Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 744 posts

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

#81

Post by thatguy0900 »

Y_Y wrote: post #42
thatguy0900 wrote: post #34

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…

Well, it's not a greentext without the green text.

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

#82

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

freedomben wrote: post #29
yumraj wrote: post #16

Actually this is fantastic for someone like me - assuming there are no security holes of course. I don't want my next car to have remote start or remote anything. If not paying the subscription allows me to make sure that that feature is not enabled, it's great news, for me . Of course, different people have different preferences and needs.

Whether you pay or not the car will have the capability and it will dutifully ask the home server what it should do. Toyota will still be able to see exactly where you, what you're doing, and be able to unlock/start your car whenever they want. you just won't be able to.

Not with the antennas removed.

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

#83

Post by [deleted] »

martin8412 wrote: post #46
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…

So like Tesla with FSD, though not monthly(yet)

[deleted]

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

#84

Post by NullPrefix »

xyst wrote: post #35
zeroflow wrote: post #6

That is just bullshit. A $8/mo charge for a app based remote start? I could live with that. Servers need power, the app needs updates etc. A $8/mo charge for something which does not incur costs for Toyota? Hell no. It seems like bit by bit - every single industry is going down a fucked up route. TVs with built in ads? Cars with pay-by-month features? DRM locked coffee machines? I really hope, there is some sort of e…

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…

Do you have to pay for the car itself?

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

#85

Post by tehwebguy »

rajbot wrote: post #54

My Volvo has a remote start option, but it costs $200/year to subscribe to the Volvo On-Call service to be able to use it.

I added an app-enabled remote start to a car years back. First few years were included. Then $80 or $10 / year after that. The fob still worked after I canceled though, super wack that Toyota would burn a feature that clearly doesn’t rely on the web.

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

#86

Post by irrational »

goda90 wrote: post #80
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…

It's either micro-transactions, or mandatory ads: https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/rcka8s/new_c...

Or do without.

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

#87

Post by silverpepsi »

donmcronald wrote: post #40
zeroflow wrote: post #6

That is just bullshit. A $8/mo charge for a app based remote start? I could live with that. Servers need power, the app needs updates etc. A $8/mo charge for something which does not incur costs for Toyota? Hell no. It seems like bit by bit - every single industry is going down a fucked up route. TVs with built in ads? Cars with pay-by-month features? DRM locked coffee machines? I really hope, there is some sort of e…

There were people in a thread on Reddit saying they have cars with $40/month of subscription services. That seems absolutely insane to me. My family buys used cars, usually in the 3-5 year old range, we do our own repair work, and drive everything for 10-15 years. It's usually close to 15 than 10. We drive them until they drop. I figured it out one day and the lifetime TCO has been about $100/month per vehicle. We re…

I'm totally on the same page. After my millionaire frugal friend told me he managed $88/mo TCO, I've been chasing that target nonstop

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

#88

Post by johnorourke »

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…

Honorary mention also of Cory Doctorow's Unauthorized Bread short story: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-...

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

#89

Post by themaninthedark »

Syonyk wrote: post #12
paulkrush wrote: post #4

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..."

> If this keeps up, some used cars will have a higher value than new ones. That's already the case with construction equipment and farm equipment[0]. Right now, used cars often have a higher or near-new value because you can get one today - a new car, at MSRP, may be 6+ months wait, which doesn't help if your car just got totaled. But, yes, everything is doubling down on toxic dystopian surveillance systems, subscrip…

“The Encyclopedia Galactica defines a robot as a mechanical apparatus designed to do the work of a man. The marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as "Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to Be With. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing devision of the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes,”

Sometimes I wonder if anyone in the meetings that decide these things ever have the moment of realization that "We are the baddies"

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

#90

Post by tombert »

wedowhatwedo wrote: post #51
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…

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 hardware? Yes you have to buy some of the software, but that's true of basically every operating system; my 2014 Macbook still gets free updates as of about 8 months ago (I haven't checked since then since I gave it to my sister in law).

In fact I actually have found that Apple-centric apps seem to give me more options in which to pay for them outright instead of ongoing costs. Most of the the Omnigroup's software has a "just buy it once and you're done" feature, unlike something like, for example Microsoft Office.

Post reply on HN