Toyota Tracking Vehicle Useage Surreptitiously?

It's called statistics. Toyota has a good guess how most of us use cars. Sometimes it's a good guess, for others not so good.

You can take off the tinfoil hat.

Tom

 

Is your car equipped with SOS Safety Connect?

 

I , for what it's worth, don't think this is such a tin foil hat moment. In a age when it is not only accepted, but allowed for any company to track your EVERY move on the internet, and where cell phone companies track your every move, all done in the name of marketing. I think this maybe would have gotten me to think a little bit.

Years ago these kinds of personal invasions would have never been allowed and if Toyota or the dealers think they could get away with it they would in a second, that I am sure.

 

I received letters from dealers like this long before cell phones and the Internet.

Tom

 

Guessin this is a Gen3 Prius, not a Prius v. I do know that when I started with my car, the dealer asked me when I think I might hit 5k miles for my first maintenance appointment. So I am guessing they are using a statistics average based on the times you brought it in and your ODO meters at the times you brought it in and guestimating when you might hit your next possible maintenance window time.

So in a sense... They are tracking you, but based on your history. There is also the website, that if you are probably filling in your Odometer reading, they could be linking to it.

 

How close were they on the mileage?

 

I know your car's mileage . . . and now I own you!

 

Yes; and I notices you failed to come to a complete stop at the end of your street this morning too. Be seeing you.

 

Several months ago I got one of those "You can upgrade your 2010 Prius to a 2011 Prius for only $11,000 with our generous trade in policy... blah, blah, blah..." letters that began with... "According to our estimates, your Prius has 15,102 miles..."

I went out and looked, and they were only 10 miles off the mark. Somehow, they just know. And it hadn't been in to the dealer for a year.

 

Don't be sorry about that... I'm not the forum police, just making sure it was just a general Prius question versus a v one.

As for 'rounding off'... That's more of an OCD thing. Do you recall the last time you went in what your ODO was? I'm guessing maybe it was around 28,869 and guestimating a date for the next 5k miles based on the last 2 or 3 times you came in maintenance. Again, my dealer literally asked me, when do I think I would hit 5k miles and a date was set based on my saying I guess I average about 115 to 120 miles a week, so maybe check in about 5 months, which is actually half of 5k, but still it could vary based on the fact I may not always consistently drive 20-22 miles on the weekdays, I do go a little trips every once a while which will vary in range as well.

 

Over the fifteen years I have owned my older car, many service reminders from the dealership have been sent. They infrequently see this car, doing only specialized work for which my favorite independent shop is not equipped.

Lacking OnStar, there is no backdoor path to getting a real reading. Some of the mileage estimates have been astoundingly close. Some, six months off. It is clearly just a statistical estimate.

 

I commonly get solicitations for maintenance from Honda based on "estimates" of where my vehicle may or may NOT be mileage wise, I believe these are based simply on average mileage and time.

If you have visited the Dealership and had any service done, they typically enter your mileage at that time.

If the estimates from Toyota are being created using any other methods? That would concern me.

I've never heard that either Toyota or any one else was using any more intrusive methods.

However? True Story. Over December last year, I put my Garmin on the Christmas Elf voice...(yeah stupid I know)...I was driving along and suddenly the voice came on and announced..."Santa Knows When You've Been Speeding".

The technology to intrude into areas we used to assume were private, certainly exists today. If Toyota does use some passive method to obtain specific mileage information from privately owned Toyota vehicles? That would bother me. I have never heard that was being done.

 

The note I just got, they were 8,429 miles off the mark.... I called them and had them update their computers. The 3 month non drive time after last surgery threw them for a loop. Just wait, today I go out on another Medical Leave of Absence, 2 to 3 months, that should bollix up the works but good!

 

It's not a tinfoil hat...there's absolutely no way Toyota estimated my mileage given my usage and history with the dealer. If there is, I'd like to know what their system is, because they're either psychic or utter genius.

First: I found this post while searching for an answer to my very similar question about the emails, phone calls, and post cards I recently received about service due for my 2006 Toyota Yaris (I know this is a Prius forum, but stick with me; this is relevant, honest). Although the dealer has been sending notices all along, the addition of incredibly accurate odometer information is new.

Here's why I'm certain they didn't estimate my mileage:

1. My car has not been serviced by the dealer. Ever. I've had all service done privately.
2. The fresh-out-of-warranty car has just over 24,000 miles on it. I work from home and have a much more fun to drive car, so it has less than half the mileage of a typical a car its age.
3. Over the last couple of months, they've sent reminders that mentioned my mileage. The most they were off was by 11 miles.
4. After getting those, I took off a road trip and put 4000 miles on it in three weeks. That is, the number of miles I drove in three weeks was about equal to the miles I typically put on the car over an entire year. Every year , for the last five years.
5. Yesterday, I received maintenance coupons from Toyota. It's been a few weeks since my trip, but this is the first correspondence from them since I returned. Again, they had my odometer reading listed. This time, they were accurate to SIX miles.
6. They are very sure of their 'guess' (rightfully so, since they're right!!). The letters don't say "Your car, which probably has xxx number of miles on it...." Instead, they confidently and correctly state that my car has 24,321 miles.
7. I haven't taken the car in for service anywhere since I returned.

My car has NO options, with the possible exception of manual transmission, a cd player, and air conditioning--although I don't remember for sure whether those were standard or option. I bought it right in the middle of my divorce and couldn't spare a dime on extras. Just the basics--down to manual windows!! No satellite radio, no OnStar, no built in GPS.


When I got the first letters, I thought it was odd that they knew my miles, but rather than go with some wacky theory that my car has some sort of system that transmits data to Toyota, I assumed the guy who changed and rotated my tires last year somehow shared a computer database with them or something.


I'd prefer to stick with a non-conspiratorial resolution. Is there a simple answer I'm overlooking??



If not, the entire situation creeps me out and I'm more than a little stunned.


If the OP figures it out, please let me know! I sent Toyota an email asking what's going on and I'll call them when the weekend is over if I haven't heard back yet. But if one of you has already done this, it'd be nice to get answers. If you haven't called but have an opinion, I'm love hear it! I would really like to know what's going on!!

 

Sounds like these cars come with RFID chip now...

 

Probably not where would Toyota put all of the interrogators? I really doubt that Toyota would make an RFID system just to track when scheduled maintenance is due.


Posted from my iPhone via the Tapatalk app.

 

HowStuffWorks "How RFID Works"

They're dirt cheap and you can find it on a toothpaste package at Walmart. What do you mean by interrogators? There's an interrogation process to track a tiny minute chip sending out a signal???

 

Yes most RFID devices are passive until they are interrogated to transmit their data. Some have onboard power and others use power from the interrogation signal to transmit data back to the interrogator or reader.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Radio-frequency_identification

The paragraph below is taken from the above linked wikipedia page.

Operation:
A radio-frequency identification system uses tags, or labels attached to the objects to be identified. Two-way radio transmitter-receivers called interrogators or readers send a signal to the tag and read its response. The readers generally transmit their observations to a computer system running RFID software or RFID middleware.
The tag's information is stored electronically in a non-volatile memory. The RFID tag includes a small RF transmitter and receiver. An RFID reader transmits an encoded radio signal to interrogate the tag. The tag receives the message and responds with its identification information. This may be only a unique tag serial number, or may be product-related information such as a stock number, lot or batch number, production date, or other specific information.
RFID tags can be either passive, active or battery assisted passive. An active tag has an on-board battery that periodically transmits its ID signal. A battery assisted passive (BAP) has a small battery on board that is activated when in the presence of a RFID reader. A passive tag is cheaper and smaller because it has no battery. Instead, the tag uses the radio energy transmitted by the reader as its energy source. The interrogator must be close for RF field to be strong enough to transfer sufficient power to the tag. Since tags have individual serial numbers, the RFID system design can discriminate several tags that might be within the range of the RFID reader and read them simultaneously.
Tags may either be read-only, having a factory-assigned serial number that is used as a key into a database, or may be read/write, where object-specific data can be written into the tag by the system user. Field programmable tags may be write-once, read-multiple; "blank" tags may be written with an electronic product code by the user.
RFID tags contain at least two parts: an integrated circuit for storing and processing information, modulating and demodulating a radio-frequency (RF) signal, collecting DC power from the incident reader signal, and other specialized functions; and an antenna for receiving and transmitting the signal.
Fixed readers are set up to create a specific interrogation zone which can be tightly controlled. This allows a highly defined reading area for when tags go in and out of the interrogation zone. Mobile readers may be hand-held or mounted on carts or vehicles.

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