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Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid

arkadiyt.com

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Re: Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid

#161
post #89

I get this desire and commend the author, but I just want self driving cars and so I think we are just stuck with this.

Why is a self-driving car so important to you? Is it really worth giving up your privacy, and advocating that others should give up theirs, just for some shortcoming in your own capabilities?

Why should a self driving car need a network connection? It's an absurd false dichotomy. Certainly that's what will be produced if the manufacturers are allowed to get away with it but that's not a technical problem it's a social and legal one.

Re: Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid

#162

> Important: Even after the modem is removed, if you connect your phone to the car via Bluetooth then the car will use your phone as an internet connection and send all the same telemetry data back to Toyota. How is this the case? I thought bluetooth was just sharing my phone's audio. Why would it allow requests over the internet? Surely there's a way to tell the phone not to give its internet connection to any conne…

When reading the article I think he appears to be talking about car play/android auto connection not audio only connections. I think Bluetooth in AA and Carplay is used to configure a local network between the phone and the car to transmit the images to the cars screen. I would assume that that data capability can also be used for the car to communicate with the Internet.

Re: Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your margins are so razor thin that the cost of handling cash is significant, you need to raise your prices. Cash is legal tender -- not accepting it for in-person transactions is really shitty (maybe shouldn't be allowed?)

It's not about "just raise prices", it's about some industries (e.g. upstart restaurants) that already have massive failure rates and have hyper competition. Even airlines don't make money on flights, and instead only on selling credits cards or other perks. If your operating costs are some percentage higher for accepting cash versus the coffee shop across the street that doesn't, you're more likely to fail.

The real problem for those businesses is way upstream of payment processing costs, namely in the cost of business loans, the general poverty of the American consumer, and (for brick-and-mortars) zoning. The latter is a matter of getting municipalities to relax restrictions put in place mid-century literally to support segregation, and the former two are a matter of forcing the wealthy to eat the costs of their poor decisions from the last few decades, rather than continuing to allow them to socialize related losses through avenues like scandalously low labor pay vis a vis productivity and various investment/asset market scams (which, through housing and passive retirement investment, they've roped in Boomers and older Gen-Xers).

If you wish to make an apple pie shop from scratch, you must first invent an economy that isn't hamstrung by legacy obligations from ventures that people who are long-dead somehow were allowed to finance with your paycheck. (Somewhere, a middle-aged nepo-baby is clutching her pearls at the thought, and I just think we should cherish, rather than shy from, the opportunity to throw her and her siblings under the bus.)

Re: Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's only so many rental companies. It might look like there's a lot, but they are all pretty much a sibling company to a larger parent.

I've got a great startup idea - airbnb but it's for renting out your car. Nothing could possibly go wrong!

Doesn't that already exist?

Re: Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid

#165

If you are wary of all the smart features in your next car purchase, consider buying a bicycle. We do not have to entertain the creeping invasion of our privacy

My hilly 25 mile commute isn't really bicycle compatible, unfortunately

There are impressively capable ebikes these days. I wonder how long before tracking gets introduced to those ...

Re: Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a protobuf-based API for two-way communication between the Android Auto app and the head unit [0]. It depends on what the headunit supports, but this includes data such as GPS location, steering wheel button activation, accelerometer data, parking brake activation, gear selection, touch screen input, dimmer switch position, odometer, and much more. A lot of this has obvious use within the AA interface; for ex…

One of the things I notice CarPlay has access to is the fan speed. In one of my vehicles, when I say “hey siri” it turns the HVAC fan down so it can hear me better. I’ve always wondered if the interface is the phone telling the car “hey make things quieter” or if it’s explicitly turning the fan down. It’s also interesting that this only happens in one of my cars. I assume it’s because the other car is a higher end ve…

In GM cars (as observed in my last few), the logic is in the head unit: "mic on -> hvac lower", while "hotword detect" uses a different "mic on" method that does not

EDIT, previously "does not" above said "doe snot", which explains the reply below

Re: Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a great startup idea - airbnb but it's for renting out your car. Nothing could possibly go wrong!

Doesn't that already exist?

... does it? I've seen stuff like zipcar but that's centralized ownership.

Re: Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid

#168
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's from the linked rav4world post

> One caveat, if you use bluetooth to connect your phone to the car DCM will use your phone to connect to the mother ship and presumably send your data. I only use my iPhone cable to connect to the car which does not have this effect. A random post on a forum is not evidence that Toyota has found a magic way to exfiltrate data over a bluetooth connection without turning on hotspot/etc.

It's not evidence against it either. Presumably CarPlay and Android Auto could implement a network interface through the application layer, or even activate Bluetooth tethering at the system level as they are privileged apps.

But they could also do this over USB, so something doesn't add up.

Re: Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid

#170

> Important: Even after the modem is removed, if you connect your phone to the car via Bluetooth then the car will use your phone as an internet connection and send all the same telemetry data back to Toyota. How is this the case? I thought bluetooth was just sharing my phone's audio. Why would it allow requests over the internet? Surely there's a way to tell the phone not to give its internet connection to any conne…

Is this specific to carplay, or can other bluetooth devices also silently and nefariously hijack your cellular data connection?
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