How Owners of EVs from Bankrupt Fisker Saved Their Cars With an Open Source Nonprofit (electrek.co)
- Reference: 0183244831
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/05/16/2318249/how-owners-of-evs-from-bankrupt-fisker-saved-their-cars-with-an-open-source-nonprofit
- Source link: https://electrek.co/2026/05/16/fisker-ocean-open-source-ev-story-after-bankruptcy/
> When Fisker Inc. [2]filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2024, it left roughly 11,000 Ocean SUV owners holding the keys to vehicles that cost them anywhere from $40,000 to $70,000 — and that were rapidly losing the software brains that made them work. No more over-the-air updates. No more connected services. No more warranty. The manufacturer was dead.
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> What happened next is one of the most remarkable stories in the history of the electric vehicle industry. Instead of accepting that their cars would become rolling paperweights, Fisker Ocean [3]owners organized , reverse-engineered their vehicles' proprietary software, hacked into CAN bus networks, built open-source tools on GitHub, and effectively stood up a volunteer-run open-sourced car company from the ashes of Fisker... Within months of the bankruptcy filing, thousands of Ocean owners formed the [4]Fisker Owners Association (FOA) — a nonprofit that quickly grew to 4,000 members and began operating as something between a car club, a tech startup, and an independent automaker. The FOA hired independent tech experts who began reverse-engineering Fisker's proprietary software patches. Members taught each other how to flash firmware. They organized bulk purchases of replacement parts — negotiating the price of key fobs down from roughly $1,000 each to a fraction of that through coordinated group buys. They hosted free global key fob pairing events, saving each owner $100 to $250...
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> What started as desperate troubleshooting has evolved into a genuine open-source ecosystem around the Fisker Ocean. On GitHub, a developer named MichaelOE reverse-engineered the API behind Fisker's official "My Fisker" mobile app and built a [5]Home Assistant integration that exposes every cloud API value as a sensor — with all the app's buttons available as Home Assistant controls... [Community members have also been [6]systematically mapping [7]CAN bus files .]
The article noes this "is not an isolated incident. Nikola also filed for bankruptcy, leaving its owners in a similar bind. Canoo and Arrival are headed for liquidation auctions..."
> Consumer advocates are now pushing for structural changes: mandatory software escrow funds that would keep vehicle software running even if the manufacturer disappears, open-source mandates in bankruptcy proceedings, and shared repair data requirements... European automakers, meanwhile, are moving in a different direction entirely — Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and eight suppliers [8]signed a memorandum in 2025 to develop a shared open-source automotive software platform....
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> The Fisker Owners Association has proven that a dedicated community can keep orphaned EVs on the road. But they shouldn't have had to... [O]wners shouldn't need to become hackers and parts brokers and quasi-manufacturers just to keep driving the cars they already paid for.
[1] https://electrek.co/2026/05/16/fisker-ocean-open-source-ev-story-after-bankruptcy/
[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/06/18/1433220/ev-maker-fisker-files-for-bankruptcy
[3] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/09/27/2331230/when-this-ev-company-went-bankrupt-its-customers-launched-a-nonprofit-to-keep-their-cars-running
[4] https://fiskeroa.com/
[5] https://github.com/MichaelOE/home-assistant-MyFisker
[6] https://medium.com/@majd.srour/part-3-sniffing-can-and-decoding-dtcs-diagnosing-the-fisker-ocean-like-a-pro-c68bd0d0c963
[7] https://github.com/puddletools/CAN
[8] https://evxl.co/2025/06/30/european-automakers-software-platform-ev/
No more spyware (Score:5, Interesting)
The key point here is the ability to disable all telemetry leaving the car. We need open sourced EV car software that does not spy on you or sell your information. It sounds like they're on their way.
Guides to disable the cellular modem or antenna in all popular model EVs would be a good way to start as well. Using wrecked examples from a junkyard would be an economical way to experiment.
Re: (Score:3)
Not just EVs. ICE cars spy on you in the same way, and they out-sell EVs 9:1 in the US, easily.
Re: (Score:2)
This is about the closest we have now. [1]https://www.slate.auto/en [slate.auto]
Let's see how many people put their money where their mouth is.
[1] https://www.slate.auto/en
Re: (Score:3)
> This is about the closest we have now. [1]https://www.slate.auto/en [slate.auto]
> Let's see how many people put their money where their mouth is.
Oh please. There is no reason a new Ford, GM, Kia, BYD, or any other car needs to be running full-time telematics on private cars. Heck it should be flat out illegal at least to sell this data if not make it illegal to collect. This is just one more reason that the United States (in particular) needs much harsher versions of the GDPR, DMA, and DSA. One could, in theory, make an argument for EV owners reporting the odometer (quarterly? yearly?) directly to their state DMV so they could be charged the equiva
[1] https://www.slate.auto/en
Re: (Score:3)
Harsher? Even just GDPR would be far more than they have presently. When I worked for an American company (not voluntarily, they bought a German company I used to be employed at) I had to go through the same training the American colleagues had, and how I laughed at the explanation of GDPR ("It's an EU thing"). Fact is, most Americans don't even understand what privacy is.
Re: (Score:3)
> Guides to disable the cellular modem or antenna in all popular model EVs would be a good way to start as well.
Before you even contemplate this you need to be sure the car itself won't brick itself due to lack of connectivity. We have ample evidence from multiple manufacturers that this is a problem. I myself have had issues when the Telematics and Connectivity Antenna Module (TCAM) of my Polestar locked up. Yay no data, no problem right? Well suddenly I couldn't change the maximum charge limit on my infotainment system.
Also are the communications systems for emergency calling and for the infotainment system separat
US laws suck (Score:3)
If it weren't for the fact that they'd be sued out of existence, devs would be doing this all the time. Can't bypass that security though. No!
Re: (Score:1)
Dead people can't file court cases. Fisker Automotive* is dead.
*Corporate personhood and all that.
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The DOT, NTSB, or any one of a number of agencies CAN, however.
Give them 10 minutes, and they could come up with any number of claims that vehicles running non-certified software on public roads is a public safety issue.
If pressed by anyone, several Federal agencies could come up with justifications as why they have jurisdiction to get injunctions against or even seize these 'illegal' vehicles.
Waiting for the seizures and arrests to begin (Score:3)
In the United States, simply keeping their cars running after the manufacturer died is a fairly substantial set of crimes.
Since they have admitted to conspiracy by forming an interstate group to do it, major Federal organized crime laws have been broken.
Land of the free and all that.
Finished products? (Score:3)
> Consumer advocates are now pushing for structural changes: mandatory software escrow funds that would keep vehicle software running even if the manufacturer disappears, open-source mandates in bankruptcy proceedings, and shared repair data requirements...
Now I know this sounds crazy, but stick with me for a moment: How about we require car manufacturers to deliver finished products to customers? And how about we also require them to provide meaninful service and repair data along with the vehicles? No more connected services unless they are non-essential to the car and trivially switched off, removed or replaceable. So that means no more repeated software updates will be required.
Re: (Score:2)
The automakers would spend a fortune to have that killed.
what? no Linux comments? (Score:2)
Does it run Linux?
I advocate Linux on everything
Duplicate? (Score:3)
[1]https://m.slashdot.org/story/4... [slashdot.org]
[1] https://m.slashdot.org/story/447216
10x or more in China (Score:1)
[1]https://outrider.org/climate-c... [outrider.org]
Chinaâ(TM)s Abandoned, Obsolete Electric Cars Are Piling Up in Cities
"A subsidy-fueled boom helped build China into an electric-car giant but left weed-infested lots across the nation brimming with unwanted battery-powered vehicles."
[1] https://outrider.org/climate-change/articles/chinas-abandoned-obsolete-electric-cars-are-piling-cities
In a sea of uncertainty. (Score:2)
I am sure this is Elon Musk's fault somehow.
What's the down-side? (Score:4, Insightful)
No more over-the-air updates. No more connected services.
I would be thanking FSM for this miracle from heaven.
Re: (Score:2)
*yawn*
Re: (Score:3)
> No more over-the-air updates. No more connected services.
> I would be thanking FSM for this miracle from heaven.
You're focusing only on the small part of "connected services" that you hate, and ignoring the problem of connected services you don't know about. Security certificates will eventually expire which could potentially lead to bricking cars as for example Rivian pushing the wrong security certificate out with an update [1]https://techcrunch.com/2023/11... [techcrunch.com], or anti-theft devices deciding to brick cars due to loss of communication with servers as our Porsche owning communist comrades are aware [2]https://www.themoscow [themoscowtimes.com]
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/14/a-software-update-bricked-rivian-infotainment-systems/
[2] https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/12/02/hundreds-of-porsche-owners-in-russia-unable-to-start-cars-after-system-failure-a91302
Re: (Score:2)
*TCAM module