UPDATE: Busted by the Verge, sorry everybody. Fuck.
*Original Post*
Article: Tesla Allegedly Disables Rapper’s Cybertruck After Song Critique.
this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2025
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Man, if all electric cars can do this bullshit, then I think I'm gonna just be stuck with an internal combustion engine no matter how bad they are for the environment.
Ain't no way I'm gonna get into a vehicle that can be remotely disabled by a jackass.
This isn't specific to electric cars, vehicles equipped with On Star can be remotely disabled in the event of theft (and by extension I imagine a legal injunction). I imagine this extends to other vehicles also.
The real problem is the OTA updates and always-online nature of modern vehicles, not necessarily what powers them.
At least w/ OnStar, there are documented ways to disable it, and it's honestly not all that difficult (basically remove power to the OnStar device). Some cars are more integrated, so disabling that crap is a lot more difficult w/o breaking anything important.
No for sure I hear what you’re saying, onstar was just a handy example, other vehicles have OTA updates also and systems to disable the vehicle.
My point was the tech isn’t specific to BEV it’s becoming a “feature” in modern cars more broadly
Absolutely. If you care about this, search for a YT video or something about how to disable it, and they'll walk you through it and list the caveats. For example, sometimes it'll just show a warning on the infotainment center, and other times unrelated functions will break.
BEVs certainly started the trend, but once they showed people will put up w/ it, combustion vehicles followed suit.
Yes, but I don't have to buy a car with OnStar in it. It seems like every electric car has these OTA features at least in the states. In internal combustion cars that can avoid those features. I'd be more than happy to buy any one of these electric cars if I control the updates and there's no always on connection.
Except that it's all cars that do this why would the car being powered by electricity have any bearing. All cars have computers these days.
No, there's a few incredibly cheap cars that do not have these features. Also, I'll just buy used cars. These features don't exist in hardly any car before, like, 2015.
I'm fairly sure my car from 2016 has an immobiliser in it. In theory, if the car company wanted to utterly destroy their reputation, they could activate it.
The best defence against this is just how moronically stupid doing so would be. Every other car company knows this.
Yes but most cars with an immobilizer can not be remotely activated unless a specific system is installed which is normally offered as a premium feature. Like if I had a keyless start Ford from 2014 Ford couldn't remotely shut that car off.
These devices exist as aftermarket ad-ons and are frequently added by used car dealerships.