Latest/ December 14, 2021/

Toyota Doubles Down on Tying Remote Start Key Fob Functionality to Subscription Service, Costs $8 a Month

Toyota just doubled down on the remote start function of its T-Connect telematics subscription service by adding key fob control. That means you can now unlock your car, or at least lock it with a smartphone and keep your keys in the pocket without having to deal with a traditional physical key. This is part of Toyota’s larger plan to get people into more connected cars as they’re already tied into their phone plans through cellular connectivity, which costs $8 each month according to Gartner research

Toyota has doubled down on tying remote start key fob functionality to a subscription service. Toyota will now charge $8 a month for the privilege of using their keys.

Image credit: Toyota

It’s nothing new to be nickeled and dimed by software businesses, but some members of the car industry have also been ready to benefit from subscription services.

Toyota has doubled down on its Connected Services platform, which includes one of their cars’ most often utilized and useful functions: remote start, as noticed by The Drive. Toyota’s marketing brochures reveal that after a set time of ownership, owners will be required to pay a monthly fee in order to start their automobiles remotely, such as from the comfort of their own homes.

According to Toyota’s Connected Services table, the Remote Connect (i.e., remote start) membership costs $8 per month or $80 per year.

According to The Drive:

[…] A Toyota representative verified to The Drive that in order for the key fob to start the car remotely, the vehicle must be enrolled in a valid subscription if it is equipped with Toyota’s Remote Connect capabilities. To be clear, we’re referring to the proximity-based RF remote start system, in which you push a button on the fob to start the car while standing outside of it within a set distance—say, from your front door to warm up your vehicle in the driveway on a chilly morning before you get in. Your fob communicates with the automobile using radio waves, and no connection to Toyota’s servers is required. However, without a greater Remote Connect membership, the feature will not operate.

“If Connected Services are turned off, Key Fob Remote Start will not work,” Toyota says. However, for Remote Connect enabled cars constructed before November 12, 2018, a subscription is no longer required for the key fob to execute a remote start.

Toyota is the source of this information (via The Drive)