How would you feel if you had to pay a subscription to start your car with the key?
Monthly cost for Remote Start? Toyota Remote Start / Remote Connect.
When a car runs on software, it’s easy for an automaker to turn features on and off remotely. It can then charge a subscription fee for those features. That’s exactly what Toyota is doing with vehicles starting in 2018. Users will have to pay $8 per month or $80 per year for the Remote Connect service to enable the remote start feature.
“The initial reaction online was mostly confusion and anger that a feature that has been in most cars for years is now available in Toyotas at an extra cost,” Shawn Laib, an auto tech expert and writer at AutoInsuance.org, told Lifewire via email. “It would be like charging money for a TV remote.”
Software subscriptions have been creeping into our lives for a while now, but they’re usually limited to our computers. Instead of paying once for an app and using it until you decide to upgrade to the latest version, you have to pay a monthly fee, or the app stops working altogether.
