I am having a hard time determining if its the vehicle making the actual request, or if the request is somehow proxied from the Nissan CARWINGS data center. If its just the CARWINGS data center, that is probably a really easy fix.....but if its the car....ugh...
Only the car can transmit its own gps and heading data. If it gets to the logs of your own web server, it came from the car somehow or another. If its glommed on to the request on its way through the CARWINGS datacenter after arriving there by another protocol, that's worse. It means they're hoarding the data in their cloud and your privacy has never even crossed their minds.
The IP number in the log is from a block in Japan, named GLOBALEV-IT, belonging to Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd. Traceroute shows it's reached via tokyjp01.jp.ra.gin.ntt.net, which suggests that it's actually in Japan, not just allocated to a Japanese company.
Given that the location in the article is somewhere in/around Seattle, I'd say it's pretty clear that CARWINGS is proxying the request.
