2020 data transmittal

Not sure if anyone here has really tried to get their MIC on after pulling the fuse, but I found a few diagrams, just in case anyone wants to mess with it. I'll probably give it a go when I have some time.

This first one identifies the connectors at the back of your head unit.


This one the connectors at the back of the DCM.



This one is from the head unit to the DCM.



And from the DCM to your MIC.




Just looking over this quickly, I'm assuming (at the DCM) bypass

6>16 +
7>32 -

But, hmm, I don't see where the MIC power supply ends up from the head unit (R49-23>?). But the spec is the same coming from the DCM. I suppose you could check for continuity at the DCM connection, and bypass from that pin to 5 at D37. That'll get you power where you need it.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'd like for all of us to roam the country freely and unsupervised. With a working microphone. As we should.



.....disclaimer. I've had a long day at work, and am enjoying some Maker's at the moment. Do what you will with this information.

 

Looks like you are getting close!
Are there any more detailed schematics available anywhere? If not, this may take some doing to reverse engineer this...

 

Older thread, but this is the exact argument I keep making. If you provide me with an optional product, and I pay for it with my data, that's cool with me. But don't collect my hard earned cash for your product, then continue to use me as a cash cow by collecting my information without my consent. If you do, then I expect a discount of some sort, or maybe a pay-back system for a portion of the additional profits you're making.

My other argument is that I can leave my cell phone at home, or just not use it if I don't want to be tracked. A vehicle, however, is a necessity and I don't have a choice to leave it at home. I'm not a fan of having tracking abilities integrated into every product anymore, even when not needed.

 

So did anyone ever figure out if the fourth antenna connector is for the DCM transmissions? I'd rather disable it that way than just pull the fuse for the whole subsystem if I can.

 

Not sure this will be helpful for the Tacoma, but...

On the 2020+ 4Runners there are three connectors, white, blue, and gray. The white and blue are cellular antennas while gray is the GPS antenna. I pulled the white and blue connectors, which at first seemed to prevent the DCM from receiving/transmitting as evidenced by: 1) the signal "bars" on the radio display showing no signal, 2) the LED next to the SOS button turning from green to red, and 3) the Toyota app not displaying current mileage, fuel level, or tire pressure.

BUT, I found that if I was driving down the highway or somewhere else close to a cell tower, one of the signal bars would light up, and the DCM would transmit (and the Toyota app would update with current vehicle info).

So even with the cellular antennas disconnected and pigtails wrapped with foil tape, the DCM is still able to transmit, which is a bummer. I am hesitant to simply pull the fuse because there's a backup battery on the DCM that's presumably charged off of the same circuit. If it dies, I don't want it to set any codes. This vehicle is our spare "good"/travel truck and gets limited use, and we rarely use bluetooth features anyway, so I'm thinking that I might install a simple toggle switch to turn the DCM off most of the time. I can flip it on when we're in areas where cellular reception is poor (including my house) in order to charge the backup battery. That's if I can remember to flip it.

Hope this helps.

Edit: Photo of cellular and GPS connectors for the 4Runner...

 

Hmm, that kind of makes sense when I think about it. Even with the main antenna disconnected, there is still a small length of wire on the system board that can act as a low gain antenna, so if you get close enough to a cell tower it would still work. I noticed the same sort of thing working with SINCGARS radios.

From what I read, when the DCM is disabled completely by pulling the fuse, the only functionality that is disabled from the user's perspective is the Bluetooth mic, not Bluetooth itself. Or did I completely misread that early on in the comment chain? I really don't give a crap about voice controls and I actively avoid taking calls while I'm driving, so the loss of that feature is of little consequence when I think about it.

As for installing an inline switch, you might be able to hook up an IFTT switch controlled by your phone using a geofence rule that turns on the switch when you are within a certain range of your house. No manual flicking needed.

Thoughts?

 

I think you're right, just the mic is disabled with the DCM fuse pulled.

I like the idea of a manual switch just for the control factor. I don't think the backup battery charges when the ignition is off anyway, which is the state of the vehicle at my house.

 

I guess we'll find out in a bit. I'm heading to the dealer shortly to pick up the truck.

 

This man is spot on.

 

You also said they could see a baby's footprint in the sand from 100 miles, and that isn't true. So... maybe you don't know what is coming.

 

That is a really short sighted line of thought. What if some time in the future you have to drive yourself or a relative to a specialist doctor. So now your medical insurance company finds this info and speculate you might have cancer. So let's just drop Engineer90 soon before he starts costing us money. I can think of countless examples of "nothing to hide" but at the same time you don't want personal info in someone else's hands. You don't have to have something to hide in order to not want to give away a lot of personal info.

Saying "I have nothing to hide, so you can track me, invade my privacy, trample my 4th amendment rights" is close to "I really have nothing important to say, so you can take away my freedom of speech."

 

So, real world results time. Test vehicle is a 2020 TRD OR w/ MT. I removed the fuse for the DCM (I was expecting it to be under the dash but it's actually in the fuse box under the hood) and can confirm the DCM uplink logo has gone subdued grey. Nice. The weird part is that the Bluetooth mic isn't entirely disabled. When my phone is hooked up via Android Auto, the mic will not work for any search functionality, and it does not work for phone calls, but it does work for responding to messages using voice-to-text. Even weirder is that it will hear me say "OK Google", but it will not hear me say anything after that. Eh, I guess that's the price I pay for privacy.

Also, dear god the stock infotainment system in this truck sucks. If it wasn't for Android Auto I'd be looking at ways to completely replace this head unit.

 

I believe your mask is on inside out. The elastic strings attach to the outside of the mask.

 

I’mma just bump this again. If you’re okay with all this, cool, keep on keepin’ on. If you’re not, you should have the option to opt-out. We are not being given that option. This thread is intended to find these options ourselves, nothing to do with conspiracies.

@ronopolis is absolutely correct, but the scale is GLOBAL rather than just ‘localized’ to the US and one amendment.

 

The shenanigans continue, former Congressional Representative and CIA agent Bob Barr is reporting that the infrastructure bill recently passed contains provisions for mandatory vehicle kill switches for all new vehicles, with an earliest implementation year of 2026.

Source: https://dailycaller.com/2021/11/29/...-bill-contains-backdoor-kill-switch-for-cars/

Privacy is a line in the sand issue. You are either with us or against us. Anyone advocating for invasion of privacy, anyone excoriating forum members for caring about this issue, or blindly going along with this stupidity - check yourself, you are on the wrong side of this issue.

"Ignorance is bliss;" "You are being tracked anyway;" "I have nothing to hide;" "Tinfoil hat;" - You people are the problem. You are the reason why government does whatever it wants with impunity. All of the worlds dictators and authoritarians did not get to where they were overnight, they got there over time. And they got there because of bunch of spineless ignorant sheep would rather have their precious 'gadgets,' live in their comfort caves, sucking off of the teet of society.

Answer me this, are you ignorant, apathetic, or both?

I'm happy to drive my 2017 until the wheels fall off. But go ahead, keep buying brand new vehicles and wasting your money on overinflated high cost garbage. Your corporate and government overlords thank you for your service, slave.

Shame on Toyota for this B.S.
Shame on our public officials for allowing it.
And shame on you. You know who you are.

Consider your positions in life. Govern yourself accordingly.

 

So, a few thoughts on this:
* Are you sure the GPS unit does not transmit? How does the satellite know to give just your vehicle the XM media stream if it cannot verify that you have a paid license? XM radio also uses ground-based transmitters on a wi-fi'ish (similar to LTE) channel to avoid satellite interference from buildings due to line of sight.
* The problem with voting with the wallet is that eventually *every* vehicle will have this technology, even the cheap ones. You won't be able to avoid it unless you ride a bicycle everywhere.
* The courts have said that just about anything outside your home is not private; even your garbage can placed on the sidewalk has no legal protection from people going through it. I would venture a guess that any data you generate from driving around is also going to fall into the "you are doing this in public so it's freely available" bucket. But of course I'm not a lawyer..

 

You do have the ability to opt out. Two ways actually, in the case of a Tacoma.
1) Remove the fuse for the DCM.
2) Don't buy a vehicle with the feature, and tell the manufacturer that this is why you won't.

While venting in an internet forum may be cathartic ( I do the same thing) , ultimately it won't make much of a real world difference. Your money is the only real voice you have.

 

Food for thought:
A few years ago a guy at work came in and said his truck had been stolen. It hadn't - it ended up just getting towed. Before finding that out, he called the cops. The first thing they did: put his plate number into the computer in the cruiser's dash to see which traffic lights and toll booths the plate had gone through. Cops had the last 30 days worth of photos. The cops then opened a tab on the browser that shows all towing companies registered with the city and the tags they have in their registry of "captured" vehicles. Truck was located in 15 minutes. At no time did they fire up Ye Olde Toyota tracking device. Guy had his truck back by EOD and the worst thing was that he had to pay for the ticket and tow.

My point is: if "they" want to tack you there's easier and more robust ways to do it. Don't get caught up in this deep-techno state Minority Report thing - it's been here for years and ain't gonna stop now. My other thing is: only people with something to hide are afraid of getting caught. I don't really feel like paying more for car insurance because you drive like sh*t or more for my truck because warranty costs go up when you bolt on aftermarket parts that cause your truck to fail in ways it shouldn't. I digress, you do you, but stop making everyone else more paranoid because lawsuits forced an automaker to pay more attention to what's going on inside it's vehicles.

Rant's done. Going back to the AC-Drain mod fix thread to learn what color zipties I should use on the rerouted drain tube.

 

The subject being discussed has nothing to do with catching criminals. It's about corporations & government invading the privacy & stealing the personal data of law-abiding citizens for profit or political gain.

So, do you work for Google or for the NSA?