Disable "Tele Aid" Antenna
 

I could not find discussions on the Tele Aid antenna most MBZ come with over the last decade or so. I have not researched this but I think that is the antenna that is located on the roof of the car, and it is essentially a cell phone that can do the following -

-Receive information
-Send information

Implications

-Tracking everywhere you go
-Collecting data on how fast you drive and your driving habits.
-If interfaced with the car's computer - having the ability to record conversations in your own car.
-Exposing you to possibly escessive EMF radiation
-Possibly allows remote changes to your cars computer remotely via a back door. These changes can cause anything like non running car, settings that damage the engine faster or cause it to consume more/less fuel. In other words changes made without your consent or knowledge.
- I am sure there are many, many, many other implications of this system, almost all of them bad.

Good to know that MBZ has likely been tracking hundreds of thousands of drivers without their knowledge or conscent for at least a decade now.

F. That. How can this thing be disabled? I imagine a person could unscrew the cover, cram a 1lb of aluminum foil inside then put the cover back on. I would rather just disable it it though. Has anyone done this?

Talk about being parnoid, the rooftop antenna is just that providing function for tel aid if you have it, and a cellular antenna in one unit. I you did not retrofit your analog tel aid 2001 to 2005 to digital you have no tel aid. The same goes for telephone which was analog. The GPS signal from tel aid aided in determining your location, and was interfaced with your door lock system to provide remote unlocking. There was also a backup antenna in case you rolled over the car and broke the antenna. as ar as I know there was no further communicatin with the power train and body electronics, and if you did not retrofit a newr tel-aid system there is no communication.
By the way you pocket cell phone can also track you....

As Peter said, the network that runs teleaid doesn't even function anymore, so you've got little to worry about.


This did go up April first so ill hope its a joke.

Thanks for the info and feedback guys.

What year/model are you working on? On the earlier teleaid cars i am familiar with there is a Teleaid control unit. Although it would be part of the D2B ring, so the controlling unit (COMAND or radio) would need to be programmed showing it has been removed or disconnected. I'd feel safer knowing this was done rather than just the antenna. Some models also have an antenna in the rear bumper. Let me know the model and I'll see what I can dig up for info.

As far as the teleaid not working, the info I just saw online from MB makes it sound like the system will work, either as Teleaid or can be also subscribed to the new system called mbrace, which I have never even heard of, seems to have been changed 5 yrs ago, in 2009, but seems like the pre-2009 cars can run either teleaid or mbrace.

Tel-Aid was obsoleted and Mbrace took its place, Tel Aid was analog and Mbrace is digital. MB was retrofitting for a small fee of $1,000 or so, it operates on the Cellular network and was suported by ATT for a while, there are no Analog carriers out there! I think the company who supported it was dissloved.

Honestly I thought that this post was a joke so I did not go into detail. As Peter stated for a little over $1,000 you can get teleaid to work. But if you just have an older Benz that you don't have serviced at the dealer and you didn't miss them billing you $1,100, your teleaid is analog and its not working.

If TeleAid wasn't updated to the new digital system (as mentioned above) it no longer operates.

With either system (TeleAid analog, digital, MBrace, etc) you can go in with the DAS (STAR) system and set the unit to "NOT PRESENT". It won't give you any messages at startup (I disabled it in my W220 because I hated the "SOS system not present" message for 3 seconds at every startup)

Dealers probably won't disable it for you but anyone with DAS like a good indy shop can do it.

Again, assuming you have a digital version or MBrace. No need to worry with TeleAid analog.

I think it still works.

When I got into a minor accident in my former 2000 E430, the airbags deployed, and a woman's voice came on over the speaker. I had no idea who in the hell she was.

She communicated to the car via a satellite connection. I think they're using the GM onstar satellite.

How recently was this? The analog system only disappeared in like the last year or two.

Here is an interesting article on automotive privacy
Your car may be invading your privacy

If guess what alot of people need to understand is that data is worth money to businesses, a lot of money. Data is also valuable to governments. If there is potential profit to be made by utilizing data, a business will do exactly that. Regarding my previous post the question that comes up to me is how much data can potentially be made available to a business by using the teleaid or similar system? A huge amount. How much is the data worth? A great deal to insurance companies, the automakers, advertisers, governments, the police, etc etc etc.

The devices below can and do track you

-Almost all gps devices, portable or auto. the data is worth a fortune. In fact TomTom got caught selling user gps data to a police force in another country
-Your smart phone and even your un smart phone
-Of course everything you do on your computer
-Pretty much any digital device at all that can connect to a network (LAN, wireless, wifi, bluetooth, etc)

Analog phones still exist, in fact there are hundreds of thousands of them in cars and other machines. Don't think there is any profit to be made by tracking cars with analog phone? Of course there is. Just because analog phones are not commonly available does not mean there are no analog towers.

Soon backup cameras will be required in all cars. Thats great. I can also see the camera being used to record data that would be extremely valuable and profitable. I am sure the governments and private businesses cannot wait to have real time video feeds from any car on the road.

Its called Big Data and it is worth billions of dollars a year. If a person is dumb enough to think that these devices do not track you, then no amount of discussion is going to help you comprehend what does in fact happen, so I don't usually bother.

In the future, don't bother.

Good Lord, lemme think....about 5 years ago?

I forgot to add to the devices that invade your privacy

-The upcoming wave of "smart" appliances
-Your "smart" electrical meter that can tell what appliances you use and when. Can determine if your home is occupied or not. Transmits and exposes occupants to potentially hundreds of times the EMF generated during a phone call. This is escpecially a problem if you live in an apartment building for example and the smart meter closet that contains dozens of smart meters is on the other side of your bedroom wall. Not good.
-Your game console with it's built in camera you can't turn off (xbox)
-The new "smart" tv sets that connect the the network
-Your cable box
-Again, almost any device that connects to any network. Even that old GPS gets connected when you "update" it. Here "Update" means perhaps some small minor changes to the maps plus uploading everywhere you have driven with the GPS device.