Haha. You have an X. I have an S. They’ll be learning together on both of our cars!
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Tesla infotainment system upgradeable from MCU1 to MCU2
- Thread starter MurrayJimW
- Start date
Haha. You have an X. I have an S. They’ll be learning together on both of our cars!
whitex
Well-Known Member
It's not just the logs. Emmc is not like a hard drive, where each block or data lives in a specific physical location/sector. As you overwrite the information, your new information will likely go to a different flash block which has less wear (wear leveling), leaving your old information in place, just marking that region as free to the internal firmware.
Properly erasing flash chips is very hard. Unless the manufacturer provides this capability via the firmware, there really is no guaranteed way to do that. There are some different lesser levels or erasing, for example, if you simply write junk to the entire rated capacity of the chip, your old information probably mostly there, but in order to read it, the attacker would have to dig deeper into the emmc chip firmware. If you just did mkfs (what Tesla does), the files are gone, but your information is still mostly intact and readable via standard block read commands (and recoverable via readily available disk recovery software). The only way someone like Tesla can do it reliably without flash chip firmware support is to use encrypted filesystem, store the key somewhere where they know it can be wiped permanently - then erase is just losing the key, rendering the rest of the data unreadable junk.
As for how personally identifiable information can be used, there are many ways. For example, from GPS logs you can figure out when a person usually not home (good time to pay a house a visit, or steal packages), where they work, who they visit (good information to perform social engineering attacks, call you that your grandma is in a hospital, or call her that you are in Mexico in need of bail money or bribes, call you pretending to be your bank which they know you visit regularly, etc, etc). If someone is having an affair or is hiding some secret life which is exposed by GPS history, there is a blackmail opportunity. Your WiFi password, even if you changed it, may be one you used in other places, and the attacker of course will have your email address as well. Most people when they change their password, only vary by a letter or few, add a number, or similar easy to guess alternatives. Other info that is leaked too, like bluetooth pairing information. Knowing where you live an attacker could try to pair with your phone, use a zero day (or older if you don't patch your phone regularly, or have a phone for which there are no patches released anymore) and get a hold of your email and SMS, at which point they can could reset your website passwords including your bank or brokerage or crypto currency account which the attacker could empty after resetting the password. There is more, I'm just giving a sample of way how personally identifiable information can be used against you. All these example exploits require different amount of effort to execute, some of them might not be worth executing (while unless you are worth some decent money) but they do happen, for example there were some teenagers recently charged with draining people's crypto currency accounts to the tune of millions of dollars, all they did was target individual cell phones.
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mspohr
Well-Known Member
It seems every time I rent a car, the entertainment system comes pre-populated with contact information and GPS locations from prior renters.
I think most people just don't know or care about leaving their information lying around.
I think most people just don't know or care about leaving their information lying around.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
Ludalicious
Active Member
No. The MCU upgrade hasn't started in Canada yet. Thats what I was informed of a couple days ago. Hopefully soon though. I feel as if mine is going to brick soon
A HW3 upgrade is the replacement of HW2.0 or HW 2.5 chip by HW 3.0 (Full self drive computer designed by Tesla)
Ludalicious
Active Member
SailorDave
Member
I have a Tesla Model S from Dec 2016 and I was requesting the Infotainment and HW3 upgrade via the app. I did Not make much progress with my local SC as they kept saying I was not eligible. I called the Tesla main number and spoke to service and they quickly sorted it out and I now have an end of May appointment as we wait for parts. They said there was considerable confusion around the upgrade at the local level. Wanted to share this approach as it may help others with HW2.0 looking for an upgrade.
Silicon Desert
Well-Known Member
Glad you got your update and like it. I got a notification yesterday morning that one of my cars (2017 X100) is ready to be updated to HW3 and infotainment if I want it. Since I don't want to be among the first people to be updated, I told them I will just wait another month before coming down there. I got nowhere to go other than local trips anyway, so not that interested.
I got the same message and when I followed up with Tempe, they said it would be ok to try again in June. So a couple days ago I rescheduled for June 1, but this time in Scottsdale. Somehow someone in Tempe intercepted my Scottsdale appointment and cancelled it. They said I could try again in June. So I guess that means I can’t schedule for June until June. Nice.
Also I was again told they don’t have the kits in stock, which of course doesn’t seem to be any different status than the SC’s who are delaying appointments while they order the flipping parts. I guess AZ SC’s can’t order parts.
Those of you in the East Valley who have had Porsches probably have used Jack Doberspike’s shop for service/repairs. (I was a customer for 20 happy years.) Given the nature of Teslas and the newness of the brand, I imagine it will be many years before we will have such customer service-focused mechanics. I am counting the days.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
Rather than assume incompetence, did you ever think that the parts might not be available due to high demand and limited production capacity?
Familiar name (Doverspike right?). Which shop did he run? I used Zuffenhausen Motors with Ken Rosegay, who was super.
I'm waiting to see how many of those who ordered parts actually receive them this month. Still not a lot of installations happening on this thread.
whitex
Well-Known Member
It actually is less of an issue, as the next renter is unlikely to pull out the memory chip to copy all the information out. Pulling it out one address at a time using the UI is possible, but not practical. I'm not saying it's not a problem, just that it's much less of a problem than all your PII from your car being available for sale on the internet.
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Totally understand. I’m somewhat in the same boat travel-wise at the moment... Other than short trips for groceries, or a drive for my kids nap-time, the car sits in the driveway.
It was somewhat of a test to see if they would do it, & I was really get sick of super slow responses to nearly every command I tried. It really does feel like a different vehicle afterwards. My wife and I often just sit in the car while the kids sleep, so having Netflix and whatnot doesn’t hurt for our own entertainment.
If and when you decide to make the plunge, I think you’ll enjoy it. I wasn’t worried about their ability to install it... even if it took them an extra day to correct, I’m not going anywhere.
How long did the upgrade take? Did you have to leave the car overnight? Or even longer?
FYI, I was supposed to get my car back today, but there was some issue with the car communicating with the unit. They’re apparently working with engineering to fix it and I’m now supposed to get it back on Monday. They offered a loaner, but we’re usually stuck at home anyway thanks to COVID-19
I had a 9AM appointment, and I got notified it was done at 4PM the same day. They warned me it might slip to the next day as they hadn’t done it before, but it obviously didn’t happen.
I started getting notifications on my phone that the software was updated probably around 1PM or 2PM (don’t quite remember when exactly), so the actual install probably only took them a couple hours, & the verification to make sure everything worked took them a little time after that.
