Toyota outsources certain features to its own subscription
A trend can be observed in recent years. Owning real or virtual things is no longer in the foreground, we are taking out more and more subscriptions instead of purchasing a product in full. In addition to IT companies, other industries have now discovered this for themselves and see big money in the rental of services.
One of these industries is the automotive industry. While companies like Tesla were still pioneers, other corporations are now offering retrofittable and rentable options. If you want to use the autopilot, for example, you can either buy it for a large amount or conveniently rent it on a monthly basis. If the installment is no longer paid, the feature is simply deactivated again.
Toyota has made it possible for some time to start one’s own vehicle using the keychain, but there are now increasing signs that the carmaker is outsourcing this feature to its own subscription. Notes on the Reddit platform were marked as “possibly misleading”, but Toyota confirmed the new subscription to The Drive magazine.
Starting the vehicle away from the driver’s cab is part of a new package that is added free of charge, depending on the audio package. Buyers of the “Audio Plus” package will receive the feature for 3 years free of charge, should you opt for the “Premium Audio” package, it will be 10 years. When the trial period ends, the feature will cost $ 8 per month or $ 80 per year.
The new package also seems to have more features, so buyers should also be able to control smartwatches, smartphones or their own smarthome devices. Perhaps the controls will be removed from the keychain, this type of control is no longer mentioned.
Toyota is thus following a path that its competitors in the premium segment have long taken. But it is also important to find the right mix. Until recently, BMW demanded $ 300 for retrofitting CarPlay, and users should still pay an annual fee at the same time. That was ended, but such experiments prove that automobile manufacturers want to earn money even after the keys have been handed over to us.
Via The Verge
