Anyway, I'm happy to pay an infosec/privacy oriented Toyota sysadmin to minimally activate this car such that maps/GPS and local static audio files work and only those two functions work. #ParentalAutomotiveControls
One way forward is to ditch the vendor (Toyota) phone app and just use Google Car Play. It doesn't solve the problem but it converts it from a (Toyota + Toyota's partners + Google + Google's partners) problem to a more generic, limited, and slightly less coercive (Google + Google's partners) problem. I don't know what Toyota-exclusive features I would care about - neither maps nor local audio could possibly have any significantly valuable
vendor component. Privacy- and risk-wise, Car Play is unlikely to be worse than Car Play plus the additional proprietary Toyota layer and there are more eyes on rhe generic Google offering than on the Toyota system. I'm not thrilled with Google but at least they're a known quantity that I'm already familiar with.
I'm still going to have to restrict or remediate Google's permissions grabs. I only need voice permissions if I'm using the system for hands-free phone operation; I absolutely do not want voice commands enabled. Voice is exclusively for phone use. Curious if I can get what I want through "guest" mode; can't imagine any significant personalization I'd need for maps or audio. If it can get my contacts and playlists from my phone, why would it need any extra permissions? And it's going to see that data anyways because it's essential to the functioning of the system, it's not some gratuitous info-grab like constantly pulling microphone traffic in case it can be monetized.
Again, it's tiring and depressing to work through this threat analysis. I see these cloying hyper-personalized systems as a far greater threat to my interests and to my peace of mind than any possible convenience. None of these organizations _should_ be trusted; all are demonstrably _untrustworthy_. The question is how to minimize my exposure to untrustworthy actors and systems to get a minimal set of basic features from my car. This takes far more effort than I want to spend on a computer system I use maybe an hour a week.
Oct 12, 2026, 8:56 PM@arclight ...is...that... Possible?
@adr Without voiding the warranty and probably breaking a thousand laws, probably not. It might even take decapping a few chips and adding 10 kilos of bodge wires. At the very least a dozen FPGAs and Raspberry Pis.
I'm reminded of a Max Headroom episode where the cops were after someone who had installed an illicit "off" switch on their TV. I've seen this story before, long ago.
@arclight s1e6, iirc
@jgilbert Is this where we're introduced to Blank Reg?
Yep. Our new Nissan Leaf is wonderful. But I really hate the infotainment system, and my initial attempt to contain it did not make other members of my house happy.
Most annoying is that there seems to be some sequence to turning on the audio system that results in it playing an unskippable ad for SiriusXM, which I did not want, do not want, will never want.
Oct 12, 2026, 11:50 PMOh no. The new Leaf was on the shortlist for the next car for us to buy. I fear that even with the ad it may be better than the alternatives.
My research suggests that it is one of the better models in this regard, and turning off all the spyware/information-sharing was pretty easy. It just didn't satisfy the primary driver of the vehicle. 🤷🏼♂️
I suspect the ad is the result of cycling through the audio options with a button, whereas I'm pretty much only connecting direct to Bluetooth and playing audio off my phone.
While I don't love having two big screens for a dashboard, they've done a decent job on the overall UI/UX for a "smartphone with wheels".