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

arstechnica.com

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

#281

Post by Gigachad »

tombert wrote: post #90
wedowhatwedo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why non-apple customers feel that apple is this way. I have a Mac and an iphone and haven't paid Apple a penny since the purchase of the devices.

Yeah, I will definitely admit that I was guilty of this right up until I bought a Macbook Air in 2014. I had just assumed that Apple was a nickel-and-diming corporation, and just worked to extract cash from its customers. But I really didn't experience that at all. Outside of Apple Music and Apple Arcade (both of which are optional and neither of which I use/pay for) what exactly are the ongoing costs for most Apple…

The only things Apple charges subscriptions on are actual content services or server usage charges which are inline with literally every other business. Many people, even on HN it seems, have a completely distorted idea on what the products Apple sells actually are.

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

#283

Post by jasonpeacock »

errcorrectcode wrote: post #234
jasonpeacock wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my 2021 Honda CR-V this is a configurable option - you can decide which behavior you want. For example, you don't want your kids to open the doors while you're driving. Or you don't want a car-jacker to reach through the window and open your door.

Child locks are usually different. Also, there is typically no child lock option for the driver's side front door.

These are not child locks. Child locks prevent opening the door regardless of its locked state.

This is about whether pulling the door latch auto-unlocks the door, or if you have to unlock the door first before pulling the door latch.

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

#284

Post by NikolaNovak »

Loughla wrote: post #162
irrational wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or do without.

In terms of the remote start, yes, you can do without. But how long until BASIC functions become subscription service? Like electronically locking doors, or some other such nonsense? Once money finds a path, my belief is that the path gets widened.

Exactly; as well, in some situations (cold Canadian Winter with an infant etc), remote start is higher priority than remote doors, or electric windows, etc. "Basic" function vs "Luxury" can get awfully relative awfully fast...

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

#285

Post by jsmith45 »

jmiserez wrote: post #185
phkahler wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of this tragic but true story about a man and his dog that died in a Corvette because the door failed to open electronically. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/06/11/te... If your car door uses electricity to open, you best know what to do when that system fails. Death should not occur due to failure to RTFM for a door.

Regardless of model it's a good idea to put a emergency hammer / glass breaker in your car. (addendum: also to rescue someone else, not blaming the driver)

Be careful with those. Plenty of cheap ones have metal hammers that will simply bounce off the window like the window was rubber (I assume the cause is wrong metal used, or point not sharp enough). And this is assuming tempered glass.

When AAA tested 3 different hammers, only 1 of the three successfully broke tempered glass. All three punch style tools broke the tempered glass.

But a lot of car windows now have laminated glass. While the tools may be able to shatter the glass for those, they still stay in one sheet, (just like shattered windshields in most car, since those are laminated glass too). And it is really hard to break through that shattered but still intact sheet, with neither style of escape tool really being much help.

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

#286

Post by Gigachad »

jsmith45 wrote: post #188
wedowhatwedo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why non-apple customers feel that apple is this way. I have a Mac and an iphone and haven't paid Apple a penny since the purchase of the devices.

The seriously overpriced accessories they sell is probably part of the reasons non-apple customers tend to assume this. Like they have a few accessories that cost about 10x more than pretty good quality third party alternatives, and often more than double what it costs for literally better build quality third party alternatives. And I'm not talking about the accessories that have enough active electronics to possibly…

The wheels and stand on the mac pro stuff is weird but they are kind of in line with the pricing of the competing products. If you look at the cases for the iphone, all of the cases they sell in the Apple Store are pretty expensive, but all of them are quite good. If you go to a 3rd party store and look for things of the same quality, they cost the same. Good cases just cost a bit of money.

Now the lightning adapters I agree on. Those were absurd. But now they have USB-C on most of their products and they have dropped the cost of adapters quite a lot. The USB-C to AUX adapter contains a full DAC which is tested to be one of the best you can get, and it costs $9.

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

#287

Post by jasonpeacock »

bumby wrote: post #209
jasonpeacock wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my 2021 Honda CR-V this is a configurable option - you can decide which behavior you want. For example, you don't want your kids to open the doors while you're driving. Or you don't want a car-jacker to reach through the window and open your door.

How is it configured? Electronically or through a switch on on the door jamb?

Electronically, through the settings in the touchscreen panel on the dash. These are not child locks, but rather set the behavior of the door latch when the door is locked.

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

#289

Post by nashashmi »

justusthane wrote: post #227
nashashmi wrote: post #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.

Starting the car using the key fob in your pocket is literally what the whole article is about. > Key fob remote start has nothing to do with an app, nor does the car or the fob communicate with any servers managed by Toyota.

That’s not what I read. Starting the car with the key fob or previously known as “remote start” which you had to pay like 800$ for, is what the subscription is about.

You can still open the car with key fob in hand. And sit in and start the car with key fob in pocket.

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

#290

Post by epberry »

lkozma wrote: 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…

This feature does not prevent you from unlocking the car. Just pointing your key at your car outside your building and turning it on in the cold.
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