Mazda's $10 Subscription For Remote Start Sparks Backlash After Killing Open Source Option | Carscoops
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Right-to-repair advocates believe that car owners should have full ownership of the technology embedded in their vehicles

Mazda recently surprised customers by requiring them to sign up for a subscription in order to keep certain services. Now, notable right-to-repair advocate Louis Rossmann is calling out the brand.

It’s important to clarify that there are two very different types of remote start we’re talking about here. The first type is the one many people are familiar with where you use the key fob to start the vehicle. The second method involves using another device like a smartphone to start the car. In the latter, connected services do the heavy lifting.

Transition to paid services

What is wild is that Mazda used to offer the first option on the fob. Now, it only offers the second kind, where one starts the car via phone through its connected services for a $10 monthly subscription, which comes to $120 a year. Rossmann points out that one individual, Brandon Rorthweiler, developed a workaround in 2023 to enable remote start without Mazda’s subscription fees.

However, according to Ars Technica, Mazda filed a DMCA takedown notice to kill that open-source project. The company claimed it contained code that violated “[Mazda’s] copyright ownership” and used “certain Mazda information, including proprietary API information.”

    • @Croquette@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2•1 month ago

      I live in Canada dickwad, I know what cold winters are, so cut your whining.

      Remote start is a great QoL, and that’s why scummy companies hide it behind a paywall.

      If enough people pay for the subscription, companies will keep doing it.

      So the first step is push back and stop buying from companies that does that.

      Second step is to not pay for the subscription when all the companies will be doing it, because let’s be real, all car manufacturers will follow suit.

      So you will have to either stay in your car, which sucks, or find a workaround like a second key or , in my case, a code on the door.

      It will inconvenience a lot of people and car manufacturers are counting on that to keep pushing that shit