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Businesses Transportation

Toyota is Going To Make You Pay To Start Your Car With Your Key Fob (theverge.com) 272

Toyota is charging drivers for the convenience of using their key fobs to remotely start their cars. From a report: According to a report from The Drive, Toyota models 2018 or newer will need a subscription in order for the key fob to support remote start functionality. As The Drive notes, buyers are given the option to choose from an array of Connected Services when purchasing a new Toyota, and one of those services -- called Remote Connect -- just so happens to include the ability to remotely start your car with your key fob. Buyers are offered a free trial of Remote Connect, but the length of that trial depends on the audio package that's included with the vehicle.
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Toyota is Going To Make You Pay To Start Your Car With Your Key Fob

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  • What's next? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OneHundredAndTen ( 1523865 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @10:07AM (#62074999)
    A subscription for the privilege of stepping on the gas pedal? Fcuk you, Toyota.
    • Absolutely. See Deere, John, and the purposeful inability to repair your own property.
    • by hubang ( 692671 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @10:12AM (#62075017)
      No, Toyota will do THAT for you automatically [go.com]. If you want to stop, that will be extra.
    • by blessedvirtue ( 7004110 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @10:16AM (#62075031)
      Mandatory listening to ads through the onboard soundsystem before you can start the engine.
    • A subscription for the privilege of stepping on the gas pedal? Fcuk you, Toyota.

      No, no, no, that would be a safety hazard. Instead they are going with something revolutionary - you can buy custom horn tunes to add a personal touch to otherwise calm road interactions.

    • Re:What's next? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @01:06PM (#62075741)

      A subscription for the privilege of stepping on the gas pedal? Fcuk you, Toyota.

      You're saying that as if the ability to remotely start your car is an integral feature of driving it. Having driven many cars in the past 40 years I can't say I've ever even come across this feature let alone though "damn what do I do now that I actually have to get in the car?"

      So your slippery slope fallacy remains just that. A silly fallacy.

      • by sjames ( 1099 )

        I don't have the problem, but in some colder areas, remote start is damned close to necessary.

        The bigger issue is that the "subscription" is for nothing at all. The capability exists and needs no external support to function. Basically, the subscription is an offer to not break a working feature. Just by buying the car, you already paid for all of the factory installed hardware that supports the feature. Rent seeking at it's finest.

    • A subscription for the privilege of stepping on the gas pedal? Fcuk you, Toyota.

      Regulation sucks, except when shit like this makes it necessary. For this reason I'd be happy to see the EU and the US legislate against this sort of behaviour.

  • ... key with no remote anything?

    • by mark-t ( 151149 )

      This is a feature of the car that I suppose Toyota is bundling in as standard, but if you don't want it, you shouldn't be under any obligation to pay for it.

      We got a Sirius FM radio subscription with our new car that we didn't pay anything extra for, and they contacted us when the subscription expired to renew, and we just told them no thanks, because we never used it.

      • by Junta ( 36770 )

        Note that a lot of new cars might have just one keyhole and that may only be allowed to open a door if the fob is dead (and often hidden, so the 'ugly keyhole' doesn't mess with their look).

        Such a car may fall back to NFC to start the car from a 'dead' fob, it's just pickier about where it has to be.

        • My wife's Mazda CX-5 is exactly like this. I'm very familiar because the battery in the key fob is dead more than it's charged. I don't lock the doors. So I just hold the fob up to the start button. It's actually nicer than a key in that you won't scratch anything up.
    • I have a 2012 Mazda Miata with a normal key. My wife has a 2013 CX-5 where you have to have to use the fob to start the car. So probably 2012 at least for Mazda. That being said the fobs are beneficial because they include ant-theft technology.

      So probably what you want is a non-internet-connected fob for which you probably only have to go back three or four years.

  • Then it will be the entertainment system, the AC, and then starting the car itself.
  • You'll just pay a subscription price, everything is moving to that model and it's not good for consumers.

    • by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

      Which wouldn't be all that bad if you hadn't shelled out tens of thousands for the privilege of being a subscriber first.

    • You'll just pay a subscription price, everything is moving to that model and it's not good for consumers.

      Yes, the openly-stated-then-quietly-withdrawn announcement by the World Economic Forum is that by 2030 We'll own nothing. And we'll be happy [quora.com]. They call it The Great Reset, and they seem pretty serious about it. Toyota's just doing its bit to not let the team down.

      On a side note, it would be interesting to do fMRI's on some of these super-rich fucks - I'm pretty sure their brains have become significantly different from those of most people reading this. Heck, I might be willing to dispense with the fMRI and

  • ShouldaboughtaHonda.
  • Really not selling me on Toyota products with this nonsense

    Random stuff to provide more characters so it doesn't look like "ascii art"

  • All it means is that the remote start feature is being built into all cars instead of being an option.

    Before you had to pay to have the remote start and get the different fobs. Now it will already be installed, you just pay to enable.

    Everyone here wants to turn it into slippery slope, soon you'll be paying to tart the car kind of nonsense.

    • No, that's not what's being talked about here. if it were a one-time fee everybody would understand and be on-board (or at least not consider it egregious). But why would you pay a subscription for that?
      • by Wolfier ( 94144 )

        > No, that's not what's being talked about here. if it were a one-time fee everybody would understand and be on-board

        Let's calculate the actual cost instead of

        Here is the actual cost: https://www.toyota.com/content... [toyota.com]

        Average car ownership is 10 years, with 3 years of trial period it means 7 years of subscription, $560.

        If you make it a "one time cost" of say $800 everybody would be on-board, but probably as a whole will pay more?

    • I think its like $80/yr. AFAIK the previous gen remote start didnt require new fobs. They just made you mash a couple buttons in sequence.
  • by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @11:05AM (#62075239) Journal

    I believe you have to have a sub to Bluelink for the remote-start feature to work, but I don't really pay attention as at my car's trim level (maybe all of them, I dunno) they give me free sub to Bluelink.

    1st world problems: FWIW while the remote-start feature is fundamentally nice (in MN being able to start your car without going out in the frigid dark first is REALLY a QoL thing) it constantly reminds me of how basically rubbish even fairly-advanced carmakers are at tech:
    - you can turn on the heated steering wheel, but not the heated seats. WTF why? Who thought that through?
    - the app is just basically clunky, slow, poorly designed, and buggy.
    - you can only run your car for 10 mins or less, then it shuts off. As I think the timer runs from 'send command' time, and sometimes it takes 2-3 mins to start, this means sometimes as little as 6 mins of time before it kills it.
    - the functions you can control remotely are a tiny subset of the things you presumably could do without jeopardizing the hackability of the vehicle, like set the radio station and volume?

    • - the functions you can control remotely are a tiny subset of the things you presumably could do without jeopardizing the hackability of the vehicle, like set the radio station and volume?

      Isn't that kind of like having an EJECT button on your VCR/DVD remote? I guess remote stereo control might be handy for those people who park their car with all the doors open and use it as a giant boombox...

  • Even the article says models 2018 or later. My wife recently traded in for a 2021 Highlander amid the absence of everything when her lease expired. The key fob start did not work. We had to activate our 1yr trial of the software that enables locking, unlocking, remote start (for a whopping 10min), and other features. So it most likely had not been free since the current body style hit production.
  • Thats weird, that feature is free on my Ford- fordpass.
  • by s_p_oneil ( 795792 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @11:22AM (#62075311) Homepage

    How much for an old-fashioned key? The fobs themselves should be an option, and not forced on everyone.

    • 100% of fobs I've ever seen or used have a key inside them.
      No this remote start feature has nothing to do with your ability to start the car when you're in it, physical turning key thing or no physical turning key thing.

  • by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @11:46AM (#62075405)
    So cars are becoming advertising platforms like computer operating systems. I'll keep my old vehicles until they rot from under me.
    • So cars are becoming advertising platforms like computer operating systems. I'll keep my old vehicles until they rot from under me.

      You're never buying a new car because they charge a fee for a service your old car likely doesn't have and one which you seem to be very happy to live with out?

      Many you people chose strange hills to die on.

  • Shouldn't this be built into the price of the car?
    • by Socguy ( 933973 )
      At one point it effectively was. At least an option at point of purchase. Now Toyota is getting greedy and trying to make it an ongoing charge...
  • by Monoman ( 8745 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @11:51AM (#62075431) Homepage

    I never use it on my Toyota because the vehicle turns off as soon as the door is opened. https://toyota.custhelp.com/ap... [custhelp.com]

    I do not know of any other automaker that does this. You can't open or drive the vehicle without the Key fob so what's the point? Are people leaving one fob in the car and starting it remotely with another?

    • Interesting.
      I rented a Chrysler vehicle and it included the remote start. It was fun -we then used the key to unlock the door and turn the car to the "On/Running" position without stopping the engine, but it was required before we could take the car out of "Park" and drive away. If turning the car to the "On" position was done quickly enough (IIRC, within 30 seconds) then the car would shut off with an alarm warning.

  • Mazda had 2 remote starts a ways back. One that was basically a cell signal to start it from "anywhere" using a fob, the other was a RF that worked in conventional means. Until they get "too complicated" to install an aftermarket starter, this is a major non-issue.

    So, yeah, let's go crazy about a GSM (or whatever it is) connection fee . . .
  • simple ... vote for this feature with your $$$ (hint: somewhere else)
  • I had remote start in my Mustang. In 1995. It did not require internet access to function.

    Toyota has taken a lesson from the airlines.
    Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded to make people want to pay to escape it. [uxmatters.com]

    Don't count on being able to "take your money elsewhere". These sorts of shenanigans are far too profitable for any vendor NOT to implement it wherever possible.

  • This has been the Hyundai / Kia model for years - I have to pay to remote start my 2014 Hyundai. Without a subscription I don't have access to remote start.
  • They need to cover their costs for lawsuits when the system gets hacked and the hackers take off with your car.

  • - How compatible are these newer cars with 3rd party remote starters?
    - Has anyone tried negotiating getting the fee waived? I'm sure dealers wouldn't want to lose sales over this.

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