Posted on 01/17/2022 8:07:13 AM PST by DoodleBob
Remember when BMW wanted to charge drivers to use Apple CarPlay? How about the subscription required for the Mercedes EQS's rear-wheel steering functionality in Europe? It turns out that luxury marques aren't the only ones looking to cash in on that sweet, sweet software as a service cash: Toyota has been testing the waters by making the remote start functionality on your proximity key fob part of a larger connected services subscription.
Yes, it appears the pay-to-play ethos that's spreading around the industry has reached the world's largest automaker. A Toyota spokesperson confirmed to The Drive that if a 2018 or later Toyota is equipped with Toyota's Remote Connect functions, the vehicle must be enrolled in a valid subscription in order for the key fob to start the car remotely. To be clear, what we're talking about is the proximity-based RF remote start system, where you press a button on the fob to start the car while outside of it within a certain distance—say, from your front door to warm up your vehicle in the driveway on a cold morning before you get in. Your fob uses radio waves to communicate with the car, and no connection back to Toyota's servers is needed. But the function will not work without a larger Remote Connect subscription.
It's become more common in recent years for automakers to charge for apps that allow drivers to monitor, lock, or start their cars with their smartphones. As far as we can tell, though, Toyota's the first company to charge for full use of your physical key fob—either $8 a month or $80 a year at the Remote Connect plan's current price.
When buying a new Toyota, buyers have the option to trial Toyota's Connected Services. These can include features like emergency assistance, hotspot connectivity, and app-based services like remote vehicle unlocking and starting. The length of Toyota's trial depends on the vehicle in question, as well the audio package included in the vehicle. For example, vehicles equipped with Audio Plus get a trial of up to three years whereas Premium Audio may have a trial for up to 10 years. Beyond that, drivers will need to pay for a subscription to continue using the key fob's remote start.
It also might not be obvious when buying a new Toyota that the remote start function is tied to a subscription. For example, the dealer video below shows a brief overview from a salesperson who states that the key should work on certain Toyotas "as long as [they have] Audio Plus"—no mention of the trial period or required subscription once that ends.
News of Toyota's decision surfaced on Reddit last month after an eagle-eyed user spotted some wording in Toyota's Remote Connect marketing materials that suggested an ongoing subscription would be required for drivers to start their car remotely with their key fob. The phrasing was confusing, and some wondered whether Toyota would actually take this step. A peek at various Toyota forums shows some owners have been reckoning with this possibility for a couple years now, though with many 2018 or newer Toyotas still within their subscription trial periods, it's entirely possible that most drivers are unaware of the arrangement.
Though the thread on Reddit was eventually labeled "Potentially Misleading" by moderators after garnering hundreds of comments, Toyota's response to The Drive was unequivocal: A paid subscription is required for the key fob's remote start function to work for every single model.
Ten years might seem like a long time. According to a study by iSeeCars, the average vehicle owner keeps their car for around 8.4 years. Toyota is ranked as the longest-kept manufacturer, with the average vehicle ownership lasting nine years. Cars are also lasting longer than ever with the average age of vehicles on the road being 12.1 years old, meaning that people are keeping new and used rides longer than ever. It's plausible that a vehicle will change hands during that 10-year trial period, leading to the remote start function deactivating after someone purchases the vehicle used. But it's just as plausible that the original owner will have to pay up.
What's even more unknown is how technology might affect something like this in the future. For example, cellular providers in the U.S. have earmarked the end of the 3G cellular network, a technology that many vehicles rely on today in order to call home to the mothership, so to speak. We've got a whole explainer on that available here, but the long and the short of it is that the situation is particularly dire for Toyota owners.
While some other manufacturers are retrofitting vehicles to be compatible with newer LTE networks, Toyota is discontinuing Connected Services support for the affected vehicles, all of which are model year 2019 or earlier. A Toyota spokesperson confirmed to The Drive that it has no plans to offer an upgrade, paid or otherwise, to vehicles affected by the 3G shutdown. Perhaps not coincidentally, the automaker also announced that it has "enhanced" vehicles built before Nov. 12, 2018, to no longer require a subscription for the key fob's remote start feature to function.
It's pretty clear that consumers aren't exactly rooting for subscription services in the auto industry. Toyota's example feels a bit egregious; it would be different if the key required a separate cellular connection or paired with the owner's phone via bluetooth and utilized the app's baked-in connectivity. But this is a physical key fob that needs to communicate directly with the vehicle via radio frequency—no remote connection back to Toyota is needed. So why require a subscription?
Update 12/11/2021 @ 2:20 pm ET: The story has been updated to clarify that the key fob's proximity-based radio frequency remote start function will not work without a paid subscription to Toyota's Remote Connect suite of connected services. The Drive regrets any confusion the original copy may have caused.
Small wonder used cars are in high demand.
Car companies trying to get on the recurring revenue bandwagon.
Someday, some hacker will start 100,000 cars remotely.
“recurring revenue bandwagon”
Seems to be working for the pharmaceutical companies
Sort of related....
Actually, there is a feature on my new car that allows me to start it remotely. I think that a lot of new cars can do that. I don’t like it. And it is sold and a convenience.
If you can start the car remotely, then you can certainly turn it off remotely. Or it would be easy to configure it to shut the car off. Can you disable the car completely? Probably.
Third party app to override if your car is paid off. Put old style key in place. Or freshly dead person who turns off cars and it would stop. 2nd amend applies to non government jackasses too
B I N G O
$80 a year is chump change compared to the annual rate of inflation for the cars themselves nowadays ... plus you don’t even need the subscription to start your car.
While you’re driving down the highway, the hacker behind you will pull your car over and take your car at gunpoint . . . or simply run your car off the road for fun.
Soon, a car will be a “service” you subscribe to (you will be nickled and dimed for every little thing) and not something you own.
Remember Cash-for-Clunkers”? I was criticized on FR at the time for saying that it was deliberate to get rid of the non-computerized vehicles and making us dependent on those who controlled the computers.
Seems to be working for the pharmaceutical companies
Yeah, just following the “cloud computing” craze.
Yup. Owning nothing. Being Happy. Being a good Party Member.
A question and then a couple of comments:
Since Lexuses are made by Toyota, will or do they have the same issues?
My wife’s Lexus 300 is 15+ years old. It and my getting gray time wise Honda Ridgeline have minimal if any electronic gear. Their doors can be unlocked or locked with the remote and the trunk on my wife’s Lexus.
We keep getting offers to buy our vehicles from smog station people, the national tire service place where we have both vehicles serviced, neighbors and people we don’t know.
One of our sons got an early inheritance of our OJ Simpson Bronco model. He has gotten offers to buy it off and on in the past decade. It recently passed the Ca. smog test, and he got 2 offers before he left the station. After it passed the smog test, he gets offers from strangers and people he knows and long term neighbors. The little year sticker on the rear license plate going out 2 years must be the “tell”!
Can we get the global warming crowd on this. It's bad for greenhouse gas emissions. Some white racist global terrorist could start all the cars and set the polar ice cap to having a meltdown and drown the swamp.
Remotely = through a phone app. I should have been clearer.
“Someday, some hacker will start 100,000 cars remotely.”
Start them all at once, in garages, no killer vapors, silently run heat or a/c. Kill battery.
Then all discharged in the morning and charge stations with lines a mile long !! Or stuck in garage.
So, if you don’t have the service hackers can’t remote start your car?
As a solar energy hound, I am worried about backdoor upgrades to inverters that are like sleeper cells. Wait for the time when the grid goes down or internet goes out and the inverter become a brick. aka run code to permanently disable as in the time of war and/or invasion.
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