I’m not a fan of manufacturers tracking driving locations and habits and then selling that data to insurance companies. Anyone know how to disable the telematics in a 2024 defender?

 

Over the air software updates for the defender are also included in telematics and would then be disabled.. Connect features probably as well.. if it can even be done. most if not all modern cars phone home. Most all phone apps phone home with stats. You my friend are already in the matrix.

Also a good thread to follow

Landrover Defender telematics

 

On my f350 I pulled the fuse to the modem. There may be a similar simple solution.

My Current software 4.1.1 works good enough for me and I have Apple CarPlay for NAV. I simply don’t trust manufacturers not to sell my driving data for profit.

Adding that I never downloaded and installed the Land Rover app, suggested by my dealer. When I bought the defender, a sales person pressed a button activating something or other. I don’t quite recall what it was, but he mentioned I needed to install the LR app afterwards.

 

So does anyone know if JLR shares/sells data to insurance providers? I'm going to request my lexusnexus report but just curious in the meantime.

 

I stopped by a local LR dealer this weekend and talked to a product specialist about the telematics. He said he didn’t think my vehicle was being tracked because I never enrolled and installed the LR app. He also said he could remove my Defender from their side of the equation if I gave him my vin. I’m emailing him the info with the request. Hopefully that limits the full extent of my activity feeding data to LR for profit.

His only comment was.”but if your Defender is stolen, you won’t be able to track it”. I think that’s a fair trade off for my privacy.

I’m still interested in knowing what fuse I can pull to disable the modem in the Defender. That would give me real piece of mind.

 

Fuse 41 in the passenger compartment fuse box controls the telematics module. (See the owners' manual or the same diagram at the 45 second mark on this video )

An experiment with removing fuse 41 on a 2023 Defender 110 P400 yielded an interesting result. For the first 24 hours the vehicle operated completely normally. The following day the vehicle started without incident but the dash displayed an error message indicating "SOS System Failure." On the next restart this same message was once again displayed but the vehicle wouldn't start.

The implication seems to be that the software controlling the vehicle will allow vehicle operation just fine without telematics enabled but that it's been programmed to keep the vehicle from being operational if the telematics are disabled for any extended period.

This seems like a pretty heavy handed response if the only concern is SOS connectivity.

 

It would be interesting to repeat and confirm these results.

 

I’m making a big tin foil hat for my Defender. No way they’re stealing my precious info on how many miles I drive each day. Oh, I forgot my phone tracks my every movement. Working on that next.

 

If it's the case, it could somewhat useful for theft deterrent. Saw some recovered defenders stolen in Canada.
Phones not only track you, they read all emails and recognize text on pictures.

 

This is futile.

You are tracked through countless ways besides your phone and car. Debit cards, cameras on streets near your address…

IIRC, the weather app is the most discreet tracker on people’s phones that they don’t realize.