DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Toyota Key Fob Remote Start Now By Subscription

Wow. You bought a Toyota, and have a feature built into the vehicle for which there is no extra hardware, software, or configuration necessary ..... but if you want to continue using it, it'll cost you $8/month.

Toyota Made Its Key Fob Remote Start Into a Subscription Service
https://www.thedrive.com/news/43329/toyota-made-its-key-fob-remote-start-into-a-subscription-service

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.


VIA TOYOTA
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.

yea its dumb for sure.

my advice to anyone not trying to pay extra for some of these features is to look at 3rd party coding for your vehicle. with so many cars having screens, you can also avoid paying for navigation by just coding the car to work with your app on the phone anyway.

unfortunately i think its inevitable that companies was gonna start trying to charge for these features, especially with used car markets now being the go to for most consumers.

Agreed, I love using the coding for my BMW

More reason to keep my 2011 & 2013 vehicles running for another decade or two.
Old cars, new tractors... that's the life.

I don't know about a few more decades, but I hear you. I still drive a 2010 model. It's starting to seem a bit aged and needed attention more often. A couple of months ago I thought about buying a new vehicle. I wanted a Outback or some type of fuller sized hybrid...maybe a Camry. The problem is I couldn't find any on the lots in the area. I was told I could order and wait a month or more.

I am a impulse type on something like that and don't want to wait, so have decided to just wait another 2-3-4 years. I have always driven a car 10-12 years anyway. Cars aren't how I identify, so I will just take this one out 15 or so years.

Hey, it saves me money. I dropped the collision because it wouldn't pay all that much if I did drop it in to a ditch, so basically, I am self-insured in that regard.

Maybe it's time for another truck. A 20 year old truck with a few bumps and bruises looks just fine in my book. They are supposed to look like that.

'' Cars aren't how I identify, so I will just take this one out 15 or so years.''.....I agree. My truck is old but it gets me where I need to go, being a 1995 model finding parts requires a little research sometimes. I also drive a 1998 Oldsmobile...the wife's car is only 10 years old. My dad always drove his cars as long as possible so I guess I take after him a bit.

Just popped 100k on my 2009 Pontiac Vibe GT. Put 230,000 on my 2003 GT before I sold it 4 years ago to buy this one -- and she still looked and ran like new.

Screw spending all that cash on cars, I like to lay on beaches in the Caribbean.

Or you can pull up on the beach in an suv with AWD, 567 HP, surround speakers that sound like an opera house, and lay around on the beach anyway #bimmerlife

I feel you, but there’s only certain brand pulling the shenanigans. A lot of American cars, especially dodge, keep, and ram, have the auto start functions and others as standard. Some of the subscriptions are based around little used features, like WiFi in the car or some nonsense.

While it’s a growing problem, it’s still mainly euro/Japanese brands with the subscription issues. Hell, Audi tries to pull crap just servicing the vehicle. If you did any service on your car that wasn’t by Audi, it would void the warranty.

Any service at all? What the hell? Right to repair is under fire, but it's not dead.


And yeah, the auto industry is not the airline industry. Our dollars will get this sorted out. BMW tried to pull this crap with Apple Carplay and their customers set them straight.


I'll tell you what, hearing stuff like this makes my 2011 6-speed wagon look better and better every day.

Yea the same thing happened to Audi as well. People was ticked, especially because -as you know - there’s big tuner communities around Audi/bmw. Even without the tuner community, a lot of people like doing maintenance on their own vehicles. Audi has sensors freaking everywhere, which is a good thing. But when it comes to maintenance and such, that’s how they get people, or used to.

Tesla has a BIG problem with that right now. Because of the advance coding and tech, there’s this popular YouTube guy who repairs his own Tesla, but had to go to court over it.

The right to repair war the companies are waging is a becoming a bigger problem that’s leading to more and more used card being sold, not just the semi conductor shortage. You purchase a car out of warranty, and all they can do is be mad.

If you purchase a vehicle, either cash or finance (obviously not leased), then it’s yours. Yet the companies are trying to make it so that the vehicle isn’t actually yours because of the coding/tech that they “own”.

You correctly pointed out bmw and Apple car play as an example. Thankfully that’s about as far as they took it, because they know trying to regulate a bmw owner from doing their own repairs is blasphemous.

Wow. I had no idea this crap was going on.

Yea it’s getting worse. They bank on the causal A to B driver not knowing these things in order to control their product. I dunno how big you are in the car culture, but in the early yo late 2000’s, it was big to take the factory radio out and have flip out or pop out screens in the car. Man I remember my first year in the army, we’d spend an entire weekend in the barracks parking lots yanking radios out and putting aftermarket screens and stereo systems in our rides. I miss though days.

Now, look how many vehicles already have a big screen in the dash. Or you can pay for the upgrades speaker options like a Bose, Harmon/Kardon system. A lot of cars come with the toys that used to have to be installed by an aftermarket shop

I think they make these decisions thinking every car buyer is that guy that gets themself a new car every year.

I think it's a typical test to see just how far they can push things to maximize profits. If people are willing to pay for it with very little push back this trend will continue. If it's a negative from both the PR and sales standpoint it's something that will quickly go away.

what program do you use?

I have a '12 750xli (n63) I've had it for about 5-6 years now. It's tuned/upgraded about as much as the pistons will take.

I bought a ‘21 Kia Forte GT2 in September and it came with the Harmon/Kardon system. I am so happy with the sound system.

Back in ‘92 while I was in the Army, I had a little Isuzo pickup truck, one weekend we upgraded my system, I tell you the system was definitely WAY TOO MUCH for my little pickup truck.

Nice!

I have a 2015 BMW M4 (F83) Yas Marina blue. I bought it three years ago with low miles. I wanted to get the same exact car (but a 2020 one) the beginning of this year, b ut waited to see where my next duty station would be. I got Hawaii, so that cancel that plan. So this car will be an island car for its life span and I’ll buy when I PCS after here.

I would love to tune the motor, but just not seeing the value in tuning it knowing I have three years at the most left with the car. Also, I don’t think I’ll get the full enjoyment on the island with it tuned. The basic 425hp is nice, though it would be fun to get to 500+. The only caveat is if I find some cheap alternatives. The program I’ve looked at was Dinan.

I’ve used the iCAR pro OBDII to play with the dashboard, headlights, and etc settings. Usually buy the new map programs every year and upload that. Last upgrade I was looking at was the upload the firmware/carplay full screen for the radio screen.

Random note: I was in DC for almost 5 years. Never saw one car like mine (color with the hard-top) and only saw a handful of M4’s throughout the area. I come to Hawaii, I see at least one M4 a day and know there’s two of my same car here. I guess HI has been hoarding them, lol.

Dinan is not good tune check out jb4 (about 600) it adds around 50 HP? and if you need more... I am on a stage 3 N63 Tune

I'm around 575 600hp

ARM wrapped and coated downpipes (switching to VRSF)
ARM charge pipes
ARM coated forward-facing intakes
JB4 + Bluetooth
Turbosmart diverters
Stoptech drilled and slotted rotors
Step 2 NGK colder plugs
New coils
Catch cans
N63 intake sport oil cooler
stage 3 tune DME Flash
tmap 3.5 bar (+22 PSI)
meth with a stealth tank
I stuffed 146/147 m6 wheels to get more grip too lol


I plan on adding
Stage 3 XHP tune & stage 2 pure turbos


I"ll have to check that out. I think a lot of people use botmod

Awesome, I appreciate the info!