SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the complaining-is-often-worth-it dept.
Earlier this month, we broke a story about Toyota locking its key fob remote start function behind a monthly subscription. If owners of certain models aren't actively enrolled in a larger Toyota connected services plan, the proximity remote start function on the fob—that is, when you press the lock button three times to start the car while outside of it—will not work even though it sends the signal directly to the car. Obviously, this sent people into a frenzy whether they own a Toyota or not, because it was seen as a dark harbinger of the perils of fully-connected cars. Automakers now have the ability to nickel and dime people to death by charging ongoing subscription fees for functions that used to be a one-and-done purchase, and it looked like Toyota was hopping on the bandwagon.
At the time, Toyota declined to give us a detailed answer on why it chose to take a feature that doesn't need an internet connection to function and moved it behind a paywall. Today, we've got answers. Toyota now claims it never intended to market the key fob remote start as a real feature, and it also says the subscription requirement was an inadvertent result of a relatively small technical decision related to the way its new vehicles are architectured. Finally, Toyota has heard the outrage over the last week—a spokesperson told us the company was caught off guard by the blowback—and its executive team is currently examining whether it's possible to reverse course and drop the subscription requirement for key fob remote start.
Previously: Toyota Owners Have to Pay $8/Month to Keep Using their Key Fob for Remote Start
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 25 2021, @10:11PM (1 child)
300,000 letters? Nobody writes letters but prisoners. That's who writes physical letters these days. Are you in prison? You plan on buying stamps for 300,000 prisoners?
You know, only like 84,000 people watched the James Webb launch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 25 2021, @10:33PM
In which the rent seekers come out of the woodwork to discourage you from any actionable plan.