Hey there...
I've been scouring the intenet to see if this stupid "Drive Connect" thing can actually be disabled, there are complaints on multiple sites (here, Reddit, Tundras.com, Rav4World, Prius Chat, Toyota Nation...all the Toyota owners sites). I myself am looking at buying a new 2026 Toyota, but only if this malware/ad can be fully disabled. I don't want to drop 60K on a car then hate it three years later when the "free" subscription ends and the popups begin.
For one, unless things have changed since I bought mine in Dec of 2024, it's only ONE year trial subscription...and that trial doesn't actually include the service that connects Apple and/or Amazon music (I think GPS
may be included for a short time, but I can't recall if it's for the full year...I never used it), so some of the screens prompting you to subscribe to services start immediately.
To me, they're an annoyance, but not egregiously awful...they're not "pop-ups" really, the issue is that it defaults to the "home" screen prompting you to subscribe to GPS Nav (as shown in the OP) by default on start-up...but once you switch to the radio screen or whatever, they don't return. From a user experience perspective, it's not really any different to me than the "home screen" that my old RAV4 used to default to -- which wasn't necessarily prompting me to subscribe to anything, but was still useless and required me to click away from it.
I'm using Android Auto (AA) pretty much all the time anyway, so the vast majority of the time, I never even see the screens in question because it loads AA pretty much as soon as my LC picks up the connection to my phone.
To sum it up: if AA or Apple Carplay isn't connected, when you start the vehicle you'll see the screen shown in the OP, which you can navigate away from. While in "Music" mode, if you click on or cycle to "Amazon Music" or "Apple Music", then you'll also be prompted to add the subscription to connect to those, but those ONLY appear if you select them, it doesn't nag you otherwise...at least this has been my experience.
Take this info for better or for worse when making your decision... I don't believe there's any vehicle manufacturer not pulling this kind shit in 2026, and some are much worse than Toyota about it, IMO.
I spoke with the dealership I'm buying from...first they denied this exists. Then they looked into it as I walked out, I got answers from them as two printouts. So yes, they know this is an issue. If anybody is willing to try these steps A) it would be great for all the other Toyota owners out there with the same complaint, and B) I would really like to know before I either buy or walk away from my purchase.
I will say up front, this is not risk-free. The ability to use the app, gone. The ability to remote start with the app, gone. As I've been told, normal keyfob remote starting, not affected. My thanks (and the thanks of many Toyota owners if this works) in advance to any who can verify this does or does not get rid of their Drive Connect spam.
And as has been already mentioned, this won't change/remove those screens on the infotainment head unit...they just make it so that you can't actually use them -- while I do value privacy, I'm not gonna risk any loss of functionality or breaking anything by doing this...it could potentially also cause headaches when trying to sell the vehicle as well.
