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.
The cars are capturing more and more telemetry per mile. The more driver assist tech they have the more data the collect. Many also have cameras to monitor the driver for things like falling asleep. All this data is at least in the car’s blackbox, but how much they phone home is something I don’t think we fully know. There were people in Reddit that claimed that dealerships could disable the car’s modems but I haven’t put much stock in them.
I wouldn’t even mind that they are gathering all this data – as long as they let me know what it is, and let me access it, too. The cameras on these things are much better than any shitty dashcam I would buy. If I got in an accident, I would like access to that footage right away.
I drove a rental Tesla once. Those cars are super-shitty, but they let you see video of things like people who approach the car while it’s parked. And more importantly, they let you delete the video.
You could physically disconnect the modem to prevent the car from sending data. I would go to an independent mechanic for that, not the dealer.