The technical term is “dummy load”, most antennas are around 50ohm “impedance” which in an incredibly roundabout way means the antenna is indistinguishable from a 50ohm resistor at whatever frequency it’s tuned to…which means you can replace the antenna with a 50ohm resistor.
This all assumes you care about leaving the radio functional (radio amplifiers will burn up if they can’t dissipate the energy they’re creating) and in most cases it’s probably fine to just cut the trace as close to the source chip as possible. That said, if the system is especially evil and well engineered it’ll throw errors in some cases so better to leave everything functional but unable to hear or transmit.
Even from a perfect witness (and witnesses are very imprefect) you wouldn’t be able to predict if they have a beard or not. That’s why you always multiple variations of the person when they actually distribute renditions.
I bought a 2015 Dacia. It’s just smart enough that it let’s you connect a device through Bluetooth, however it’s not smart in any other way. It’s barely got kilometers (sub 1k) and will last me a while.
I don’t have a great answer to your question, but you might be able to find a relatively cheap car that isn’t “smart” and doesn’t have a touchscreen or anything. Do they make those anymore? Then, you could add an aftermarket stereo receiver to it, like some of the options in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t1GdI9UsEI
Yes, that’s still a “smart” stereo but it’s NOT connected to any of the car manufacturer’s metrics or systems, right? So the separation makes it seem more privacy-friendly to me. I could be thinking about this incorrectly, but it seems logical to me. There might be some stereo receivers that are more private than others, but you’d have to do your own research for that.
Damn, I’m looking around and don’t see any, even the cheapest Toyotas and Kias have a big touchscreen with Android and CarPlay. I’m not sure what happens if you take that out and replace it with an aftermarket receiver, but it appears to be possible because Crutchfield sells receivers for a 2024 Corolla: crutchfield.com/…/Digital-Multimedia-Video-Receiv…
I’m also seeing people online saying that there are cars made for businesses that still come with no “smart” features. But I have no clue how you would buy one of those, I doubt they have them at dealerships: reddit.com/…/what_cars_less_than_5_years_old_are_…
Or, you could just get a used car, save some money, and check all the low-tech boxes.
The problem is that there isn’t a singular replacement. People use Twitter for that feeling of being up to date with everything happening in the world. Until one of the alternatives can deliver that on a larger scale, Twitter will retain a considerable userbase.
I’m pretty sure the people who still use Twitter use it for the drama. Mastodon and Bluesky just aren’t as spicy to them. Hell, Mastodon takes setting up to even get anything interesting.
They are looking to buy new, and need Android Auto and CarPlay
I was active on an automotive forum around the time when that sort of thing started to be seen as a "need" by car salesmen and some of their more enthusiastic customers. The big new thing was "infotainment" and it seemed like the whole industry was insisting we'd all soon see how essential this stuff was. I was disdainful of the idea then, and have only become more so. Cars should have an AM/FM radio receiver, and aside from lights and a horn that's all they need for communications.
That's not the answer you're looking for, but it seems reasonably on-topic here. If you must get a new car, the easiest route to having it not spy on you as much as it can all the time is to make sure it doesn't have a SIM card (or remove the one it does have) and never connect your phone to it in any way except perhaps via a 3.5mm audio jack.
I do want to not use my Sim for internet but I dont know what to use. I know there are small devices you can pop Sim into but couldn’t find any decent. I think it would also stop drawing your battery, does anyone got any tips for a good manufacturer?
Sorry, but I have bad news for you. Privacy in major car brands no longer exists.
You don’t say where your family member lives, but you might look into smaller regional brands that focus on cheap cars for less overdeveloped areas of the world. Be aware the tradeoff is probably in safety features.
GM for example you cannot remove OnStar from their vehicles. But with my Subaru removing the starlink module was a ~20 minute procedure. You’ll need an aftermarket harness in order to maintain the front speakers.
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