Wifi/Carplay/AA/Toyota Subscriptions

[Marinna]

Don’t you need the data plan when you use these “remote” control features like lock/unlocked/climate… etc? I also have multiple devices like tablet and dashcam… etc that requires networks to be fully functional so I decided to pay for it anyway. But that is potentially replaceable by a hotspot modem later so I think at some point I might drop it too.

 

[PACruiser]

If I understand it correctly, it operates basically like the following:

The vehicle needs a cellular connection to provide connected services and has built in antenna/transmitter, gps, and telemetrics hardware. After your trial period, you must purchase a service plan from Toyota for one or more of the connected services which includes the basic cellular connectivity from AT&T to the car in order to provide the features to the vehicle and paired smartphone app.

In addition, the wi-fi connect service sold separately or within a bndle also provides a wi-fi network within the vehicle and enables it to operate as a shared hot spot. Some of the added benefits include the ability to connect up to five devices (phones, laptops, tablets etc.) with different operating systems (IOS/Android, MacOS/Windows/Linux), a separate dedicated phone number for the vehicle, a high performance 4G consolidated cellular connection, unlimited data plans, integrated streaming with Apple and Amazon, and all the other things you can do with a shared network.

 

[Captain Trips]

The only reason for the Wi-Fi subscription is for Apple or Amazon music, and to use as a hotspot. Your phone cannot be used as a hotspot if you are using wireless CarPlay or android play because they set up a Peer to Peer Wi-Fi network that is invisible on your phone, but makes the Wi-Fi appear disabled.

In the multimedia manual, chapter 7 describes which services use the different types of data your car supplies. There is a cellular connection in your car that works with service connect and remote connect and other things which may or may not require a subscription. This is referred to as DCM data.

 

[HammerTheWall]

I have an iPhone 11 Pro (I know, I know ) and no subscriptions. I have an unlimited data plan and just use that. No need for anything else as far as I know to get remote start, locking, etc. to work and to use Carplay.

The only thing I do notice is that after using remote start, I see the weird "WiFi connection interrupted, try again" message. I hit retry, and then it goes away. If it reconnects then Carplay works fine (after about a 10 second pause..assuming it's reconnecting), if not, I go into the settings for my profile and enable the "use for Carplay" slider and all is fine.

Not sure if this helps anyone, but I was stuck on "why can't I use carplay after remote starting" and figured out that it seems like if that wifi connection is lost and doesn't reconnect you have to get into your settings and re-enable it.