It's time to free our data! Open Garages/ffpass

[MarkTurner]

Ford has given me no option to upgrade my 2012 FFE's TCU from 3G to 4G and so I've been kicked to the curb. Needless to say, I'm pissed at Ford's disregard for customer service.

So now that I'm locked out. what is there to do? Could this be a blessing in disguise? A 3G modem isn't magic. APIs aren't magic. My car is my car, and my car's data should be mine. And though MFM was useful for some things, I have always thought the app suffered from a poor UI, reliability problems, etc. Perhaps a better mobile app than MFM is a possibility?

What if an effort was started, along the lines of Open Garages or FFPass to create a new interface to our cars and do whatever we want with our data?

Thoughts?

http://opengarages.org/index.php/Main_Page
https://github.com/d4v3y0rk/ffpass

 

[Anti_Climax]

There's certainly a few folks here with that sort of knowledge.

Discord has been quiet but that would be a great way to work on it. Probably want a github separate from the CHAdeMO one I started.

 

[scottt]

Ford has given me no option to upgrade my 2021 FFE's TCU from 3G to 4G and so I've been kicked to the curb. Needless to say, I'm pissed at Ford's disregard for customer service.

So now that I'm locked out. what is there to do? Could this be a blessing in disguise? A 3G modem isn't magic. APIs aren't magic. My car is my car, and my car's data should be mine. And though MFM was useful for some things, I have always thought the app suffered from a poor UI, reliability problems, etc. Perhaps a better mobile app than MFM is a possibility?

What if an effort was started, along the lines of Open Garages or FFPass to create a new interface to our cars and do whatever we want with our data?

Thoughts?

http://opengarages.org/index.php/Main_Page
https://github.com/d4v3y0rk/ffpass

Where did you buy a 2021 FFE??

 

[MarkTurner]

Where did you buy a 2021 FFE??

Ha! Typo. Fixed. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Anti_Climax]

In this case we could try to replicate the current behavior of the TCU as it interfaces with everything else. But it remains to be seen how simple or convoluted that may be. If something behind the TCU is actually authenticating with Ford, it is entirely possible we would not be able to replicate it, though that isn't a foregone conclusion.

My day job is managing embedded devices that use cellular to connect back to a secure network and there's a ton of stuff that *could* be done by Ford to make this very difficult.

If we were to set up our own data interface - a cheap LTE device that listens for text messages - we could have something in the CANBus spit out whatever commands we like and sidestep everything Ford does with their TCU. Want the door to unlock? Forget the API, I'll make it think I hit the unlock button. Etc

 

[MarkTurner]

If we were to set up our own data interface - a cheap LTE device that listens for text messages - we could have something in the CANBus spit out whatever commands we like and sidestep everything Ford does with their TCU. Want the door to unlock? Forget the API, I'll make it think I hit the unlock button. Etc

Yep, this is the approach I'm considering; not just spoofing Ford but pointing the car's data to a new server. An embedded LTE device that runs Linux (or Android perhaps) and speaks CAN would be ideal.