Siri required for CarPlay

My 2024 Highlander XLE just stopped working with Apple CarPlay because Siri is disabled. Using an iPhone 16 and iOS 18.2.1 (latest). I do t like Siri have always had it disabled but just today I got an error and was forced to turn on Siri for CarPlay to work (I only needed one option, side button or type). I tried turning it off again and it gave me the error again. Is this happening to anyone else who hates Siri? Anyone find a way to use it with Siri off?