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posted by martyb on Tuesday December 14 2021, @11:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the send-out-your-kid dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Fnord666 on Tuesday December 14 2021, @01:47PM (2 children)

    by Fnord666 (652) on Tuesday December 14 2021, @01:47PM (#1204954) Homepage

    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.

    So, how do they enable/disable this feature, if there is no calling home?

    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.

    Seems slower than a normal remote key. For my car I just need to press the button once and the car unlocks within 1 second (almost instantly). Even using a normal key seems faster than this.

    To get the feature back, owners have to pony up $8 per month or $80 per year.

    So, that's Toyotas price for laziness.

    I suspect that the author means that the system does not use or go through a remote server in order to use the key fob remote start feature. Presumably the car's control system does receive updates from time to time from Toyota, either through the dealership or OTA. This is likely when Toyota sends an update package to disable that feature if you haven't paid up.

    Hopefully they send the "disable that feature" code only once and someone can hack the signal, reverse engineer it, and re-enable the feature for people. Given automaker's typical security practices, it may even be possible to just perform a replay attack to re-enable the feature.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday December 14 2021, @05:10PM (1 child)

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday December 14 2021, @05:10PM (#1205009) Homepage
    From a legal CYA perspective, it's more sensible to have it as a canary. It's disabled when they stop updating the firmware with an image containing a "still keep it enabled" code. That way, none of their actions are "disabling", as it's always been disabled, just after a rolling delay. If they've decided to go down this path at all, they'll have planned it in advance, which would include getting the legal CYA team in.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Tuesday December 14 2021, @06:22PM

      by Fnord666 (652) on Tuesday December 14 2021, @06:22PM (#1205031) Homepage

      From a legal CYA perspective, it's more sensible to have it as a canary. It's disabled when they stop updating the firmware with an image containing a "still keep it enabled" code. That way, none of their actions are "disabling", as it's always been disabled, just after a rolling delay. If they've decided to go down this path at all, they'll have planned it in advance, which would include getting the legal CYA team in.

      That's an interesting idea and I wonder if someone will take the trouble to sue them over this just to find out the details during the discovery process?