Toyota announces remote start to be paid subscription on all vehicles.

[Blind_Io]

Toyota Made Its Key Fob Remote Start Into a Subscription Service

Subscription-based features are taking over the automotive industry—and now they're coming for your key fob.

www.thedrive.com

Time to jailbreak your car.

 

[Matt2000]

That's rather bold for a company that's arguably behind the rest of the major manufacturers in terms of technology. 10 years free with the premium audio isn't a terrible deal though.

 

[93Flareside]

Watch this decision be rolled back in a few months

 

[jack_christie]

Soon they will all be at it.

Polestar just charged €1000 for an update:

Polestar 2 gains over-the-air power upgrade | Autocar

Additional 67bhp released as part of a software update for electric hatchback; shaves 0.3sec off 0-62mph time

www.autocar.co.uk

 

[GRtak]

Whatever happened to making a product, selling it for a fair price, and being happy about it? Now every company wants to milk everything for all that they can get.

 

[NecroJoe]

How long before it's discovered in the fine print that these "as a service" upgrades/features aren't covered by the car's warranty, and you'll need to buy a special warranty upgrade package to cover it.

 

[DanRoM]

Soon they will all be at it.

Polestar just charged €1000 for an update:

Polestar 2 gains over-the-air power upgrade | Autocar

Additional 67bhp released as part of a software update for electric hatchback; shaves 0.3sec off 0-62mph time

www.autocar.co.uk

No, they charged €1000 for giving the car more power, which is perfectly reasonable.
Also, that's a one-time thing, not a subscription.

 

[eizbaer]

How long before it's discovered in the fine print that these "as a service" upgrades/features aren't covered by the car's warranty, and you'll need to buy a special warranty upgrade package to cover it.

No, they charged €1000 for giving the car more power, which is perfectly reasonable.
Also, that's a one-time thing, not a subscription.

Exactly, and as long as you get this from the OEM, you're gonna be fine from a warranty perspective (otherwise they wouldn't offer it). It's chiptuning crap that's sold as delivering the same result as the OEM offer but for half price that's gonna screw that up (and which will get detected and deactivated by a software update at some point).

 

[GRtak]

 

[Blind_Io]

Toyota 'Reviewing' Key Fob Remote Start Subscription Plan After Massive Blowback

A spokesperson told The Drive that making the key fob remote start part of a subscription plan was an "unintentional" move.

www.thedrive.com

Toyota is now reconsidering being inflamed syphlitic dickholes after learning their customers would stop giving them money.

 

[awdrifter]

Just like farmers have to jailbreak their tractors, that will be the future. It should be a simple jailbreak or even redirect to a fake server (like a Raspberry Pi) that will always respond that you have to right subscription for any features in the car.

 

[rickhamilton620]

Interesting that, if their reasoning is true, they lost track of a legacy remote start feature and kept building it into the vehicle. The article says that Toyota claims it's a unofficial hack but it's not. As far back as the 07 Camry, one could get a dealer installed Toyota accessory remote engine start that uses that same key fob sequence to start the car: