Essentially, no. Your best bets are the German manufacturers, some of whom (e.g. Porsche) have data opt outs for all services and exist within a legislative framework that's at least mildly protective of consumer privacy. Even then you should be wary about cars built for export to other markets like the US. It's common for the regional manufacturer to be a separate legal entity, with separate backend services, delivering cars with different configurations and software.
For American, Japanese, and Korean manufacturers? You should just assume they're harvesting all the data they can get on you. GM's recent decision to ditch Android auto and Carplay was motivated in large part by their desire to better control and monetize user data collection.
> (i) the Connected Services Privacy Notice located at www.Toyota.com/privacyvts (“Privacy Notice”). Carefully review the Privacy Notice as it applies to your personal information and Vehicle (as defined below) data that we collect, use, store, share and secure to provide the Services. Please note that your Vehicle comes with a data communication module (“DCM”) that enables the Wireless/GPS Technology, as described in Section 11(a), and allows for the collection of data from you and your vehicle (e.g., location, health and driving data). BY DEFAULT, THE DCM IS ON/ACTIVE WHEN YOUR VEHICLE IS DELIVERED AND WILL REMAIN ON/ACTIVE (AND CONTINUE TO COLLECT DATA FROM YOU AND YOUR VEHICLE) UNTIL YOU CONTACT US AND REQUEST THAT IT BE DEACTIVATED.
> (b) DCM. If you cancel your Service Plan, we have the right (but, unless you ask us to, not the obligation) to turn off your DCM as of the effective date of cancellation. Once your DCM is turned off, the Vehicle will not send any data to Toyota. Depending on the connectivity to your Vehicle, your DCM may deactivate immediately, or it may take up to several days.
The GR86 forums have a few people also looking at ways to outright disconnect the hardware for this kind of stuff entirely, but I believe that's slow going - haven't kept up on it. I just have the above saved since I look at this stuff when buying any new car these days.
The obvious disclaimer applies that you may enter warranty hell if you're disabling it, because it's 2023 and I guess society is fine with this level of default tracking. You should confirm how it affects you before changing anything. Otherwise, hope people find it helpful!
> opting out of data sharing can be done via an app.
Oh, the irony.
As the owner of a new Toyota who received a phone call from our dealer because Toyota contacted them about a (routine) maintenance alert from our vehicle… the car / app combination is a privacy nightmare.
They offer an opt out, and that’s good, but by the gods their default is insane.
> Your best bets are the German manufacturers, some of whom (e.g. Porsche) have data opt outs for all services and exist within a legislative framework
Funnily enough that car in white at the center of the picture in the WIRED article is a Porsche (the most luxurious and less sold of all the Porsche models: the Panamera).
Your can pull a fuse (I think it's marked DCM?) in some Toyotas if you don't care about the entertainment/navigation system ever contacting a cell tower again. I pulled the one in my 2021 Tundra.
I pulled a fuse out of my car to disable the onstar module because they were sending me "monthly diagnostic report" emails. I had never made an onstar account, and I even declined the free trial.
If they hadn't sent me those diagnostics I would not have guessed they were tracking me in the first place. Too bad they outed themselves, this time at least :)
Don't know about others, but European car manufacturers are under strict regulations and try their damn best to not record anything as it immediately becomes a liability.
Edit: I know at least a few companies have a test vehicle program that operates under different rules, but those are not sold to general public. So the company receive high quality data without getting into trouble with GDPR.
For American, Japanese, and Korean manufacturers? You should just assume they're harvesting all the data they can get on you. GM's recent decision to ditch Android auto and Carplay was motivated in large part by their desire to better control and monetize user data collection.