Toyota Connected - anyone subscribe?

[Steve.]

Still in the free trial time and won’t be subscribing when it runs out because the longer I have this truck the more a POS I’m finding it to be so hopefully it won’t be with me much longer anyway.

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[Texas Bob]

I will be subscribing for the remote start. 9You can use the FOB but my work parking is too far for it, or any other remote start to work without LTE.

Alot of whiners will say it's supposed to be "baked in", but LTE isn't free to Toyota. AT&T/VERIZON/T-MOBILE all charge to use their towers. For that matter neither is App maintenance, continuous updates for security and compatibility for new phones or the multitude of different versions of android and IOS. Almost everyone charges for LTE based features, every aftermarket company does and pricing at $15/month is industry standard.

People complain and call it a subscription for "features the car already has" and compare to BMW or other car makers requiring subscriptions for heated seats are just ignorant.

You make some good points. I'm still not giving them more money.

 

[Dirt]

Let me elaborate on what I meant. We can opt out completely from having Toyota communicate with the vehicle.

https://support.toyota.com/s/article/Can-I-optout-of-Toyot-10235?language=en_US

Can I opt-out of Toyota Service Connect?

Yes, you can opt-out of Toyota Service Connect by pressing the SOS button in your vehicle or through your Account Settings in your Toyota app.

If you are having any difficulties, you may

Lauren, my point is not that I want/need to opt out - it is that I don't need the app or subscription to have Toyota communicate with my rig. Hear me - I don't need to pay to have them talk to my rig. They can already do it and should be able to provide the features along the same line without charging since it is already established. I am aware that I can disconnect, I read it in the manual or somewhere on here some time ago, but that is not my point. Done!

 

[pinkertonfloyd]

I subscribe for the remote start function. It would be nice if it were included in the price of the truck but Toyota knows how to make money. On the other hand, I know how to spend money and it’s only 15 clams a month. I’m doing well enough in life that I got that kind of cash.

You know you can do it from your fob without a subscription.

Click Lock 3 times and hold it down 3 seconds on that 3rd time. (lights flash on truck, but you can do it in the house, etc).

 

[pinkertonfloyd]

One thing that bothers me about the fee is not that Toyota needs it to maintain or upgrade tower communications because their vehicles already have a feature that lets the dealer know when I need to schedule an appointment. They text and tell me, so the company is "talking" with the rig already. Not a subscription fee fan. Used the mapping feature a few times in the first year and liked it, but the same feature is included on my phone. For just $11 a month you can feed a dog, wash your car, etc., etc.......

100%. I've worked on these type of systems.
The cellular fees for the Automaker is pennies a year... they're low-bandwidth with very low priority traffic. Hell, we can by trackers for cargo shipments in bulk for under $8/ea... a cell phone that works anywhere int eh world sending real-time GPS and temp data).

They make more on the data they'll sell from here than even your sub is. Basically the Sub is 100% pure profit for them, there is little cost to the real "services" like you said, they already are using the data...

What do they sell? Where you go, what businesses you use, how you drive your car (Insurance Co's spend BILLIONS each year on this). Who you hang out with, etc...

At a Microsoft Conference about 6 years ago they showed us how they are able to pull data and use phones (fyi there's a reason Microsoft owns LinkedIn, it gives them insight on people for this reason) of people in or around the vehicles. They could use that to figure who vehicle owners friends are, and what they do, then use that data to sell them either on their products or sell it to others... Even when they tell you it's Anonymous Microsoft stated using data from Linkedin and other "partners" (Facebook and others were listed) they could unmask this data with about 98% accuracy.

The next step will be ads popping up on screens based on marketing data and where you are driving... near lunch, and you like Thai Food? That Thai restaurant 3 exits down might pop up.

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