diff --git a/selfdrive/modeld/dmonitoringmodeld b/selfdrive/modeld/dmonitoringmodeld
index f292fe4c0b..fc007470b2 100755
--- a/selfdrive/modeld/dmonitoringmodeld
+++ b/selfdrive/modeld/dmonitoringmodeld
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/sh
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" >/dev/null && pwd)"
 cd $DIR
diff --git a/selfdrive/modeld/modeld b/selfdrive/modeld/modeld
index 7c1025a72f..14048ec9fd 100755
--- a/selfdrive/modeld/modeld
+++ b/selfdrive/modeld/modeld
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
-#!/bin/sh
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" >/dev/null && pwd)"
 cd "$DIR/../../"
 
-export LD_PRELOAD="$DIR/libthneed.so"
+if [ -f "$DIR/libthneed.so" ]; then
+  export LD_PRELOAD="$DIR/libthneed.so"
+fi
+
 exec "$DIR/modeld.py"
diff --git a/selfdrive/modeld/navmodeld b/selfdrive/modeld/navmodeld
index 079afd9677..58215c2e9d 100755
--- a/selfdrive/modeld/navmodeld
+++ b/selfdrive/modeld/navmodeld
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/sh
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" >/dev/null && pwd)"
 cd $DIR