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Toyota owners have to pay $8/month to keep using their key fob for remote start

arstechnica.com

111–120 of 744 posts

Re: Toyota owners have to pay $8/month to keep using their key fob for remote start

#111
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The topic with the TVs is going to be a problem for me in a few years. My current TV is from 2013 - it may have some years to go, but at some point, it will fail. I've had a short look at the market, and all the "good" brands (Samsung, LG, Sony) show horrific ads. It looks like the cheap brands simply sell your data. Then there are some local brands, which sell non-TV TV's (no tuner, there's a tax on that). They don'…

Just don't connect them to the internet, now you have a TV that's cheaper than it should be because they expect to show you ads, but they can't

My Sony would pop up a nag screen in the middle of a movie or show to remind me that it wasn't connected to the internet. Eventually, I caved and connected it.

Re: Toyota owners have to pay $8/month to keep using their key fob for remote start

#112

And the toxic trend of corporate short-term-ism continues... This is clearly set up as a gotcha with a 3 year/10 year "trial" included, then suddenly $80(!) a year. The irony is that both periods are right around the time different demographics start to consider a new vehicle, and Toyota has just pulled this nonsense. You may be thinking $80/year isn't so bad if it includes breakdown coverage/SOS button, but you'd be…

Surely its $51/month (8 + 8 + 35)? Not that that isn't outrageous, but it's not 275/month outrageous

Re: Toyota owners have to pay $8/month to keep using their key fob for remote start

#113
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of "drink a verification can" greentext https://www.reddit.com/r/4chan/comments/1ggg4u/please_drink_...

We can do better than a link to a Reddit thread with a screenshot of some text. I found this on GameFAQs slightly modified from the original and posted the day after, on 2013-06-16. -2018 -wake up feeling sick after a late night of playing vidya -excited to play some halo 2k19 -"xbox on" -... -"XBOX ON" -"Please verify that you are "annon332" by saying "Doritos™ Dew™ it right!" -"Doritos™ Dew™ it right" -"ERROR! Plea…

Does this content really have a place on here?

Re: Toyota owners have to pay $8/month to keep using their key fob for remote start

#114

I don't know how could anyone think it is a good move inside toyota. $8 falls in the range that it is irritating for consumers yet the lifetime revenue per car is probably 1% of the average car value(5 year lifetime with 2 years free means $250 lifetime revenue). Is it worth it for 1% increase in revenue.

Right? I'm in the market for a new SUV and I just took Toyota's off my list.

Re: Toyota owners have to pay $8/month to keep using their key fob for remote start

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What monthly fees of this nature are required to use other Apple products? OS updates are free. The basic version of iCloud is free. "Find My iPhone" is free. Apple Maps is free. The App Store is free. Hell, CarPlay is free on the Apple end of things; it's some car manufacturers who've been charging for it. "Public will buy into it because the cost of the car is significantly less than their competition." Are we talk…

Other than purposely slowing down your devices with updates to try and coerce you into buying the new model year? https://www.npr.org/2020/11/18/936268845/apple-agrees-to-pay...

The alternative in cold, old batteries was an unexpected shutoff of the device.

https://9to5mac.com/2017/12/20/apple-statement-iphone-perfor...

> Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.

They fucked up not notifying people when it's happening, but technologically the feature itself is entirely the right call. (You can also turn it off, and accept that it'll just die randomly if you do something CPU intensive in the cold.)

Regardless of which setting you choose, there's hardly a monthly fee for it.

Re: Toyota owners have to pay $8/month to keep using their key fob for remote start

#116
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The topic with the TVs is going to be a problem for me in a few years. My current TV is from 2013 - it may have some years to go, but at some point, it will fail. I've had a short look at the market, and all the "good" brands (Samsung, LG, Sony) show horrific ads. It looks like the cheap brands simply sell your data. Then there are some local brands, which sell non-TV TV's (no tuner, there's a tax on that). They don'…

Just don't connect them to the internet, now you have a TV that's cheaper than it should be because they expect to show you ads, but they can't

Won’t be long before they have 5G chips in and that isn’t your choice anymore. Kindles have done that since 3G, cars have started doing that, Tesla trains AI on all owner driving data, VW new electric (ID3?) will be their first with a mandatory perma HQ connection, IIRC.

Re: Toyota owners have to pay $8/month to keep using their key fob for remote start

#117
Guys this is remote start. Not a key fob entry/start service.

Sometimes this can be done via cell phone app. And there is always a monthly subscription for this option.

But no it is not a monthly subscription for starting your car with your key fob in the pocket.

Re: Toyota owners have to pay $8/month to keep using their key fob for remote start

#118

If this keeps up, some used cars will have a higher value than new ones. People will have to break EULAs to drive cars in mines or buildings with no radio access. "Error: please tow your car to an RF access area to enable movement..."

I for one will never buy a new car again unless there is a massive move back away from these "features" - even the ones that don't require a monthly charge. I don't want a car that phones home (much less that has components that phone home) to send information that has been harvested from my activities. I don't want a car that beeps or flashes when people pass me or the car thinks I have driven to close to something. I don't need a camera to back up. I don't want headlights that intermittently decide to change to brights. I don't want a car that is a glorified computer that's open to contact by blue-tooth and wifi. Its all just something else that will break and need to be repaired.

Looking forward to paying up for a 1975 era 4x4 when my current car gives out.

Re: Toyota owners have to pay $8/month to keep using their key fob for remote start

#119
post #8

was posted here sometime ago: The door refused to open. It said, "Five cents, please." He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. "I'll pay you tomorrow," he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. "What I pay you," he informed it, "is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't have to pay you." "I think otherwise," the door said. "Look in the purchase contract you signed when you boug…

Many other car makers do this too. My Volvo has a remote start feature installed (that I paid for in buying the car) that is not accessible without enrollment in a (pretty much useless otherwise) monthly subscription service. It's flat out criminal considering that I could have just bought the device with a remote at Auto Zone for 1/4 of the price (that also doesn't allow the auto maker to track/log each time I use i…

> I could have just bought the device with a remote at Auto Zone for 1/4 of the price

But you didn't? I hope your realize at least half of the responsibility is on you as a consumer. You pay for and enable these idiotic ideas.

Re: Toyota owners have to pay $8/month to keep using their key fob for remote start

#120
post #8

was posted here sometime ago: The door refused to open. It said, "Five cents, please." He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. "I'll pay you tomorrow," he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. "What I pay you," he informed it, "is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't have to pay you." "I think otherwise," the door said. "Look in the purchase contract you signed when you boug…

Unrelated, but one of my favorite quotes from PKD is this one from Now Wait for Last Year:

---

“All right," Eric agreed. "If you were me, and your wife were sick, desperately so, with no hope of recovery, would you leave her? Or would you stay with her, even if you had traveled ten years into the future and knew for an absolute certainty that the damage to her brain could never be reversed? And staying with her would mean-"

"I can see what it would mean, sir," the cab broke in. "It would mean no other life for you beyond caring for her."

"That's right," Eric said. "I'd stay with her," the cab decided. "Why?" "Because," the cab said, "life is composed of reality configurations so constituted. To abandon her would be to say, I can't endure reality as such. I have to have uniquely special easier conditions."

"I think I agree," Eric said after a time. "I think I will stay with her." "God bless you, sir," the cab said. "I can see that you're a good man.”

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