Digital key thoughts (standard on the limited)

I absolutely ABHOR car features that requires a phone to make them work.
And this is way worse.
Phone......dead, damaged, stolen or mis-placed and.......no CAR either.
Terrible idea in my opinion.

This recent obsession with smart phones is a disease as far as I am concerned.

 

It's handy as I don't have to hand anyone the keys to get something out of the car, just press a button in the app. Normally I keep my keys in my purse or coat pocket but with the way cars can be stolen by walking up to a house door and cloning a FOB's proximity broadcast if it's in range I'm leery about doing that. My parents have been putting their key FOBs in what is effectively a Faraday cage and it's not near the front door.

 

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, yes, I'd rather downsize. I hate having pockets stuffed full of things that could be consolidated. But there are times I like getting away from my smartphone by using a "dumbphone." As long as there's a key fob I can also use, I say it's a great idea. Give people a choice, don't force them one way or another.

I didn't see the video. How does it work? If it's cellular then no, not a good idea at all. I live where lots of places don't have cellular. I barely get cell service at my house, and my mom is 1.5 miles away and there's zero cell coverage there. That and there have been times that all cellular and internet has been dropped for at least 3 days for everyone in the entire valley, some for as much as a week.

But if it's NFC or Bluetooth, sure, why not?

 

I'm not 100% certain on this, but I believe it's a combination of both cellular and Bluetooth. I think you need cell service at least initially for the car to confirm the Bluetooth device is valid. It's possible that once the confirmation is made, it's not needed after that and it only needs the Bluetooth. Or maybe it needs to check in for updates to the approved devices list every so often.

 

Since I got only one key fob from the dealer. I can’t risk losing it and who knows when I will get the 2nd key fob.

I just bring my phone instead of the key fob since I have my phone with me anyway and in a holster.

When I get in the car somehow the system can’t seem to locate it unless I take it out of the holster before I can press the power button to start the car.

Locking and unlocking with my phone in a holster worked flawlessly.

 

Having functionality on my phone in addition to a keyfob or even on screen touch functions is OK with me. I just dont want to be forced to use my phone as the only way to do something.

I don't understand why we dont have biometrics (fingerprint) ability to start a car though. We have it for computers, phones & more that are more valuable (access wise). So why not a car?

For example, if someone was to get into a password manager, computer, or bank account, they can do far more damage than just stealing a $40k car.

 

You have to download the Toyota app and then register and pair the phone through Bluetooth.

Once registered you can use your phone in lieu of the key fob.

 

There's a blurb in the manual about how Digital Key may not work if there's no cell phone signal. Plus using Digital Key requires a trial or subscription to Remote Connect. So the car is almost certainly talking to Toyota's servers at least once through the cell network.

I'm guessing when you pair the phone initially, the car checks with the servers to confirm authenticity of the phone with the account. I doubt it checks every time after that, but maybe it does an update once a week or once a month or something to make sure nothing's changed and the phone is still authorized. Or maybe the car is passive and it's Toyota's servers that communicate any updates if a change is made to the account(say your phone is lost or stolen).

 

I just hope the system is designed to work even in events like internet outages. What about when someone decides to drive one of these 20 years from now?

There are other things that will not work without internet or a software service provider. For an example, some popular video games, that people purchase on physical disks or cartidges (or at least they thought the game was on the disk or cartridge) on popular video game consoles that even feature single player gameplay with no online players or purchases or online anything STILL DO NOT WORK WITHOUT AN INTERNET CONECTION! And after a few years go by the console service provider decides to ditch that console's online service and all those games are no longer playable. Something like that could happend to services like these for cars.

I had a Nissan Leaf for a short while, and I had it right as the 2G service was dropped for them. One day I could preheat my car and configure charging via the app and the next day I couldn't. I did reach out to a Nissan Dealer to have it upgraded to 3G and to get another key fob (I only had one) but they couldn't figure how to do either so I gave up.

Personally I'm not into such things anymore nor subscription services for hardware in the car. But if others like it, it's nice to have such options.

 

I have given up for now using my iPhone to lock & unlock and to power up my Prime. It's not very consistent when it will work without going to the app and refreshing it. I had to constantly pull up my phone and check the status of the app. Yesterday, the app signed me out and I had to log back in. I also had to create a new password??? I have to check maybe the app requires a new password every month???

 

With my luck I would loose the key fob and have the phone locked in the car...
m

 

typical toyota electronics, haphazard reliability

 

Hate this.

The way my Gen3 works is perfect... walk up to car, dip my hand in the handle and pull - by the time I pull, the car is already unlocked. Sit in the seat and push the Power button. It literally could not be more seamless.

How is having an App - having to stand there, open up your phone, open up an app, wait, push buttons etc... better? This is such a regression.

 

Well, it should work just like having the fob. Maybe a slight delay as the car phones home to confirm the phone has access. The issues reported here have to do with Toyota's app operation, not the concept.

 

Toyota electronics will never work like Tesla