Post by @woozle@toot.cat

So, our 2010 Honda Odyssey has this weird feature(?) wherein anytime the battery gets disconnected, you have to enter a PIN for the nav system and another one for the radio.

CarMax didn't know what the numbers were when I bought it.

I took it to our local Honda dealer, and they reset them for me but wouldn't tell me what they are.

I figured out on my own that they're based on serial numbers -- I found the numbers and was able to derive the correct PINs, and we now have them both stuck on the dashboard for easy reference.

(Once you enter them, they're both unlocked until the next time the battery gets disconnected or discharged. You don't have to enter them whenever you start the car, even many days later.)

What I really want to know, though, is this: WHO EVEN THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA???

#firmwareGripe

#firmwaregripe

0 Boosts

0 Likes

Captain Superlative

@CptSuperlative@toot.cat 36 min. ago

@woozle enshitifiers

raphael

@gekitsu@toot.cat 47 min. ago

@woozle my money’s on ‘who even thought’ resulting in an empty set already

Woozle Hypertwin

@woozle@toot.cat 45 min. ago

@gekitsu I'm picturing a scenario where some executive gave underlings a requirement that "features must be protected by PIN", so they could make it a selling-point on a brochure or something, and the underlings were like "this is stupid, but boss says..." and did the absolute minimum to meet that directive.

I would find this even more believable if it turns out that the dashboard systems were designed by a 3rd party, and not Honda; I'd like to think better than that of Honda.

Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de 16 min. ago

@woozle @gekitsu the practice is rife in cars from the 2000s - although nowadays (even with a 2010 Ford Fiesta) radio / navi etc is coded to the cars VIN so you can yoink and replace the battery as much as you want, but if you hauled out the entire infotainment and tried to install it in another car it won't work (so resellers of such kit from scrap vehicles have to recode EPROMS and all sorts)

Mx Lottie

@LottieVixen@toot.cat 51 min. ago

@woozle it is theft prevention..well resale prevention

Woozle Hypertwin

@woozle@toot.cat 50 min. ago

@LottieVixen Well, CarMax sold it to me just fine without knowing the PINs, so...

(And if I can figure them out, so can a thief. If they were settable that would at least make a little more sense, but they are absolutely immutable.)

Woozle Hypertwin

@woozle@toot.cat 49 min. ago

@LottieVixen To be clear, if you don't enter the PINs you can still use the car just fine -- including the HVAC.

Mx Lottie

@LottieVixen@toot.cat 10 min. ago

@woozle oh yeah its meant to deter stealing the radio set, there were a lot of things like that at least in my childhood (around 00s)

Woozle Hypertwin

@woozle@toot.cat 40 min. ago

@LottieVixen Looking at the wiki page I did about this, I'm reminded that it's worse than CarMax not knowing the number. They actually gave me a card claiming to have the relevant numbers -- and they are all completely wrong. I hypothesize that someone else also bought an Odyssey from them, and received the card with our PINs on it...

View

Discussion

Discussion