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

[Eugene]

Earlier DU thread: Toyota's Key Fob Remote Start Will Now Require a Subscription

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Source: The Drive

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.

BY ROB STUMPF DECEMBER 23, 2021

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.

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Read more: https://www.thedrive.com/news/43636/toyota-reviewing-key-fob-remote-start-subscription-plan-after-massive-blowback

[spooky3]

1. After being a Toyota owner for more than 20 years, I bought a Mazda

several years ago. I'm glad no longer to be associated with Toyota, after several bad decisions on their part.

[jimfields33]

2. This is how things start. They put out a crazy idea and the masses complain

Then a few years later they bring it up again and nobody complains. It’s happening with pay per mile. When introduced, people were pissed. Today people accept this as a way of the future.

[spooky3]

3. Here is another bad decision that they reversed after pushback:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/toyota-will-stop-donating-republicans-who-objected-election-certification-n1273407

[Eyeball_Kid]

4. Toyota is "thinking about it"?

Keep thinking, corporate royalty. For quite a large segment of potential customers will see the subscription as a deal breaker. Myself included. I won't touch Photoshop for the same reason. There are, indeed, other options.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. It's a personal safety issue. Imagine needing to use the remote start to unlock the vehicle

While you're on the run from someone or something dangerous, like a rapist/murderer, ex, crazy husband, deranged stranger, wild animal, whatever and you need to make a fast getaway.

Or for example, running through the rain with your baby/ kids or pushing grandmother in her wheelchair to the car on the way to the doctor to a nice warm car in the winter.

It may not be a frequent occurrence but it could be a selling point. With their current plan it becomes a liability for this and other less obvious reasons even those less dire.