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Removing the Modem and GPS from My 2024 RAV4 Hybrid

> 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. However, if you use a wired USB connection then it does not do that (see the discussion here and elsewhere), so I exclusively use CarPlay via USB.

The problem with this is that both carplay and android auto capture their own vehicle telemetry. So even though the car is not able to use your phone as a general data pipe, Google and Apple still get access to this data when you're connected.

They are both very cagey with how they talk about this (or don't).

28 minutes agonurple

In a perfect world they wouldn't collect it either, but I'd rather Apple have it than the car manufacturer (or rather, only Apple vs both Apple and the car manufacturer)

15 minutes agoarkadiyt

I use android auto through grapheneos thankfully! this is crazy!

24 minutes agozackify

Can you clarify? Does it feed it bullshit data? Because android auto expects car telemetry data which it streams to Google's servers. Which is a big no-no for me for obvious reasons.

14 minutes agoandrepd

They are cagey because they get nearly $100k upfront with crazy interest rates, and then they make a ton of money through their spyware.

18 minutes agodownrightmike

Honest question: what do you mean?

16 minutes agopfortuny

You pay inflated prices for the car and then they still steal and sell your data. This isn't hard to understand, same thing smart TV mfg do.

12 minutes agodownrightmike

I think you mean "subsidized" instead of "inflated".

9 minutes agoepicide

I dread the day I will have to start doing this when the 2015 vehicle I have finally goes

a minute agosummermusic

What is the suspected method of Bluetooth communication?

Afaik phones do not share their internet blindly to Bluetooth devices.

31 minutes agovenussnatch

Bluetooth PAN seems to work pretty seamlessly once you've paired your phone and set it up. It's possible some kind of "seamless hotspot" functionality is remotely activating PAN on a paired device.

7 minutes agojeroenhd

Also thought about it. It’s possible, but requires enabling hotspot on the phone. Without it, it will not share internet via BT.

13 minutes agomax8539

It would also require that my phone not show my car using the hotspot, when it does show my laptop, and also for my cellphone plan to not show that usage (I have limited hotspot data), which is theoretically possible, but now we're talking three companies having to collude in a totally undetectable fashion, which seems a little far fetched.

5 minutes agofragmede

Excellent practical guide and pictures, if OP is around on this thread: well done! Your future self is going to appreciative too when this needs repeating at some point!

19 minutes agodingdingdang

There's going to be a lot of this going on in the future. RabbitLabs CAN Commander go BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

an hour agop00ter

Great guide! After getting to the end, I had no idea what AirPlay was so I looked it up... bro, all this effort to avoid telemetry and you are using an iPhone XD

2 minutes agoaframemodular

Maybe two metal pins through the GPS and the cellular antenna coaxial cables would do the trick?

35 minutes agojava-man

You would be surprised how leaky RF can be and how hard to completely suppress. There is a reason things like anechoic chambers and test labs are very expensive.

25 minutes agofoobarian

Leaky - possibly, but we are dealing with the real world where you have plenty of background noise. The cell tower will likely fail to receive the signal.

16 minutes agojava-man

You just need to cap the connectors with a terminator.

21 minutes agokevin_thibedeau

It might easier to find the cable than disassemble the car to get to the terminals.