Without a subscription, Toyota's RF key fob loses function.
The automakers are trying to get a piece of the subscription income. It is Toyota's turn now.
Toyota has a subscription package called Remote Connect. The service allows owners to use an app to remotely lock their doors, or if they own a plug-in vehicle, to precondition the interior. Toyota owners can no longer use their key to remote-start their vehicles because of the end of complimentary subscriptions for Remote Connect.
The remote-start feature is the same as using the fob to open the car. The car can receive a signal from the short-range radio transmitter that has rolling codes. The car performs the requested action after it decodes the signal, whether it's to start the engine or lock the doors. GM added a factory-installed remote-start option in 2004, which was the same year that RF key fobs were around.
The car and the key have nothing to do with an app or Toyota's server.
Toyota has been offering factory-installed remote start on newer vehicles. To use it, owners have to be within 50 feet of the vehicle and double-press the lock button before holding the lock button down for a few seconds.
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As the third birthday of the Toyotas approaches, owners are discovering that the remote access is dependent on maintaining an active subscription. Premium Audio vehicles get 10 years, while Audio Plus vehicles get three years. The remote start stops working when the subscriptions are over. The rules were not changed, though the detail was in the fine print. When the time comes, Toyota simply cuts off access to one of the functions on the key fob already in the owner's possession. To get the feature back, owners have to pay a fee.
If you have a Toyota built before November 12, 2018, you won't have to pay, even though the remote start was tied to Remote Connect. Toyota said it has made the feature available to owners without a subscription.
Why did the cutoff not happen? It seems like an arbitrary date, but it was when Toyota stopped building cars with 3G chips. As telecoms end their 3G networks, owners of older Toyotas will not be able to subscribe to or use remote connect services. Toyota gave everyone in that group a key fob remote start because it doesn't require an internet connection.
It reinforces the fact that there is no technical reason to include RF-powered key fob features in a remote services package.
