Toyota Entune – How Toyota brought dissatisfaction to it’s customer base by implementing ‘Connected Services’ that do not work.

I have been a loyal Toyota owner for 20 years before making the decision to purchase a 2021 Tacoma. I knew what I would get in the truck. Go anywhere, slightly underpowered, reliable truck. Which after 6 months is exactly what the truck has been.

Shortly after purchasing the vehicle I attempted to start using the connected services offering from Toyota Entune. These services provide features like remote start, navigation, emergency driver assist and WiFi AP. The process to ‘activate’ these services involves a 6 digit code which has to be entered into the trucks console and provided via email. The problem is that every time the console is opened a ‘Network Unavailable’ error is thrown on the page provided to enter the code. Consequently none of those services (including pushing the ‘emergency call button’) work. The dealer has attempted to figure out what is going on with the car, and at this point told me (the customer of the brand new 2021 Tacoma purchased from them) that there is nothing they can do about the issue. Only ‘Toyota Entune’ can fix the issue.

I have reached out to Toyota Entune several times without any success.

What this appears to me to be is a very good example of how not to on-board software driven capabilities into a proven, reliable vehicle. Whenever there are two separate support streams involved in a product its not a good sign. The folks at the dealerships do not have the tools or access they need to fix the issue, but they are the ones who have to deal with the customer. All of which would not be a big deal if the software worked properly. It doesn’t.

Imagine if Tesla’s software didn’t work properly. That would have killed Tesla out of the gate. Sad to see it might kill Toyota after making great products for so many years.