[phire]

Yeah, I'm a little suspicious about that claim.

Bluetooth tethering is a thing, actually predates wifi tethering. Though it's not enabled unless you enable Personal Hotspot in your phone settings (and Android requires it to be enabled separately).

CarPlay complicates things, as it only uses bluetooth to pair, then it switches to using a wifi network (as bluetooth doesn't have anywhere near enough bandwidth). Maybe Apple automatically shares internet over that carplay connection?

I have no doubt that the car will use the internet connection if one is exposed, I just doubt it will be exposed automatically.

[ruszki]

My iPhone automatically shares the internet without enabling hotspot with my Toyota via Bluetooth. It happens automatically. I just start the car, and it happens. And CarPlay is not involved, since there is no such thing in my car.

[codezero]

What are you looking at to know that's happening? Is the Toyota downloading/displaying some information only available on your phone, or from the Internet, or something else? Could it have a 4G connection of its own? What's the connection that makes you think the phone connection is letting it upload data over the Internet using your phone?

[ruszki]

The car states that it connected to my phone and gets internet through it. There is a specific indicator for it. I have no clue what it downloads/uploads because I use it solely as a very expensive Bluetooth speaker.

[nicce]

Seems very worrysome and worth investigation. Basically, buttons in your phone are just an illusion.

[trinsic2]

One thing I notice is that it doesn't appear to upload contacts from your phone in usb mode. I haven't confirmed this.