Had my windshield replaced last week, and then this week this black rectangular plastic thing dropped in front of me. Held in place by a wire attached to it going under the headliner - length of wire about 1". The thing is about 6-7" long, 3/4" high, 3/8" thick, more or less. It had been held in place on the inside of the windshield by double stick tape. This is a 2015 Honda Accord V6 with no add-ons (Lojack, etc.). (It does have standard collision detect and lane departure warnings. Doesn't have adaptive cruise control.)
(In the picture above, I've stuck it back on the windshield with the double stick tape. You can see the wire above it going under the headliner, this wire is about 1/8"-3/16" thick.)
I honestly believe I had never seen the thing attached to the inside of the windshield, ever - I've had the car a year. (But if its original position was shoved a bit higher against the headliner it would have been pretty much out of my sight line, and from the outside it would have been difficult to see behind the tint.)
Went to the Honda dealer and asked "what is that thing?" Stumped everyone, including the service manager (a long-time Master Technician). We couldn't find one on the inside of a showroom Honda Accord. He spent 30 minutes with me looking through (computerized) service manuals at various components - mainly antennas or sensors - and couldn't find it anywhere.
Based on those manuals (and his knowledge) it doesn't appear to have anything to do with XM radio, the collision warning system, the lane departure camera, the nav system's GPS, or anything else we could think of.
His only suggestion: Whatever it is, it was something that was supposed to be wedged between the headliner and windshield, and it dropped out when the old windshield was removed, and the windshield tech didn't know what to do with it after he replaced the windshield so he just taped it in place.
So .. what is this thing? Is it a Honda component for some purpose or other? Or did the FBI covertly install it to track me for some reason? (*)
(*) For the record, I know of no such reason.
P.S Reason I want to know is: The car is leased. I want/need to return it the way I got it. So if the thing is supposed to be under the headliner I need to go back to the glass vendor and have them redo it correctly.