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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

#711

Post by SilasX »

gbrown wrote: post #452
heavyset_go wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm just sitting over here hoping there's blowback that keeps some reasonable stuff on the market. Otherwise, I'm gonna have to become some sort of personal expert on keeping things from 1990 or older running. I'm at the point where I'm considering physically disabling the radios in my appliances.

"Error: cannot start (no connectivity). Please call a licensed repair technician to service your vehicle."

Not quite as bad, but when I tried out a car in 2008 with Ford/Microsoft's SYNC system (voice interface), there were cases where pressing an unconfigured button would disable the sound system until you restarted the engine. See number 8:

http://blog.tyrannyofthemouse.com/2008/07/setting-sync-strai...

Also, whenever the power goes out, I always express thanks that the toilets still work, and they didn't introduce some npm-style pointless dependency.

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

#712

Post by devilbunny »

aidenn0 wrote: post #705
devilbunny wrote: post #698

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rented a Ford Edge two months ago that had one. It was quite distracting. At the end of a week, I still hadn't internalized how it worked. I had to think about it every time. On my old Chevrolet Tahoe, I can tell what gear I just shifted into by feel (shifting into D, it has a slight tendency to overshoot the normal overdrive mode and end up locked into 3rd). And of course, this is essentially a nonissue on manual…

Most cars have a stop at D; e.g. for the ones where you pull the stem towards to to leave park, you can let the stem spring back at neutral and push it down until it stops at D, and for the ones with a button you can release the button at neutral. [edit] Honestly if the rotary dial had similar tactile feedback, it would probably be fine. No worse than when they moved it off of the tree as bench seats were retired for…

Like I said - it has such a stop, it's just old and a bit worn.

It's column shift despite bucket seats.

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

#713

Post by barbazoo »

beervirus wrote: post #686
barbazoo wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open the windows maybe? Sure it's nice but I wonder if we should consider living without the luxury of having an ICE bring your car to the perfect temperature. I guess people have less GHG emission guilt as me.

The marginal amount of gas used by idling the car for a minute before driving it around rounds to zero.

You can make everything "round to zero" when in fact, it adds up.

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

#714

Post by Schiendelman »

detaro wrote: post #589
Schiendelman wrote: post #588

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is true. It’s very hard to find now, and it was not hard to find in the past.

> Not even refrigerated. That was the point where you lost me. Even ALDI doesn't just have non-refrigerated milk. I find the shift annoying too, but it's not as bad as that.

The Aldi next to me only had room temp last time I looked. I’m going in the morning, maybe I’m wrong! I’ll look and report back.

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

#715

Post by amelius »

MonaroVXR wrote: post #528
amelius wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like buying a dumb TV, and is probably close to impossible.

Here you go, there are more, search on the website. https://www.cdw.com/product/samsung-678u-series-55-4k-uhd-le...

"This item was discontinued on June 17, 2021"

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

#716

Post by jstarfish »

mywittyname wrote: post #576
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe your windshield is an integral part of your car's rollover protection

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards have a lot to say on the strength, composition, and properties of glass in passenger vehicles. In addition to being very difficult to break, it must also be resistant to shattering and remain in place while experiencing some pretty extreme forces. Automotive glass is not even glass really, it's more of a composite made up of layers of various transparent materials all design…

I'll admit not keeping up with the standards, but back around ~2003 it was pretty common for arrestees in police cars to escape custody by kicking the rear window out from inside the car. It's held on by glue or something and pops right off the frame in one solid piece.

Cruisers now tend to have cages to prevent this.

(This is not a solution if the car is underwater.)

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

#717

Post by jstarfish »

yumraj wrote: post #495
notJim wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also in the "too late" vein, at least in the US, I believe cars are still required to have a latch to open the trunk from the inside. Not sure if other countries have these.

Serious question: So why are all the people who are trapped/kidnapped in the cars in the movies not able to come out and have to yell to have someone come and rescue them? That implies that there is no way to open the latch from inside and people, including me, may take that as the truth and not even try to find the latch. I for sure didn't know that there was a way.

Most of the vehicles I've seen used for this purpose in movies are Oldsmobiles and such from the 70s-- long before the latches were a requirement. Modern car trunks are also way smaller than older sedans, which don't lend themselves to human transport.

If you're ever in the trunk of a moving vehicle, do what you can to sabotage the brake lights-- the wires are usually accessible and it increases the chances of attracting police attention.

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

#718

Post by dkonofalski »

mrlonglong wrote: post #228
dkonofalski wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is absolutely false. They didn't try to coerce people to buy the new model. It's quite the contrary - they were extending the battery life of devices where the overdrawn power would cause them to shut down completely. They also communicated this in the patch notes but most people don't read those. Your comment is completely ignorant.

Apple still got fined millions in France for doing that.

They did not. They did get fined in France but not for what you're claiming.

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

#719

Post by dkonofalski »

ceejayoz wrote: post #150
dkonofalski wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did notify people. It was just in the patch notes that most people don't read.

That's not "when it's happening"; I think the new approach they've taken of a dialog popping up is far more transparent and user-friendly. I've gotten used to patch notes saying stuff like "Every week we fix bugs and add improvements!"

How is that not "when it's happening"? I would agree that they communicated that change better but to say that they didn't communicate it when it happened is false.

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

#720

Post by mr_toad »

dlsa wrote: post #142
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.

It could be argued that the icloud etc costs were included as part of the purchase price. In which case the cost was estimated over the useful life of the product and then factored into the up-front price. That or the icloud service cost is covered another way as a form of marketing. Customer retention etc.

iCloud is marketed like a loss leader.
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