Tesla Hacker Launches Open-Source Project 'FreedomEV' To Run On Rooted Teslas, Bring New Wi-Fi Hotspot and Anti-Tracking Features (freedomev.com)

Slashdot reader internet-redstar writes: The Tesla Hacker, Jasper Nuyens -- who uncovered Tesla's "unconfirmed lane change" last year -- now launched at FOSDEM an open-source project called "FreedomEV" to run on top of rooted Teslas. It adds new features to the vehicles, such as a "Hotspot Mode" for in-car Wi-Fi and a "Cloak Mode" to prevent all location tracking and more. It hopes to become available for other cars too. Full presentation video can be found here. The Github project and the website. He is looking for contributors and support from Tesla.

Comments

If i was an insurance

[xonen]

Now if i was an insurance company, i would call the insurance void for any car with rooted software.

Not because this particular software is so dangerous, but other software maybe is. That, and the manufacturer can no longer be held liable and/or the vehicle is not on the road as when in tested conditions that approved it. Rooting your car's software might have all kind of unexpected side effects. Even if it's only the entertainment system, in a Tesla that's still highly integrated with the rest of the car.

Now of course i'm not an insurance company, and i would prefer cars to have a full stack of open-source software, that the user could upgrade or change at will. But i do think there are legal issues that have to be dealt with, in case of an error, being it user or software or company's fault.

Re:If i was an insurance

[internet-redstar]

Now if i was an insurance company, i would call the insurance void for any car with rooted software

When you are making modifications to the drive train, or modify your car so it's value increases, you should report it to insurance. These things are different in most countries, but car modification, modding or tuning exists already for a long time. Advise for your specific region is certainly available.

It is typically focused on things which DO MATTER with respect to safety: changing the suspension, making the car more powerful and things like that. An insurance can't claim that the cause of an accident is because of an unrelated issue, and the cars are build to ensure that even a reboot of the entertainment system will not interfere with its safe operation.

That being said, insurance companies are not know for being reasonable everywhere. And this FreedomEV project is made specifically so it can be easily enabled and disabled. So you could - for example - insert the USB stick when parked at a Supercharger to enable Hotspot Mode. Of watch movies (when that feature gets added). Watching movies in a car is illegal in most countries unless the car is parked, and this can be easily checked by the software.

Cars where never before in scope for us as OpenSource enthousiasts, glad this is finally changing!

Re:If i was an insurance

[geggam]

Yet you can do complete overhauls of mechanical cars legally.

Personal responsibility is what is missing here. If you don't have the skill to do it. Don't

Re: If i was an insurance

[c6gunner]

I've always wondered about that. What exactly does "modified" mean? If I have to change my calipers and use non-OEM ones, is the car now modified? What about if a shop installs non-OEM shocks? Is that a modification?

The previous guy talked about even software changes to the entertainment system could potentially be dangerous ... how is that different than having a custom deck put in? Does the insurance company consider a custom deck to be a "modification" which can void your policy?

It all seems rather nebulous.

Re:If i was an insurance

[nnull]

Huh? People modify their cars all the time. Even the computer in cars. Why is Tesla all of the sudden the exception here?

Re:If i was an insurance

[phayes]

Changing the injection profile of a ICE car has a very circumcised impact and does not have the same security risks as mucking around the same computers that control the steering acceleration and braking on a Tesla. Do you also play with matches and wonder how people die in building fires?

Re:If i was an insurance

[Cmdln Daco]

Ooogy-boogy! It's software! It's magic! Mere mortals should not be allowed to meddle with it!

Re:If i was an insurance

[Cmdln Daco]

Tesla cars are Powerful. A non-Elon should never be afforded that kind of power!

Re:If i was an insurance

[Cito]

I actually went to pay my car insurance today at state farm. I asked about modifying vehicles and they have no rules against modifying. Also my state doesn't do emission inspection. State farm even insures golf carts here cause many many people in my town put blinkers and brake lights on a golf cart and use for for in town travel.

Not well thought out.

[Gravis Zero]

I'm not saying it's a bad idea but do you really want to be messing with your car using JavaScript, Unix shell and PHP? I know you're thinking, "but those are the most reliable languages!" and I'm going to have to disagree because that title clearly belongs to Adobe Flash and Microsoft ActiveX. ;)

Re:It's not your car

[AmiMoJo]

Tesla is shipping 100kWh batteries that are software limited to 75kWh for their cheaper cars. Would be nice if you could unlock the extra 25% capacity.

Will it Pass DMV Inspection?

[schwit1]

I suspect vehicle manufacturers will soon lobby state DMVs to fail the inspection of any vehicles that is running has non-manufacturer approved software.

It's for the safety of the children.

Legal in Canada

[davecb]

See Ghaffari v. Co-operators General Insurance Co., 1996 CanLII 8031 (ON SC), http://canlii.ca/t/1vtth, as retrieved on 2019-02-09

Re:It's not your car

[AmiMoJo]

You can just set the charge limit to 75% if you want to extend your battery life by the same amount. And yeah, I want it for free, it's my car and if I decide I don't need Tesla's on-going support I'll maximize its performance and utility for myself, thank you very much.