Reading up on the Gen5...

I'd be ok with a subscription if we had a Class A app, but the App and the in-vehicle Entertainment/Navigation system is really poor. It's also not clear whether they are offering the "remote connect" to let you prestart/heat/cool the car separate from a bundle with either navigation or music.

 

Reading up on the Gen5...
I stopped reading when I saw the price tag....
As long as I carry either an iPhone or a Droid and the car has a screen (or a 12v outlet) what would I need to 'subscribe' to?

A ______ and their money......

 

There is so far nothing to complain on Toyota's side. At least you do not have to subscribe to use the heated seats.

 

Someone recently posted a link to a Toyota page that said $8/month for just Remote Connect, and $15/month for Drive Connect which has Remote Connect bundled in.

 

The 2023 page no longer lists remote connect as a separate service, only bundled.

 

i would never buy an auto subscription.

i said that about cable in the 80's, and then they shut down broadcast an forced my hand.

it's coming...

 

I don't have an issue with companies charging for connectivity that requires access to the cell network. Any form of remote access when the car isn't connected to a wifi network is understandable. I may or may not pay for them depending on cost/convenience/service

For instance, I'm almost never out of broadcast radio range so I won't be buying a SiirusXM sub, I can count all the times I used it on one hand including the time I browsed through to see what they had.

 

The tech in the new 2023 Prius is still slow, annoying, and frustrating compared with the leaders in the marketplace. Lots of little quirks but Carplay helps cover most of the problems most of the time. That said, even though we have a Tesla Model Y and have owned several Teslas and a Rivian in the past, I am extremely pleased with the Prius overall and can look past its tech disappointments which are mostly UI complaints because of the excellent drivability, mpg, and TSS 3.0.

 

The "biggest" negative to my new Prius is that I had gotten used to the aftermarket head unit I had installed in my gen3 a couple years ago. Not because of its superior sound quality(hah!) or any other audio or UI reasons, but because my old unit was an Android 10-based unit and I had it set up to allow the playing of YouTube videos while driving. I "watch" a lot of videos that involve mostly dialogue, so I usually throw one on when I'm heading to the nearest large city. (reaction videos of movies/tv shows I know very well, tabletop liveplay games, powerpoint presentations on military procurement that should not be nearly so good as they are - if you know, you know - lol)

I can still run them on the car using my phone and Bluetooth audio, but it's not nearly so easy anymore.

That's my biggest nitpick.

 

That's true for gen4 and gen5, but the gen3 and prior had standalone radios that could be replaced/upgraded.

That's at least true for the standard hybrid. I don't know if the Plug-In was different.

 

I love complaining about subscription features as much as the next guy, but keep in mind, the services in question here rely on integrated cellular data connections to function, and AT&T isn't a charity. Even if the app is kinda lame, it is still providing services that can only function because of a data connection that isn't provided for free, so subscription for stuff like remote connect just kinda makes sense.

 

I find the Toyota navigation software to be extremely useful and responsive and I will also probably subscribe to the remote drive and connect when the free 1st year service expires. No complaints here whatsoever on the UI on my 23 XLE!

 

No denying that, for sure, but it also can't really be avoided either as long as there's a cell connection involved. Even the cheapest data-only plans from resellers still end up around $15 for something like 2GB, and at&t likes to impose restrictions upon what can be done with particular plans.
Toyota in this case essentially acts as a reseller for at&t service, and they likely do so under certain conditions in order to keep the prices low, which might impact what they can charge for their connected services. I'm sure Toyota wants to make some profit as well, so it's going to be a bit padded even then.
Because of all this... the connected services seem expensive to the end-user for what they offer, but the reason they are expensive is almost definitely because of how they offer it. And for most users, myself included, it's a hard sell and likely won't be worth the expense.

What I'd like to see is an option to just connect to these services via your phone's hotspot instead of the internal cell connection. You'd lose the ability to remotely lock/unlock/start the car, but you would at least have navigation and music streaming without the expense of a data plan. Although, it's possible it already has this functionality and I just haven't tested it, since I've been using Android Auto for everything already =x