All EV currently sold come with cellular telematics - is it possible to opt out?

[Jin Kazama]

I've noticed that there's a big push for telematics with EV: All EV (cars) currently sold (and upcoming) around here either have a 3G (HSxPA) or a 2.75G (EDGE) cellular link.

While I do understand the advantages of this technology, I find it surprising that the only way to opt-out is to...dismantle the car and either unplug the telematics unit or the antenna - which would probably ruin your warranty...

It's not that I'm paranoid but I don't really like having any company/government the possibility to either track me, monitor me or even disabling my car remotely (these kind of "powers" have been regularly abused...)

Has anyone been able to unplug/disable their telematics unit without crippling their car?

 

[ElSupreme]

If you find the antenna you can just wrap it in aluminum foil. I am not sure but pulling the SIM card would probably work for your needs also.

I agree with you about being worried about privacy. But I carry a cell phone so I pretty much have no privacy.

When you do unsavory things: use a burn phone, pull the battery, and buy a used gasser off of craigslist.

 

[Mycroft]

If you have to say, "It's not that I'm paranoid", ...

You have to give Tesla permission to receive data from the car. IMHO, you'd be crazy not to.

Only Tesla techs could disable to hardware on the car and you would have to agree to give up the warranty in order to do so. They use the telemetry data to determine if the components are working properly and what maintenance needs to be performed.

INAL, but I'm pretty sure that it requires a court order to access the data without your permission. Perhaps after an accident.

 

[smoothoperator]

I've noticed that there's a big push for telematics with EV: All EV (cars) currently sold (and upcoming) around here either have a 3G (HSxPA) or a 2.75G (EDGE) cellular link.

While I do understand the advantages of this technology, I find it surprising that the only way to opt-out is to...dismantle the car and either unplug the telematics unit or the antenna - which would probably ruin your warranty...

It's not that I'm paranoid but I don't really like having any company/government the possibility to either track me, monitor me or even disabling my car remotely (these kind of "powers" have been regularly abused...)

Has anyone been able to unplug/disable their telematics unit without crippling their car?

you can turn it off

 

[Jin Kazama]

The thing is, you can leave the cell phone home/off (I mean, battery removed) if you want to...

I feel that telematics will soon be kind of mandatory (there's already an EU law: All cars sold from 2015 must have emergency cellular service - for your safety of course...) - and you can be pretty sure that soon vehicule will be taxed based on their mileage (through gps and telematics) and I'm not even talking about insurance yet...

Of course, if you're a drug dealer/terrorist/nazi murderer (pick your own bad guy), you'll be able to do whatever you want with your equipment, including faking location data, duplicating vehicle ID to make you appear where you're not (the kind of thing some "weird people" do with computer & cell phones nowadays) so I'm not worried about that.

The thing I'm worried about is that nobody has been worried about privacy for the past 15 years and for normal people, mandatory telematics is a step further into 1984...

 

[Jin Kazama]

you can turn it off

Sure - The same way you turn off cell phone that keep using the battery when off (ask the FBI )

 

[ElSupreme]

you can turn it off

Sure - The same way you turn off cell phone that keep using the battery when off (ask the FBI )

Yeah actually at work the other day this happened ... sort of. Guy leaves iPhone4 on table. It is stolen/taken. He calls it. It gets turned off. He goes online. Gets gps readout of where 'turned off' phone is. They watch it bounce around the facility. He gets like 7 people to help him look. After large search operation phone goes to break room and stops moving. Then they go online and find it in the break room. They look and can't find it. Then go back online and have the 'turned off' phone alarm. They find it stashed in the back of a drawer under a bunch of napkins.

I really think the only way to be undetected is to wrap the phone antenna or GPS antenna in aluminum foil, or rip them out.

 

[dsm363]

I think the saying is: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you"

 

[hcsharp]

Sure - The same way you turn off cell phone that keep using the battery when off (ask the FBI )

No. In the Roadster you really can turn it off.
Agree with Mycroft tho. What little downside you have from loss of privacy is more than overcome by benefits such as safety, better service, theft prevention etc.

 

[Mycroft]

Those who give up privacy for maintenance, deserve neither.

 

[Todd Burch]

Telematics aren't required to tax vehicular miles travelled. All you need is an odometer (check) and a required annual car inspection (already the case here in Virginia). And I notice they already mark down your odometer reading during the inspection. All that's needed is a law to tax miles travelled and the infrastructure is already in place to enforce it.

IMHO, I feel most tend to take these kinds of privacy concerns too seriously. Same with the iPhone story a few months back. So Apple had stored in some database a list of cell phone towers my phone was linked to. Big whoop. Unless you plan on committing a murder and are worried about evidence being used against you to pin you to the scene of the crime, who cares?