Model 3 Jailbreak. How to do this?

[Garlan Garner]

Wait a min.....we haven't even established that there is a jailbrake.

The OP's pics show standard Service Center screens.

 

[Kirby64]

All this sounds fantastic in theory but in practice it is not nearly as clear cut. When I worked in automotive I've spent countless hours with legal as an expert witness with Legal asking pointed questions about whether or not certain procedures "operate the system outside design specifications", etc.

And that's assuming that they do not just stop you at the service center or dealership level where they will charge you a $175/hr diagnostic fee and spend hours attempting to understand what has been done to your car, and the law does not stop them from putting up a high barrier to entry. They tend to back that up by stating that the modifications made to the vehicle software (an integral part of the service center workflow) affect the efficiency and their ability to run proprietary diagnostics on the vehicle. They could simply put you on a infinite wait list for a custom service center queue/procedure to work on your vehicle.

I'm not saying don't jailbreak your car, or if you jailbreak your car you're 100% screwed for sure, but all I'm saying is that this kind of top level read on the M-M warranty act does not have the kind of blanket protection you are hoping for. Car companies have plenty of experience dealing with the implications and especially in the world of modifying a predominantly software controlled car, I don't think the line is as clear cut as either side makes it out to be.

Sure, and Tesla seems like the kind of place that probably would try to screw you with diag fees and what-not, but there's some pretty clear-cut things that would still be totally fine. This is pretty close to modifying the ECU on a car. If you do that, you basically lose a warranty on your entire drivetrain since who knows what you could have done to it. Alternatively, if your door fell off ... well, they can't exactly blame it on any ECU modifications.

That being said, you have to be kind of stupid to bring a 'rooted' car (if it's obvious it's rooted) into Tesla for warranty purposes. Just like ECU modifications... the way to do it is to reflash back to stock, bring it in, and play dumb.

 

[xyxx]

@MountainPass is developing the Party Box which offers different traction options (for drifting, power slides, etc) - I'm sure they've got a tune they're working on that has not yet been made public

 

[moridin2002]

.. and loose because they would cover you up in so much litigation you would go bankrupt before having your day in court .. unfortunate but true

Tesla has to prove what you did caused whatever to fail rather than being a manufacturer defect. That's FTC's interpretation of their regulations which were created after the authority to do so was granted to them by the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act passed by Congress in 1975:
Auto Warranties & Routine Maintenance

 

[JerryMat]

There are multiple ways of jailbreaking a Tesla. I don’t recommend it. Don’t risk it just for a Few customization tweaks. As far as I know, Teslas jailbreaking community is nonexistent. Don’t try..

 

[BinaryOutlook]

Some of the early SOCs for Tesla (the Tegra chipset) had a well known bootloader exploit. For the Model 3, my understanding is it is an Intel chipset with no such vulnerability being publicly known. As far as the morality of rooting a car, or any device for that matter, it seems to me more of an issue that the device is configured such that you can't run whatever software you like on hardware you own. The question of piracy, or enabling features that have not been paid for is to some extent a separate concern. There are plenty of modifications that can be enabled with root access that don't touch so heavily on a gray area, such as adding new features, or patching bugs that the manufacturer refuses to acknowledge. It's also important to recognize that this sort of access might be required in the future if Tesla ceases to exist for some reason.

People seem to raise public safety as the reason this DRM to prevent the car from being modified exists, but it seems so much bunk when you consider the aftermarket that exists for every other vehicle out there.

Now I will admit I am in the minority, but I am the type of person who will modify every device I own. I firmly believe in ingenuity, and if something doesn't work the way I think it should I am dogged in working to make it work that way.

 

[focher]

So your saying you have the legal clout required to fend off Tesla’s legal resources? Good luck with that.

You don’t need the legal resources. In California and other consumer friendly states, a simple call to the Attorney General’s office will have Tesla tied up for violating the Magnuson Act. Those laws and regulations are absolutely enforced by government agencies.

It reminds me of the FTC’s cease and desist letters to Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo to stop putting “warranty void if removed” stickers on their consoles because those stickers aren’t legal.

 

[lowtek]

Just don't start hacking on the auto pilot .. that's all we need is home-brewed autopilots taking out a flock of nuns in front of a church ...

 

[adrianp89]

Tesla has to prove what you did caused whatever to fail rather than being a manufacturer defect. That's FTC's interpretation of their regulations which were created after the authority to do so was granted to them by the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act passed by Congress in 1975:
Auto Warranties & Routine Maintenance

Magnusson-Moss is great and all, but he is right. Even if they do break the law and just flat out say no, good luck fighting it. Finding a lawyer with experience in Magnuson-Moss is quite difficult, good luck finding another to go up against Tesla and with a consumer who hacked their car. Even with them having to deploy burden of proof, you are going to be $1,000s into legal fees and months down the road before you can even think of actually getting somewhere. If it goes to court? Probably years.

Calling the AG? They didn't do anything but give me a list of lawyers to contact.Magnusson Moss is not a state law, so a state AG won't get involved.

I tried using Magnusson-Moss from my boat, which is a lemon (no mods, no FL lemon law on boats). I couldn't find a single lawyer with experience. I had tons of evidence on my side, the one lawyer willing to take it on still wanted thousands just to get the ball rolling. Luckily the issue hasn't happened in almost year now, but even the manufacturer has $20,000 in repairs to the boat and still wasn't willing to budge when I threatened lawsuit, and they knew I would win. It just wasn't worth the headache.

 

[JamstationP85D]

There is currently a contest to see who can break into Tesla's software.

If these guys aren't even applying to get the $500k prize AND a Tesla Model 3...they must work for Tesla or something. Hack A Tesla Model 3 & Win A Prize — The Tesla Model 3 + $500,000 | CleanTechnica

I had my car worked on last year at the Service Center and they left my car in Service Mode when I picked it up. I went in and told someone that it was still in service mode and they cleared it out in 3 seconds....so it must not be difficult to enter and exit service mode. I'm sure Service Mode is not considered to be a "break in" type scenario....so....the pics of Service Mode must be a legit pic of someone affiliated with Tesla that is working on a car.

Hold down the Tesla symbol for a few seconds and type in service to get in and out of it. They did it in front of me because they left mine in that mode by mistake.

 

[DJVoorhees]

Good thing jailbreaking anything doesn't void the warranty. That being said, you're definitely at risk of being banned from future software updates over the air, supercharging network, etc. That would be my fear.

Ha ha ha! Yeah, hack or root your Tesla and see what they do for you.

 

[Kirby64]

Ha ha ha! Yeah, hack or root your Tesla and see what they do for you.

Whether or not Tesla wants to be obstructionist is their prerogative. I'm just telling you the law (at least in the US). If you didn't do anything meaningful (e.g., I just changed the background on my screen for some stupid reason), they legally cannot deny you warranty claims on something unrelated.

 

[DJVoorhees]

Whether or not Tesla wants to be obstructionist is their prerogative. I'm just telling you the law (at least in the US). If you didn't do anything meaningful (e.g., I just changed the background on my screen for some stupid reason), they legally cannot deny you warranty claims on something unrelated.

Hacking the computer controls on a car, is VERY MEANINGFUL.

 

[Kirby64]

Hacking the computer controls on a car, is VERY MEANINGFUL.

No, it's not, depending on what you do to it. This is just like rooting your phone. Sure, that technically could be used to destroy the processor by overclocking the crap out of it and overheating it... but also it can be used for stuff that won't damage it at all.

You probably have more ways you could break the car than you can break a phone, but it doesn't change the fact that there's PLENTY of stuff you could do that wouldn't damage the car's main bits.

An example: If I got into the MCU and rooted it, I could probably change all the icons so they display differently. Do you think that would do any damage to ANY component at all?