Ok, don't buy Volkswagen. Got it.
Also, don't buy "connected" cars. FFS, if your car features rely on an internet service provided by the manufacturer, you are just begging for these sorts of shenanigans.
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
549 points (97.4% liked)
Technology
85695 readers
4100 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
privacy-conscious drivers
company’s mobile app
Hmmm.
Is there Lemmy r/sipsTea ?
My car is staying dumb as long as possible it seems, I despise these tricks leeching into every new car these days.
Wonder if we can get that Faraday Cage color as an undercoat paint...
Germans can't write code. Enigma, dieselgate, audi ev's, my cla 2026 needed 2 days to update MBUX. Why do you think they planned this ? You'll be fine after zthe next update.
Also with the most recent update, the halo collar app no longer has access to Google satellite data IF you operate Graphene OS. I suspect Google is the culprit because the folks at Halo have no idea how to fix this bug
Judging by the error message: the map relies on Google Play Services (which, you can definitely install and run on GOS through the Graphene "App Store"). But installing Google bullshit kinda defeats the whole point of running Graphene. You could also revert to an older version of the app (if you had no issue seeing satellite imagery prior to the update).
weird. they are using mapbox which has nothing to do with google. maybe support just didn't want to solve your case.
I said long time ago that EU really needs to focus on opening up the platforms. Force app makers to support de-googled phones. Force car makers to support de-googled phones. You can't become technologically independent if you don't control the platforms.
Volkswagen of all people.
After this fuckup: https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2024/fahrplan/talk/Q8ZAV9/
They should be the last ones to deny anyone else using privacy preserving tools.
(Hint the player has multiple audio tracks, there is a dub in English)
Block it all you want fuckheads. Wont buy a volkswagen ever.
Need to being back the old ones. Make 1981 Dasher Diesels Great Again
FYI: ~~Slate~~ Scout Motors is a subsidiary of Volkswagen.
You sure about that? You're bot confusing Slate with Scout are you?
Whoopsies, my mistake.
Well damn, I've just placed a preorder. I'll keep watching to see how it plays out...
Pretty sure it’s not VW
Why they do this:
After the first three years, Volkswagen is charging ev customers €150/year to see the charge level on the app, remotely start the air conditioning, schedule charge and so on.
Any tinkerer is thinking "well, if I am paying this extortion just to see the charge level on the app, then I want to exfiltrate my data in home assistant or similar, getting better stats and so on"
So they blocked the API with Google play integrity signatures
Now, instead of spending money on engineering ways to block uncertified devices, they could have simply introduced an official API with rate limits and stuff.
The fact that they noticed all those "unauthorized accesses" it's prove that people just want to pay for a lightweight API access, not a 250mb app that takes 4 minutes to remotely start the air conditioning
After all, we're talking for €150/year for accessing the data of a €1 iot sim card using 0.0001€ of compute time. There should be enough margin for that.
Too bad the people in charge and developers of sensible mind are not the same people
Sorry if I ask, what does it mean to remotely start air conditioning?
Do you mean you can start it while you are not in the car? What's the purpose of such a feature?
It's a nice quality of life feature, you enter a fresh vehicle instead of scorching hot After being parked for hours in the summer sun. But I would never pay a €150/yr subscription for that, fuck them
On a hot day, cool the car down before you get in. Same for the inverse of wanting to heat the car up before you get in when it's super cold.
It's for when it's hot outside, you're leaving a store and you want it to be cool when you get to your car.
What's gonna happen to me if I don't use that feature?
The feds are gonna come and whack you
Nothing at all. You're just going to enter a hot car.
As bad as airing out a hot car is, it takes on a different need when its -20C and you need to thaw the car out before going to work in the morning. Much preferable to do that from inside.
All of this leads back to an old rhetorical question I've often asked. Why the fuck isn't the whole entertainment system and car connection just a standard touchscreen and communication protocol?
The fact that I need these proprietary patent-gated apps to use parts of my car, instead of just a driver that could work on any device with the right port, is overtly user-hostile.
Because the greed of corporations knows no limit. They sold you the (expensive) hardware, now they want to sell you the (specific, usually compatible but not really, and slightly buggy implementation) software. Can't do that with open specifications.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
view more: next ›