Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by Waterluvian | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Waterluvian

I bought a 2020 Forester. The only stuff that needs a subscription are things that use the car’s built in cell service:

- remote lock, unlock, start, check status

- see where my car is

- set alarm email notification if my kid leaves a predefined area or drives over a certain speed limit

- blue button for concierge

- red button for emergencies

Three free years then they want $20CAD/yr. I’m usually cranky about these things but this seems like a no brainer.

I’d pay that amount simply for the “human will see if your airbags went off and will cal 911 with your GPS position if you don’t respond.”

View on HN

They are actually putting emergency button under subscription?

I'm quite glad that we have mandatory eCall system for all newer cars in EU that must work regardless of any subscription. I think the only difference (but it may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer) is that without subscription it will only call 112, instead of allowing either 112 or their own call center.

Good question. I’m not sure, actually. How has the emergency button worked for these systems the last 15 years or so with OnStar and such?

Is there a good reason to require cell service to unlock a door or just car companies taking on external dependencies for no reason?

It isn’t “unlock a door.” It’s “unlock a door from your phone regardless of where you are as long as you have cell signal and the car has cell signal, it doesn’t have to be in range of the fob.”

Correct. My fob works the way they have for decades.

With this service I can lock my car from a different city. I can see where it is. I can set a polygon zone where it emails me if my kids leave the city and whatnot.

It requires cell service and servers. So I get that it requires a subscription.

>I can set a polygon zone where it emails me if my kids leave the city and whatnot.

That is really interesting. How did you handle that conversation with your kids? Or am I imagining that it's a bigger deal than it really is since they've grown up in a world where everything and every one is connected to the internet and tracked all the time?

My kids are 3 and 4 so it’s hypothetical for now… I hope.

But I think it’s a very good question. The way I would handle it is:

“I won’t set an alert. If I ever feel like I have to, you won’t be loaned the car. As always, please endeavour to text me a couple times to help me rest easy that you’re safe. You’ll understand when you’re a dad. If I don’t hear from you I might peek at your location just to know you’re where you planned to be.”

Naturally the conversation is much longer and spans a great many years.

They have these on ODB2 connectors and have for a while.

It would work on any car. And have some with cell service capable as well. You can use it to monitor specifics on a car (ie oil pressure) in real-time. But you can get cellular enabled ones that would alert you or track the vehicle as well.

You absolutely don’t need something new for this and you can decouple it from your make/model so if you want to swap/change/upgrade or cancel it’s trivial.

I guess I saw it differently - which is, in what world are parents handing over a motor vehicle to their children, and good lord are there going to be a billion+ restrictions/safeguards on what they can do with that vehicle if their parents are not present in it.

Also - tracking when a vehicle leaves a polygon zone feels like a minor subset of the already more privacy invasive "Where is this vehicle" that presumably exists already.

It'd be nice if you could put your own SIM in though.

I wonder if there is a SIM or if it’s just software managed in some proprietary chip.

I've found it handy, it not critical.

Cell phone based remote starts handy. I can start the car while out of fob range.

I really only use the cell unlock when I forget to grab the key to get something out of the car. I could walk back inside to get the key, but it ain't worth it.

Honest curiosity, but in what situations do you use it? I'm having a hard time imaging a scenario where I'd want to remotely lock or unlock my car, nevermind starting the engine when it's out of sight

I was on mobile, so I didn't elaborate in my original comment.

Skiing is the most common case for me. On my last run, I'll typically get the car going while I'm on the lift. That means it's ready to drive (not just pre-hot) when I get my ski gear put away.

I think my wife uses it sometimes at work. She's on the far end of the building from her vehicle, so out of range of the fob.

Sometimes I park outside my garage and then forget if I locked it. It’s nice that I get an email confirmation because it’s too far away to hear the horn.

Peeve: cars/ car owners that lock the car and the horn beeps.

Yeah. I love that my car doesn’t do that when I remotely lock it. They thought it all through.

I picked up a new Mazda CX-5, was told that a satellite was involved in the signal routing for the remote start?

Not sure if I believe that.

Sounds like how a salesman would describe the feature.

Satellite, same way a satellite might be involved in a mobile call or text or call..

How else are you going to do it except using a cellular signal? Conventional RF in a tiny key fob only has limited range.

I bought a 2018 Ford, used. It has a built-in wifi, with ATT support.

If I pay $200 per year, I get the full mobile hotspot, wifi, 25GBs per month.

If I don't pay (& I didn't), it does NOT give me wifi access, but remote start from app, location, mileage, any notifications or messages all work, along with journey trackings.

$20 / yr is perfectly reasonable. GM wants $50/mo for that service. The basic on/off, lock / unlock function is still $25/mo.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com