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

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

#301

Post by andiareso » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 10:05 PM UTC

beervirus wrote: post #248

barbazoo wrote: post #244

Why people remotely start their car is beyond my comprehension most of the time. Unless you're in an extreme climate and absolutely have to bring the car's interior temperature to something survivable, what's the point? We don't have to warm up the engine anymore past a few seconds either. All I can think of is the waste of fuel and unnecessary GHG.

Is Texas an extreme environment? Not particularly, but still, it’s nice to get the air conditioner going a minute or two before getting into a car in August.

Likewise, Midwest (ie: ND, SD, Minnesota, etc) can get down to -20 easily few weeks out of the year in January/February. Not "unsurvivable" but definitely not good to shift into drive without letting things flex from heat a bit first.

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

#302

Post by gentleman11 » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 10:06 PM UTC

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…

My wife and I need a new car sometime soon. Is there a company that makes cars that are reasonably reliable but that are without anti features like tracking, electronic everything, bs parts replacement costs due to ip, features you are locked out of via software, subscriptions, software preventing you from working on the car without a special license, ads, etc?

Look at the ways software is making the world a better place…

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

#303

Post by baq » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 10:07 PM UTC

nuccy wrote: post #245

Fezzik wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subaru has the same thing on their new cars - subscribe annually to Starlink or no remote start for you! I live in a winter wonderland where remote start would be a dream but no way I am paying a cent for this feature. I’ll have to look in to the after market options.

VW diesel cars can be equipped with Webasto (auxiliary heater which burns diesel). One gets a remote (in my experience reaching up to 500 meters) which can be used to start this heater along with car's climate control. The advantage is that it consumes 1/3-1/5 of what an idling engine does, while heating interior and engine coolant much faster. The disadvantage is that it consumes battery charge, but to counteract th…

and, in the models that use the engine coolant as a working fluid, your engine is heated up to a cozy operating temperature right from the start, so you end up about even on fuel.

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

#304

Post by winternett » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 10:08 PM UTC

Phenomenit wrote: post #221

winternett wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A remote RF device could do that without the Sim card, the same key that unlocks the car... My problem is that I paid for a device (the starter device already installed on my car) that I can't use without a membership. People have had remote start on cars for decades without needing a bloatware subscription to XM radio.... sigh

Ok so your device is not supplied by volvo?

No, not the issue at all. The problem is that I refuse to pay a fee and use a tracking app just so I can use remote start features already installed on my car that don't need to be part of any paid monthly service.

My car should not require a cell phone with the maker's app installed on it, or even an Internet connection to fully operate... It's insane to think it should from a reliability standpoint.

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

#305

Post by xwdv » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 10:09 PM UTC

Schiendelman wrote: post #130

andi999 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean fresh milk has vanished?

It’s now all hyper-pasteurized and shelf stable. Not even refrigerated.

Good lord, this is true dystopia. I drink fresh milk every damn day.

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

#306

Post by nicce » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 10:11 PM UTC

notJim wrote: post #296

nicce wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My scenario might be a bit extreme, but closest food store is 40 miles away. Closest charger is 200 miles away. (Talking from Europe) Visiting my parents take 300 miles trip (one direction), and requires charging stop. And this is considered here as relatively normal driving trip. And in winter, the range drops significantly. It is 7 month winter here. Why would I buy a car which is useful only for short weekend trip…

"It's not useful in my specific scenario, which I acknowledge is extreme, therefore the cars are useless outside cities." Not everything has to work for everyone in every situation to be useful. These cars are perfectly useful for many people, including outside cities.

This applies almost my whole country, including many others, maybe less extreme. It is a bit different outside of US, what I’m trying to say.

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

#307

Post by ameen » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 10:11 PM UTC

servytor wrote: post #120

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…

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…

Thank you for sharing this. I've often wondered how some folks deal with misfortune, take it in stride and work through them than abandon all hope for an easier route.

Perseverance and Endurance are a rarity in today's society.

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

#308

Post by LanceH » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 10:12 PM UTC

ribosometronome wrote: post #69

xyst wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the Apple Car actually materializes, I fear this will become the new standard. All cars come with all bells and whistles, but you have to pay monthly fees in order for them to function. - Want heated seats? $1/month - Want remote lock/unlock? $2/month - Want to remove rate limiting? $5/month - Want GPS in your car? $10/month - Want to use your "frunk"? $10/month - Want Apple CarPlay? $15/month - Want to activate h…

What features like that does Apple hide behind paywalls today? That doesn't sound at all like their strategy with iOS or Mac OS. I guess there's stuff like the Apple Developer Program, which I know a lot of folk have complaints about. But that's hardly a feature most folk would desire -- whereas all of those things you listed for a perspective car are. That said, if Apple did bring some of these features to market at…

It wouldn't really be the monthly subscriptions.

The engine wouldn't be bolted in, everything would be welded into place. Parts to repair it would not be accessible, except at Apple dealerships. If it doesn't start, you could expect to replace the Main Driving Unit at a price roughly 90% of buying a new one.* The entire car would have tamper sensors. Also, they would make the car one inch shorter every year.

I can't imagine Apple as a car company.

* Seriously, the main logic board seems to always be the culprit and the replacement cost is up there with a new item.

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

#309

Post by pnathan » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 10:12 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #36

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…

I pay for the Safety Connect. It is in the nature of insurance.

the other stuff is fairly gizmo

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

#310

Post by 0xJRS » Mon, Dec 13, 2021, 10:12 PM UTC

barbazoo wrote: post #244

Why people remotely start their car is beyond my comprehension most of the time. Unless you're in an extreme climate and absolutely have to bring the car's interior temperature to something survivable, what's the point? We don't have to warm up the engine anymore past a few seconds either. All I can think of is the waste of fuel and unnecessary GHG.

As someone who's lived both near the equator and in snowy climates, having a car interior thats not 110F or 10F is very nice, especially if you have leather seats/steering wheel.