OV9

Came with my Previa, it appears aftermarket, though my neighbour opposite also has a Previa with one, my guess is its the remains of some kind of antenna for an old sat nav or phone car kit.
Its definitely nothing to do with the factory radio or GPS.
I would take it apart to take a look inside, but its in an awkward spot to get.

Some sort of automatic toll thing like the old dart tags?

Yeah remains of a motorway tag thing (presume it's a jdm import). Usually connected to a black box somewhere under the dash, but that may have been removed.

Possibility it has been used as a minicab?

It looks a little like a device my old boss had which told you of traffic conditions on the motorway - this was back in the mid to late 90's and predated most SatNav

The display had 3 lights - one for 5 miles 10 miles and 15 miles - Green if clear, Amber of slower than 40mph and red of stationary.

I think it might have been connected to Traffic Master

Its a UK car (I have checked the V5), its got full history and a stack of receipts, was a company car for first 5 years and then last owner since 2011, not been a taxi, only has 110k miles on the clock.

Never thought about Traffic Master, I have had a quick look, but Google is not being very helpful when I search images though (also not helpful when looking for toll - tags as well).

5G covid booster.

dinny_g wrote: Tue Sep 14, 2021 1:31 pm It looks a little like a device my old boss had which told you of traffic conditions on the motorway - this was back in the mid to late 90's and predated most SatNav

The display had 3 lights - one for 5 miles 10 miles and 15 miles - Green if clear, Amber of slower than 40mph and red of stationary.

I think it might have been connected to Traffic Master

My dad used to have one of those, he commuted halfway round the M25 every day. His was just a standalone dash unit though as far as I know.

Looks like the inside of a glass mount antenna (for an old style car kit) to me, you had a wired box on the inside then the external aerial would stick on the other side of it. Common to remove the visible stuff inside like the phone holster and the outside aerial but leave a lot of the wiring and boxes that are tucked away.

This also reminds me, I have what I think are japanese TV aerials at the top of the Stepwgn screen, and a aftermarket GPS puck on the dash that I need to remove at some point.