So pretty much the title. I recently got a 2023 corolla and loving it, but what I don’t understand is why it’s got wifi. I’ve driven a 2012 Yaris prior to this and that was pretty much a “dumb” car.
Toyota’s been rolling out connectivity in their cars and that includes a cellular modem. It transmits data like location, speed, other metrics to Toyota (opinion: ew, seems like it can be disabled at the cost of the microphone, or by calling them) and since they’re putting that in, it might as well become a selling point on the spec sheet.
New cars are vacuuming up data these days, I am concerned by that personally. Yes I know I have a phone, etc. etc.
I don’t have a Toyota fwiw, but on my car you connect the wifi to your home router and update the infotainment firmware. It allows over the air updates without having to go to the dealership.
I have a recent Corolla with this feature and really like it. It may not be useful for you if your cell phone has unlimited data. But I’m on a pay as you go plan run through T-Mobile so it’s cheaper to pay for the car wifi than data. For $10 a month, I don’t have to worry about running up a big bill with streaming and GPS.
The wifi also runs through Verizon so it’s nice to have two different ways to call for help if you’re stranded between T-Mobile towers.
I expect these issues are mostly my own and it isn’t that useful for most. Honestly, I would bet that AT&T or Verizon is paying Toyota to put these into cars so they can sell data plans.
Au okay, that’s cool. I’m in Aus and have 180Gb of data per months so almost unlimited, so I’m probably not the target market for this feature. But that’s good to know anyway
There’s a few answers but none of them are the real answer.
It costs next to nothing to include in the car but adds a substantial amount to the selling price OR it doesn’t add much to the price but adds substantial perceived value from the buyer’s perspective
So they can gather data about your driving and send you insurance offers based on how often you slam on the brakes. So they can receive diagnostic data about your vehicle. So they can design the next vehicle better based on data they gather from yours.
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