[jamilbk]

I remember yanking out the onstar unit in my 2015 silverado to physically disconnect the cell antenna. This was (is?) the only practical way to disable cellular in that vehicle.

Kudos to Rivian for making this a supported user privacy feature.

[Brian_K_White]

Similar I got a new 2025 4runner last summer and...

A: never once installed the app or registered an account, which flummoxxed the salesman so much he argued with me for 10 minutes trying to say that I had to set up the app to even take delivery, even though I paid cash in full. He even cried to mama (the manager) to find out what to do about this impossible situation. In the end, of course you do not actually need to install the app, even temporarily just for a one-time setup, or even register an account. But MAN do they want you to.

B: Within a few weeks found that someone makes a kit that lets you completely disconnect the telemetry & internet functionality module while providing some pass-through connections that normally go through that box.

Apparently in this case all the bad stuff is conveniently in one box you can disconnect, and still have normal bluetooth for android auto, apple car play, or plain bluetooth headset & media. So still have gps & media on the console stcreen. I can only assume that this won't stay so convenient. They could have anything require anything else any time they want.

They do offer an official way to disable all internet features (remote start from your phone from any distance, remote vehicle monitor, tracking/shutdown, etc), but all that does is disable the useful functions for you, while not disabling any of the functions they use for themselves. It's still actively logging and uploading data, and they still have the ability to remotely track and even disable the vehicle.

I've been to the dealer (different from purchase) once for a free oil change and they didn't say anything. So idk if they even tried to do any updates, or they have some other way to do it or what.

https://www.autoharnesshouse.com/store/AHH-DCM77

[cj]

As someone who got into a rollover accident which ended with my car upside down on a freeway, hearing only the onstar person talking to me while half conscious, this is sad.

I do distinctely remember strongly disliking the user agreement I signed for the "internet connected" features of the car when I bought it. 100% rubbed me the wrong way and I couldn't' find a way to opt out, and I wasn't so motivated to physically remove it from my new car. Thankfully.

Shouldn't have to trade privacy for safety.

[yason]

There's absolutely no reason an emergency e-call system needs to connect via the car systems such as infotainment. It could be a standalone module that does its own thing regardless of whether the car is permanently disconnected from everywhere. Probably should too, given its nature. And not just could: there are aftermarket e-call systems that do not integrate beyond requiring 12V supply.

This is how cars used to be made. Features were standalone modules: there could be some bus traffic about optional data (wiper module with rain sensor could broadcast that it's raining and body control module could hear that and could be configured to close windows when raining) but they weren't strictly integrated in any meaningful capacity. You could change the radio unit to whatever you liked: if you were lucky you could get one that can actually understand what the other modules in the car were saying and show some non-enterntainment info on its screen as well. Navigation used to be a standalone system that had GPS receiver but nothing else in the car couldn't necessarily tap into the location data.

SUre, it meant some more wires and maybe the features had disconnects because they weren't aware of each other that much but all in all that was a good thing. It kept everything simple, isolated and repairable. Now because of more integration the modules need to know who they're talking to which leads to bizarre things like having to code in new headlights and pair them with other modules or they won't be recognized and just stay off.

[nancyminusone]

>Shouldn't have to trade privacy for safety.

You shouldn't have to, and yet...

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/01/...

[karlgkk]

> As someone who got into a rollover accident which ended with my car upside down on a freeway, hearing only the onstar person talking to me while half conscious, this is sad.

My phone does this now. Most phones do it now.

[xp84]

Maybe in theory, but I trust Apple to detect a crash correctly about as far as I can throw my iPhone without breaking its glass back or front.

This is the company whose flagship voice assistant, in 2026, can’t tell the intended recipient in a sentence like “Text Bob Mary signed the deal.” And if my phone happens to be thrown into the back of the car by the crash, I doubt anyone will be able to hear me.

Not to mention that OnStar has operators who talk to first responders. the cell phone thing will just call 911 and hope for the best.

I pay for OnStar, and think it’s worth it.

[FireBeyond]

> This is the company whose flagship voice assistant, in 2026, can’t tell the intended recipient in a sentence like “Text Bob Mary signed the deal.” And if my phone happens to be thrown into the back of the car by the crash, I doubt anyone will be able to hear me.

You can be using CarPlay to navigate at that moment to a destination, and because of the way my fiancee has Siri set up, if she says "Get me directions to the nearest Starbucks", Siri will say, "I'm sorry, I don't know where you are."

[martin_a]

Lol, same thing for Android, too. It has full access to my contact list, but if I tell it to "Call Stephan Beier" I see the transcript for "Beyer" and then it fails. That sounds the same in German, now what shall I do. Stupid thing.

[Terr_]

Other "it's the future year 2026 how the hell are things still this bad" examples:

1. For years "Navigate Home" has done exactly what you'd expect, then one morning it decides traveling to Home Depot is the only possible interpretation.

2. A bog-standard timed alarm goes off, and half the time "Silence Alarm" leads to it insisting that there are no alarms going off right now.

What stings is that these aren't issues with ambiguous grammar or unusual phrasings, these are extremely predictable commands for features I would expect in the minimum viable product.

[happymellon]

When they forced us to use Gemini as the assistant, saying "hey Google call X" stopped working because it came up with a list of phone numbers for them and I couldn't tell it "home" or "mobile" because I had to manually select.

That lasted about 6 hours before I figured out how to switch back to Assistant.

[willis936]

Why do you trust the car companies more? The premise of this discussion is that they cannot be trusted to act in the user's interest.

[xp84]

Why? Well, The OnStar product has about a 30-year history of doing its main jobs flawlessly. Also, it's a paid product and their flagship product. We exchange our dollars for the product they provide. Simple. Unlike Apple where these are ancillary offerings way outside their core competency.

And I'm OnStar have great margins, because it's basically an insurance product that most customers rarely if ever use. But it's an interesting insurance product because unlike say, car insurance, instead of a claim costing them $10,000-1,000,000 a "claim" costs them maybe 30 minutes of a call center agent's time. Great business to be in.

But all that works in my favor. It's a good deal for me because it might save the life of me or someone I love and I can easily afford it. And they have every incentive to preserve their reputation, such as by not replacing the operator with a chatbot who wants to offer me directions to the nearest Chevron™ when I've rolled off the road into a canyon.

[willis936]

Then it sounds like privacy reform is an existential issue to them. I look forward to them championing legislation.

[karlgkk]

Considering the problem space, and comparing your speech recognition to what cars have, I think you’ll find your onstar system is worse in every way

So for all of the reasons you stated, I’ve strongly come to the opposite conclusion

[booi]

sorry, I didn't find someone named "bob mary" in your contacts list

[xp84]

Yup! Or it starts a group text with Bob AND Mary saying “signed the deal”

[warkdarrior]

"I found this on the web. Check it out."

[reaperducer]

My phone does this now. Most phones do it now.

Only if it hasn't been crushed, damaged, or otherwise flung out of the vehicle that crashed so violently that it's actually upside down, as noted in the original comment.

[dghlsakjg]

The same is true of the cell phone hardware built into the vehicle that is crashed and upside down.

[Barbing]

Stress test your mounts!

[dmitrygr]

> As someone who got into a rollover accident which ended with my car upside down on a freeway, hearing only the onstar person talking to me while half conscious, this is sad.

Get an iPhone or an apple watch - they offer this same service with a more sane privacy policy.

[nullc]

They've fixed that in later models, disconnecting the module disables the dash now.

But don't worry, the FTC is out to protect you. Their settlement with GM says that can only sell your name attached to zipcode resolution location data and only sell your precise location trace attached to an opaque ID rather than your name.

[willis936]

I've reliably disconnected Toyotas and VWs by pulling the cell antenna connections from the telematics modules in the dash. The GPS antenna is separate and still aids in carplay navigation.

[nullc]

Makes it less likely to connect presumably, but at least on some cars it will sometimes, rarely manage to get out-- and of course it'll upload its queued data if it can. (In particular I know of someone where a GM car managed to get data onto the Lexis Nexis report with the antenna disconnected-- now with their FTC settlement its harder to tell if its still getting through, unfortunately).

Or if you take it in for service and they plug the antenna in. Better than nothing, but if your privacy and security depends on not being constantly tracked it's not good enough.

[slumberlust]

How did you confirm this? I believe you think you did it, but is there any way to confirm its not still sending via another module?

[willis936]

I have the service manual and can see there is only one telematics module in the car. It has two redundant LTE antennas and one GPS antenna going into the telematics module. The onstar calling works when the antennas are plugged in and doesn't when they're not. Can I confirm that they don't hide a bug somewhere in my car without stripping it down to the bone? No, but I'm not a schizo, so I won't bother.

[nullc]

That is a very reasonable level of diligence, but I don't think it's right to characterize further skepticism as "schizo" -- lets imagine the car has a separate entertainment system or sirusxm radio (perhaps not the case for yours)-- in that case it might have an entirely separate telematics function reporting back to a different corporate master. Because of how cars are built there are many places where subsystems are effectively duplicated. Sirus performing telematics in addition to the manufactures hardware isn't a hypothetical example.

More fair to say that you satisfied your level of concern. But it's entirely not schizo for someone to be concerned that there was more than one tracking vector, especially given that manufactures already active inhibit efforts to disable tracking and ordinary practices of the automotive industry.

Or, in other words, please don't privacy shame people. If you felt your approach was sufficient-- awesome! Better to be nothing like the people who were others names online for asking about disabling telematics at all, only to be all shocked pikachu when their insurer jacked their rates later based on their driving activity. :P

[rurp]

Saying you need to physically take the car into them, unless you're in a country that requires them to provide the option, and disabling other features out of spite isn't what I would call a supported user privacy feature.

[dlenski]

> Kudos to Rivian for making this a supported user privacy feature.

Same. This is the first thing that I've ever read that makes me think I might be willing to buy a modern vehicle.