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Toyota owners have to pay $8/mo to keep using their key fob for remote start
Automakers keep trying to get a piece of that sweet, sweet subscription income. Now, it's Toyota's turn.
Nearly every car company offers some sort of subscription package, and Toyota has one called Remote Connect. The service offers the usual fare, letting owners use an app to remotely lock their doors, for example, or if they own a plug-in vehicle, to precondition the interior. But as some complimentary subscriptions for Remote Connect come to an end, Toyota owners are getting an unexpected surprise—they can no longer use their key fob to remote-start their vehicles.
In terms of technology, this remote-start feature is no different from using the fob to unlock the car. The fobs use a short-range radio transmitter to send the car a signal that is encrypted with rolling codes. The car then decrypts the signal and performs the requested action, whether it's to lock or unlock the doors, beep the horn, or start the engine. RF key fobs have been around since the 1980s, and GM added a factory-installed remote-start option in 2004 (no subscription needed).
Key fob remote start has nothing to do with an app, nor does the car or the fob communicate with any servers managed by Toyota.
Toyota has been offering factory-installed remote start on 2018 and newer vehicles equipped with Audio Plus or Premium Audio. To use it, owners have to be within 50 feet of the vehicle and double-press the fob's lock button before holding the lock button down for a few seconds.
Yet recently, as 2018 Toyotas have passed their third birthday, owners have been discovering that the fob's functionality is dependent on maintaining an active Remote Connect subscription. Vehicles equipped with Audio Plus receive a free three-year "trial," while Premium Audio vehicles receive 10 years. Once those subscriptions expire, though, the key fob remote start stops working. Toyota didn't change the rules, though that detail was buried in the fine print. When the time comes, Toyota simply cuts off access to one of the functions on the key fob already in the owner's possession. To get the feature back, owners have to pony up $8 per month or $80 per year.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snotnose on Tuesday December 14 2021, @11:27AM (16 children)
I suspect that with all the negative publicity this is getting Toyota will soon issue a "we fixed a bug that made your remote start quit working".
If not, a lot of people won't even look at Toyota when it's time for a new car.
Being the dumbest idiot in the land and president of the US should be 2 different people.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @11:34AM (4 children)
It's a federal felony to install your own car starter to circumvent their access control. DMCA for the win.
I bet nobody considered that consequence. The DMCA just says, circumvent, which usong an alternative system to start your car definitely does.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @07:12PM (2 children)
Imagine a world where companies can criminalize consumers' (oh, how I hate that word/mindset) decisions on how they use their own property by simply adding a "feature", some rent-seeking, and a little cryptography?
They have purchased our government. Is this unclear? This comes at the point of a gun, as do all laws. When you don't comply at various levels, it will eventually be escalated to state violence with guns. That's how laws work.
Every time you want to pass a law, you'd better imagine yourself holding someone at gunpoint to enforce it. Is that really right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 15 2021, @03:39AM (1 child)
Well what are you proposing?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 15 2021, @07:48AM
(Score: 5, Interesting) by mcgrew on Tuesday December 14 2021, @07:57PM
It's a federal felony to install your own car starter to circumvent their access control. DMCA for the win.
It has yet to be tested in court. You're replacing, not circumventing.
The "patriotic" Defense Secretary Hegseth carries an American flag in his jacket's snot rag pocket.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @02:06PM (2 children)
> I suspect that with all the negative publicity this is getting Toyota will soon issue a "we fixed a bug that made your remote start quit working".
Toyota have undoubtedly experimentally determined that $80/y will get the Plebs salivating for the feature to UNLOCK MY CAR WITH MY SMARTPHONE.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by drussell on Tuesday December 14 2021, @02:19PM (1 child)
No, no...
This is NOT a fee to use a feature like OnStar's unlock by your car being connected over the cell network...
This is a fee to be allowed to continue to use the local, RF remote feature in your FOB that starts the car! The remote door lock functionality currently remains free of charge but they intend to charge you $8 per month to maintain the ability to use your FOB's local RF interface to remote start your car!
Your car has remote start feature (almost all cars have this hardware built in by default now) and you've paid for a package that includes access to that feature (it is enabled by the factory or the dealer at purchase) but they now want you to pay a subscription fee to continue to have that feature stay enabled beyond the included free "trial" period, which currently ranges between 3 and 10 years on most vehicles, depending on which trim level and options packages you purchased the vehicle with.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Spamalope on Tuesday December 14 2021, @02:37PM
You can bet the sales staff was deceptive at point of sale as well.
Courts so far have excused that as 'sales patter' and allow direct lies as long as the sales contract says 'no representations by sales staff count, only this document of incomprehensible to the lay person lawyer professional jargon'.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Tuesday December 14 2021, @03:29PM (5 children)
Ha, ha, ha, ha. Right.
Modern people insist on having their asses raped like this. If people had brains, they would insist that cars NOT have pointless cell-phone connected features, NOT have touch screen controls that force them to take their eyes off of the road unlike proper tactile controls, NOT have bright blue LED dashboards that make night driving impossible, and so on.
If tomorrow, car manufacturers started producing cars with square wheels and advertised the hell out of them, everyone would still buy them up and be happy with them. Thunk thunk thunk thunk.
I hate this planet.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 15 2021, @03:42AM
Yes well round wheels are misogynist, you rapist. You'll never be good with women, and you'll never get laid. You incel. That's why Boeing has decided to upgrade our 737 Maxes to square wheels.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday December 15 2021, @03:56AM (2 children)
Here's the truth of the matter: If this move increases Toyota's revenue, I can guarantee you that Ford, GM, Honda, Kia, etc will follow suit. And then it won't matter that you don't want it, because there's nothing on the market that doesn't include it.
And this is one of many reasons why oligopolies are bad for buyers. And most major industries in capitalist countries are oligopolies, at least locally.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 16 2021, @12:08AM (1 child)
As opposed to those bright and shining planned economies like North Korea or the old Soviet Union.
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Thursday December 16 2021, @03:23AM
Well, the old Soviet Union cars didn't have pointless cellphone-connected services, touch screens, and dashboards with bright blue LEDs, so there's at least that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 15 2021, @06:13AM
Those are features for the luxury tier. Are you ready to pay for the privilege?
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday December 14 2021, @07:55PM
If not, a lot of people won't even look at Toyota when it's time for a new car.
The first thing that came to my mind was exactly that; "remind me to never buy a Toyota." Even after they "fixed a bug". Whether they're evil or incompetent makes no difference to me, I don't want one either way.
The "patriotic" Defense Secretary Hegseth carries an American flag in his jacket's snot rag pocket.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @09:30PM
All the automakers have started rolling out subscription fees for various things, it seems. Think it started among the luxury makers, but has spread. Don't expect this move by Toyota to change the trend, even if they do get negative publicity.