Venomous Pony
Well-Known Member
With the TCU fuse removed will the car still collect and store this info?
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kilobravo
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Robert: I sure as heck don't know the correct answer to that question but I'll bet that someone here does.
That said, based on what I little I know about the industry and insurance companies, my guess is, you can stop the vehicle from communicating with Mother Ford but..
..there will be no way to erase the data in the "black box(es).
For many of the same reasons, those two orange things you see on TV after an aircraft accident have at least one counterpart under our hoods...a stick of non-volatile memory somewhere that holds a set amount of the type of info I mentioned above.
How much data and retained for how long, I don't know, but for sure it's more than enough to record any "insurance company desired" data during a serious incident with g forces.
If you think about it, what's the downside for Ford? Vehicle deficiencies? Pintos? Sure, that might bite the company once in awhile but I think we would all agree that the vast majority of accidents are not caused by the vehicle, regardless of make and model.
Why not get in bed with the insurance industry then, might be some money to be made.
Just my guess though.
That said, based on what I little I know about the industry and insurance companies, my guess is, you can stop the vehicle from communicating with Mother Ford but..
..there will be no way to erase the data in the "black box(es).
For many of the same reasons, those two orange things you see on TV after an aircraft accident have at least one counterpart under our hoods...a stick of non-volatile memory somewhere that holds a set amount of the type of info I mentioned above.
How much data and retained for how long, I don't know, but for sure it's more than enough to record any "insurance company desired" data during a serious incident with g forces.
If you think about it, what's the downside for Ford? Vehicle deficiencies? Pintos? Sure, that might bite the company once in awhile but I think we would all agree that the vast majority of accidents are not caused by the vehicle, regardless of make and model.
Why not get in bed with the insurance industry then, might be some money to be made.
Just my guess though.
kilobravo
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An interesting point Mik and roger on it being theortetical. That sort of thing is way out of my own wheelhouse, for sure. But honestly, while I completely agree that it is possible, I don't see a situation where it would help the owner.
If the car was undrivable after an accident, it wouldn't be possible to wipe any of the data, at least that's my uneducated thinking. Even so, you can't leave the scene anyway if the other wants law enforcement involved, assuming there is an "other."
And, I suspect that if the overwrite doesn't damage a component, seems like the system would just start recording again.
I wonder if folks like Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, Einstein, etc., etc., had similar experiences wondering about their own theories? Obviously WAY more important "thinking" but a similar concept. I'd bet they did and I wish I had the electronics knowledge that folks like you and so many others here, have.
"Good thinkin'" <smile>
If the car was undrivable after an accident, it wouldn't be possible to wipe any of the data, at least that's my uneducated thinking. Even so, you can't leave the scene anyway if the other wants law enforcement involved, assuming there is an "other."
And, I suspect that if the overwrite doesn't damage a component, seems like the system would just start recording again.
I wonder if folks like Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, Einstein, etc., etc., had similar experiences wondering about their own theories? Obviously WAY more important "thinking" but a similar concept. I'd bet they did and I wish I had the electronics knowledge that folks like you and so many others here, have.
"Good thinkin'" <smile>
drummerboy
Well-Known Member
I have no idea, but I could make a pretty good guess:
The sounds coming out of the RF meter also indicate the quantity of data being transmitted. For instance, you can easily tell the difference between transmitting a few KB of text vs transmitting a large video file. While I haven't looked at this at all, upon boot up the modem sent out a relatively small amount of data. I'm sure it's going to periodically send out the data it has (perhaps nearly constantly while the car is on, or in timed intervals, who knows), and GPS coordinates, speed, tire pressure, etc. are just digits, so we're talking about tiny amounts of data here.
All of that makes me assume that there is no reason the data would be temporarily stored in any location other than the TCU unless it gets its data from the black box.
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Caballus
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@Epiphany @kilobravo were you able to confirm this? Read the thread, but didn't see an answer. Thanks.
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Tomster
Beware of idiots
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- #100
Well, I don't want to get into it, but he is working on several approaches to the problem. I agree, until someone comes up with a software solution, I will approach it by pulling the fuse and swapping out the shark antenna for the low profile one.
I don't recall if you have a job 1 or job 2 car, but if it is a job 2, I have a strong belief that the TCU antenna has been relocated to the shark antenna and that is the primary means of communication. If you were to pull the shark fin antenna, the gps/sat radio antenna uses the blue cable. The black cable is for the TCU. I pulled my shark fin antenna and now the car is not transmitting or receiving. This makes me also wonder if job 2 cars have the other cellular antennas in the quarter panels. Again, my car is dark. All I did is pull the shark antenna. Simply put, switching to the round low profile antenna and leaving the black coax unplugged should defeat the TCUs ability to transmit or receive. I would further add that pulling the fuse for the TCU would get the job done.
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Tomster
Beware of idiots
- Thread starter
- #102
Well, not really. That tells me that your TCU antennas are spread out around the car. I believe the diagram shows the rear window deck, rear quarter panels, etc. So I would just pull the fuse for the TCU. Tob will be along soon with what he is working on.
Caballus
Well-Known Member
Fuse pulled. Never been able to activate the modem, because it's proprietary for AT&T. No AT&T here. Also, unable to use the nav. Although the GPS works, there are no European maps for this version of Sync3 and it seems unable to locate me in general. Still don't trust big brother though.
Caballus
Well-Known Member
I asked Ford and AT&T, and neither were able to provide a solution for connecting to a network here, despite having deals with several carriers. Where the deals come in is on phones that are on a US plan to begin with. Since mine has never been on an AT&T plan, they cannot initiate it from here (or don't know how) and as best I can find, you can't easily access the SIM. I am sure that all of the above could be done if they really wanted to. My guess is that 1) it's not worth the pain; 2) since the cars are non-exportable, they didn't even consider the possibility.
Edit: data access and sharing laws are much stricter in the EU, and Ford has to abide by the laws here vice those in the US.
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