Lightning Software Updates using FDRS

[rugedraw]

What will this do (what does this do now) to all the independent mom-&-pop mechanics shops out there across the land? I wonder...

On the Mach E forum, a member there said his neighbor owns an independent shop and was going to bring his pc home to update his Mach E over the weekend. He tried to log in to FDRS yesterday and his account got banned.

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[shelnian]

So if I purchase a 2 day subscription for $120 at my house and on the laptop I use for FDRS updates, I shouldn't have an issue updating both my Lighting and my MME as long as I use FDRS to connect to each vehicle after plugging into the port with my VCMII? Don't try to look up any VINs (including my own)?

 

[rugedraw]

So if I purchase a 2 day subscription for $120 at my house and on the laptop I use for FDRS updates, I shouldn't have an issue updating both my Lighting and my MME as long as I use FDRS to connect to each vehicle after plugging into the port with my VCMII? Don't try to look up any VINs (including my own)?

Correct, unless you get your account locked out for no apparent reason which has happened, too.

 

[Mike G]

On a related note....the FDRS (and IDS, FJDS, etc.) software is managed by Ford's affiliate Rotunda which is underpinned by Robert Bosch GMBH out of Germany. Many of you know this.

They sell hardware, provide software, and manage backend services to facilitate the diagnostics and updates that we and the dealership techs do.

They have a privacy policy which I only came across today (Rotunda site) that obviously describes what happens with data they collect. I wasn't aware that they collected my browsing history until today.

Mentioned in that privacy policy is the fact that they use Google Analytics to gather and store info...and they provided a link to a Google site that will provide a browser addon that will let you opt-out of Google Analytics altogether. This is the direct link and it will download the relevant addon for the browser you're using when you go to the site. I use Firefox and Edge so I added this addon on both.

I know this may be a bit tin-foil hat but I really don't think FDRS/IDS, Ford, Robert Bosch, et. al need to know my browsing history, at a minimum, much less whatever else they've collected about us.

 

[21st Century Truck]

On a related note....the FDRS (and IDS, FJDS, etc.) software is managed by Ford's affiliate Rotunda which is underpinned by Robert Bosch GMBH out of Germany. Many of you know this.

They sell hardware, provide software, and manage backend services to facilitate the diagnostics and updates that we and the dealership techs do.

They have a privacy policy which I only came across today (Rotunda site) that obviously describes what happens with data they collect. I wasn't aware that they collected my browsing history until today.

Mentioned in that privacy policy is the fact that they use Google Analytics to gather and store info...and they provided a link to a Google site that will provide a browser addon that will let you opt-out of Google Analytics altogether. This is the direct link and it will download the relevant addon for the browser you're using when you go to the site. I use Firefox and Edge so I added this addon on both.

I know this may be a bit tin-foil hat but I really don't think FDRS/IDS, Ford, Robert Bosch, et. al need to know my browsing history, at a minimum, much less whatever else they've collected about us.

A very instructive and relevant book on the subject is Professor Shoshana Zuboff's "Age of Surveillance Capitalism", well-described here:

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=56791

...and this of course means that we are the product which is sold and traded.

 

[digitaldad]

They have a privacy policy which I only came across today (Rotunda site) that obviously describes what happens with data they collect. I wasn't aware that they collected my browsing history until today.

Thanks for this info.

I assume others do this as well but sharing my approach: on the older laptop I use for FDRS/FORScan, I create a second partitiion of the hard drive and dual boot into the desired image (main being a normal image OS and the second being a dedicated "vehicle programming" OS).

The main OS has more normal software and access for day-to-day functions and the programming one is totally bare-bones...for things not to intefere with FDRS/FORScan communication.

Of course, some may just use a clean install/bare-bones dedicated machine with similar access/ease of use.

 

[Mike G]

Thanks for this info.

I assume others do this as well but sharing my approach: on the older laptop I use for FDRS/FORScan, I create a second partitiion of the hard drive and dual boot into the desired image (main being a normal image OS and the second being a dedicated "vehicle programming" OS).

The main OS has more normal software and access for day-to-day functions and the programming one is totally bare-bones...for things not to intefere with FDRS/FORScan communication.

Of course, some may just use a clean install/bare-bones dedicated machine with similar access/ease of use.

The hardware requirements are getting bumped up for laptops starting around the beginning of the year...must have 16GB. I don't know if this will be 'enforced' by the program refusing to run or not...that's unclear right now.

Not a problem for me as I started with 32GB years ago...but I can tell you that my dealership has had to go out and buy new laptops recently....just so you know if you are using an older lappy.

 

[digitaldad]

The hardware requirements are getting bumped up for laptops starting around the beginning of the year...must have 16GB. I don't know if this will be 'enforced' by the program refusing to run or now...that's unclear right now.

Not a problem for me as I started with 32GB years ago...but I can tell you that my dealership has had to go out and buy new laptops recently....just so you know if you are using an older lappy.

Thanks brother...and, yikes! I'm using an older Surface with only 8GB RAM.

 

[rugedraw]

Of course, some may just use a clean install/bare-bones dedicated machine with similar access/ease of use.

That's what I did. I have an older cheap Acer laptop with an i3 processor. It came with a 256gb hard drive and 4gb of RAM. I bought 16gb of RAM for $30 to make it a total of 20, and put a seperate 2 TB SSD which I use to store pics and videos. All I have on the native 256gb drive is FDRS, FORScan and the MyCalibrator app from Livernois for my tune.

 

[sstevetx]

I used to run FDRS on a dedicated laptop with a 4th gen i7 and 16GB RAM, but it was barely hanging on. I’ve since upgraded to a Dell with an 8th gen i7, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD running Windows 10 Pro—used exclusively for FDRS. Found it on eBay about a year ago for $130. Best part? It came preloaded with a bonus virus at no extra charge . I wiped it clean, did a fresh Win10 install, and flashed the BIOS just to be safe. Still a solid deal for the hardware and the Win10 Pro license.
I only run a local user account in Windows and don't log into my Microsoft or Google online accounts.

 

[Mike G]

I used to run FDRS on a dedicated laptop with a 4th gen i7 and 16GB RAM, but it was barely hanging on. I’ve since upgraded to a Dell with an 8th gen i7, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD running Windows 10 Pro—used exclusively for FDRS. Found it on eBay about a year ago for $130. Best part? It came preloaded with a bonus virus at no extra charge . I wiped it clean, did a fresh Win10 install, and flashed the BIOS just to be safe. Still a solid deal for the hardware and the Win10 Pro license.
I only run a local user account in Windows and don't log into my Microsoft or Google online accounts.

The "Local User Account" thing is becoming a lost art....since they really, really, really want you to login with some account they can tie to your profile to track you. It's still doable of course....used to be a way to completely evade logging in during the setup on Windows 10, but I gave up trying to get around it on Win 11, and instead I did give them a throwaway email address and then went back in and "logged out" of that to go back to just using a local account. I also have all the privacy stuff locked down, no location, mic, camera, none of that is enabled. No social media. I don't use this laptop for anything but IDS/FDRS really, so what's the point of 'sharing' what I'm doing with MS or Google right?

 

[Mike G]

Oh and if you do buy a used Dell that originally came with Win10...you don't need to buy Windows for it to reinstall....just download it from Dell on a thumb drive and reinstall...then you can just automagically update it to Win 11 for free.

I know that FDRS said it wanted Win 10 Pro...but that ship has officially sailed now...I'm on Win 11 Pro now and FDRS works just fine (assuming my account hasn't been blocked for some egregious infraction like looking up a list of updates for somebody).

 

[RickLightning]

The issue here is social media. It is not people tweaking vehicles. It is people tweaking vehicles and then bragging about it on social media. When Ford execs learned of a Russian hacker writing software to turn on features that people didn't pay for, they weren't happy. Then people started bragging about using FDRS to do things. I am just glad I didn't buy the power supply or adapter yet...

Sucks, but not surprising.

 

[rugedraw]

(assuming my account hasn't been blocked for some egregious infraction like looking up a list of updates for somebody).

Ford's cybersecurity team.

 

[ytwytw]

got my refund for my broken FDRS today after 10 days finally
pts has really really long backlog of tickets
bad news is they didnt fix my ford account, still in a broken state

so my fordpass is still broken, need to. call the regular support to get it fixed

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