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Summary: Free software activists need to be aware of what's happening to cars; they're nowadays a large number of computers/microprocessors designed to oppress or at least control their supposed 'owner' (who lacks actual control over what he or she paid for)

TODAY we started the series entitled "The Car Drives You" -- a set of articles that may go on for weeks if not longer. It's a grossly under-explored issue. Last night we shared a new video about Toyota -- a 10-minute clip from Louis Rossmann. Several people told us about this issue (and the corresponding video) in recent days, so we've taken a deeper look. This should resonate with Free software activism.

Rossmann took note of this article some people had told him about. To quote: "Update 12/11/2021 @ 2:20 pm ET: The story has been updated to clarify that the key fob's proximity-based radio frequency remote start function will not work without a paid subscription to Toyota's Remote Connect suite of connected services. The Drive regrets any confusion the original copy may have caused."

"This should resonate with Free software activism."A few hours ago Dan Maloney at Hackaday followed up with: "Key fobs as a service? Have we really gotten to that point? It would seem so, at least for Toyota, which is now requiring a subscription to use the company’s Remote Connect function. To be fair to Toyota, the Remote Connect system seems to do a bit more than the average key fob, with things like remote start and smartphone or smartwatch integration. It doesn’t appear that using the key fob for more mundane uses, like opening the doors, will be nerfed by this change. But if you want to warm up your car on a cold winter’s morn while you’re still in your jammies, then be prepared to cough up $8 a month or $80 a year on select 2018 and above models. Whether Toyota and other manufacturers get away with this nickel-and-dime stuff is up to the buyers, of course; if enough people opt out, maybe they’ll think of some other way to pad their bottom line. But since we’ve already seen heated seats as a service (last item), we suspect this is the shape of things to come, and that it will spread well beyond the car industry."

If this sort of thing sounds rather familiar, then, well...it probably ought to. Across other domains in computing we keep seeing this sort of thing; with malicious, untrustworthy, and fake 'security' like TPM and UEFI 'secure boot' being advanced it's bound to get only worse over time.

The video above is s discussion of some of the issues covered so far and some aspects which shall be covered next. ⬆