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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: 2) by corey on Sunday December 26 2021, @11:38AM (1 child)
I didn’t read the article nor the original one from a month ago, but is there any sign that this is just a big fabricated beat up by whoever the article is written by? I mean, maybe Toyota we’re never intending on this but somehow the idea was leaked and it was just a brain fart, and the media went hysterical to drive clicks?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Sunday December 26 2021, @02:43PM
Yes, the media does overdramatize everything. But also, big, powerful companies are wont to do just as accused-- Right to Repair is a real issue. Which elements of this story are fact and which are drama, time will tell. Meantime, if it was an innocent mistake, as claimed, or a trial balloon to see if the public would let them do it as I think more likely, the blowback should warn them off. Seems most likely it was deliberate, if only by a small part of Toyota, perhaps just one senior manager, and their claims of it being a mistake and not something they really meant are just lies, to try to mend things.