How I Remotely Start My Ford Maverick with Termux, Tailscale, and Zero Root
Like a lot of people with modern vehicles, I wanted to remote start my Ford Maverick from anywhere. The problem? I use GraphenOS on my main phone. It no like those apps.
I didn’t want to rely on the cloud.
I didn’t want to root my phone.
I just wanted to start my truck. On command. From anywhere.
So I built my own system.
The Idea
What if I could:
- Keep a dedicated Android phone at home
- Leave the official FordPass app logged in
- Run a VNC server on the phone
- Connect via Tailscale (mesh VPN)
- Tap the start button remotely from any device?
No hacking Ford’s APIs. No hardware mods. No root.
Just pure self-hosted.
The Tools I Used
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Termux | Automation + scripting |
| Termux:API | Wake lock + Android integration |
| Cronie | Background scheduling (cron) |
| DroidVNC-NG | VNC server on Android |
| FordPass App | Official app (pre-logged in) |
| Tailscale | Secure mesh VPN between my devices |
How It Works
- Dedicated phone stays on at home, logged into FordPass
- A cron job runs every 10 minutes using Termux to wake the phone and start the VNC server
- I connect from my main phone using Tailscale and a VNC client
- I tap the "Start Engine" button inside FordPass remotely
The Wake Script (wakeup.sh)
bash
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash
termux-wake-lock
am start -n net.christianbeier.droidvnc_ng/net.christianbeier.droidvnc_ng.MainActivity
termux-toast "System awakened at $(date)"
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