Edit: Just asked because of curiosity. I’m not actually looking for such vehicles.
Edit 2: So for context, my parents new Toyota has this feature that allows the GPS location of the car to be sent to toyota, then you can see the location via an app on android/ios (it’s supposed to be an anti-theft feature). The data is sent via an antenna that connects to cell towers, which then connects to the internet, and to the toyota servers. “Diagnostic” and “maintenance” information is also sent via those same antennas.
The dealer said it could be turned off, but who knows if they are really off. There’s not a hard switch on the car.
Some cars have an antenna built in to the car. I mean the antennas that connect to cell towers, not a fm radio antenna.
I think most do in case you want to connect to their service. It would be interesting to know if they connect anyway, regardless if you are using their services.
If you do a deep dive into the manual, you will see that there is an always-on connection for “diagnostic information”. (I think there is a “DCM” indicator on the display to show when it’s active). I wish I knew what they were sending. I can’t find a way to connect the car to local wifi to send the data, which is probably by design because if I am sending it through an AP I control, I could sniff out some details on where they are sending the data.