How to permanently disable car mode?

I'm running Android 7.1 and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to ensure "car mode" doesn't start when the device (honeywell CT60) is docked. I've already tried the following:

installing app "no dock"
installing app "car mode off"
getting app devs to add uiMode to the <ACITIVTY> element in the manifest.xml file.

None of these seem to work. Does anyone have any advice or ideas? Perhaps even an app that force the device to not go into car mode.

Solution

You're on the right track. According to Honeywell the app's AndroidManifest.xml has to be modified in the following way:

<manifest>
    <application>
        <activity android:configChanges="uiMode">
            [...]
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

This has to be added for each activity, where CAR_MODE should be disabled. It signals to the OS that the app will handle changes regarding the UiMode itself. Now instead of restarting the app to apply changes, the OS will leave handling this change up to the app.

If you want to find out how exactly it works, there already is a post explaining it. Alternatively you can find a guide about this topic at the Android Developer Docs.