domain. If you do a WHOIS lookup at ICANN Lookup you will see that the domain is registered to FORD:

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

@nuMach, you can do so if you're determined to disconnect the car from connected services. The downside is you'll not be able to receive over-the-air updates. You may want to consider an annual or semiannual trip to your dealer to install missing updates or jump feet-first into the wonderful world of FDRS updating. You'll still need to stay informed of any critical updates that are released. The following post, in an unrelated thread, diagrams the antenna connections.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...eft-between-antenna-and-roof.8938/post-855170

There is a very long active thread that gives information on using FDRS. Start here:

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...uide-to-updating-your-mach-e-with-fdrs.10217/

 

[SonicBlue]

Curious if anyone has found a tutorial to remove the vehicle's SIM ?

First remove the entire frunk tub. Then locate the tiny little hole near the LVB, insert a paper clip and push.

 

[devmach-e]

Confirming that at least some OTAs do download over WIFI. 6.14 was a few gig, and here it is being downloaded on 9/18 for me over WIFI. mmota-cdn.autonomic.ai resolves to all the 3.163.125.x addresses listed below.

I see someone uses Cisco Meraki...

 

[Snakebitten]

Looks like Ford is using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) as you can see from the URL mmota-cdn.autonomic.ai. So, the IP address will typically change depending on your network (ISP) location. My connection to mmota-cdn.autonomic.ai resolves to 3.161.213.21 right now. Looking a little deeper you can see that the domain autonomic.ai is actually a Ford owned domain. If you do a WHOIS lookup at ICANN Lookup you will see that the domain is registered to FORD:

Thanks.
I aim to learn at least one thing everyday in my old age. Hoping it keeps me brain alive.

You fellas are making it easy for me today.

 

[Fixbear]

Allstate gets visibility into the miles you drive not what you estimate. I have several cars and asked why an older one was more expensive than a newer one? I generally report I use about 7K miles a year which is normally accurate my son who drives the order one did 12K miles he said even though I report 7K they saw I drove 12K, so my insurance went up.

No way around that in NY. Annual inspection tells MV what the car has been through. Insurance pays to come into MV at night to harvest that info.. Sell the car, you can't cancel the insurance till you turn in the plates.

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