According to the Honda site the remote pre-conditioning is part of a 3 month trial. After the 3 month trial period it costs $110 a year?
Looks car companies have been adding subscription services as they realize service costs will go down in the future. These are largely cellular based services. https://www.consumerreports.org/cars-hidden-costs-of-car-infotainment/
I saw that on the HondaLink website, but I believe that subscription cost is for certain vehicles where the subscription gets you features like remote start, vehicle location tracking, and automatic emergency response (like OnStar). It does not apply to the Clarity. The HondaLink features for the Clarity are different. What exactly did you confirm with Honda? Did your ask specifically about the Clarity?
IDK, I just talked with someone at the HondaLink help desk and they said there was no subscription service for the Clarity. I even asked how sure she was ($20, $100 sure, etc.) and she said there was no indication that there were any charges for the services associated with the app. She indicated that the 2018 Odyssey indeed had telemetric services - as well as a subscription. To further muddy the water, when I go into my "HondaLink" account and dig around, I found a page that described the services - for a 2018 Clarity. (See pic) That page goes on to show lots of HondaLink services, and it shows different levels of service for different models of the Odyssey. And in that list, the Touring model as well as an Elite model both have all of the services included in the price of the vehicle. There is a way to enroll in the pay to play telemetrics for those who aren't in the two top level models, but I can't get past the VIN screen to find out more. (See pic) It's probably set up to only accept Odyssey VINs. So it's another bleeding edge ownership question. I guess we'll just wait and see if Honda hits us up in 3 months with some great deal for a year - or if all the things like the battery monitor, charge notifications, and preconditioning continue to work as they always have. If the Clarity indeed has the capability to send an SOS or be tracked if it's stolen, then $10/mo might be good insurance. If you can hide a gps tracker or have one installed for you, that would serve the same purpose. Hopefully someone else will find out a little more before we hit March. I'd go in and ask the dealer, but I think some of the info we're getting - from Honda itself - is misinformation. So I start wondering if they are even a good source. LOL
BFD Thanks for digging into this....unfortunately, I know more about this car than does my dealer. They are so clueless and no one can give you any answers. If they do cancel this feature I will be pissed to say the least. Seems like they put a lot of work into this car to leave so many loose ends.
It may not be their fault, but the "dealers" are about as knowledgeable about the Clarity as the blue shirt teenagers at Best Buy are about high end computer gear...
That is a big pet peeve of mine. I really hate that. The guy who gave me a test drive last week told me the paddles were shifters and the pre-con button was a remote engine start feature.
Maybe it’s temporary through the app, but it’s on the key for the base model (the one I got)... so if it is temporary in the app i’ll Use the key.
My sense is that the app has much more range than the key fob, but I haven't really tested it out. I mean, I've used both, and I was been pretty far away when I used the app. It still worked. I don't know if it would've worked at the same distance via key fob, but I'll try it when I get a chance. One other surprise with the app, the car was parked at ground level of an 8 story parking garage - though it was right at the edge and close to the opening, so possibly some signal was able to get through.
Hell, BMW is charging $350 a year to use AppleCarPlay, so I heard. Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
The car has a cellular telematics control unit (TCU). The app contacts to the Honda servers which talk to the car via the TCU. I’m in Cancun right now and I can see the status and location of my Clarity back in the parking lot at DIA.
So, the real question is, what telemetry are they getting, and is that why they don't care about our observations because they are already collecting real time data...
I hate to bump an old thread, but those of you that have had the car since Winter -- did you ever get hit up with a subscription charge for remote start?
No, I think for Clarity it is free for much longer period, some other Honda's are 3 months. Although I never really use preconditioning (I would, but my wife drives the car and generally doesn't leave it parked for long periods outside where it would need it).
Another thing I've noticed since the last update is that the location services work much better for me than they used to. They seem to now update in near real time. geo
It will probably cost Honda more to setup the the database than they will ever collect for the remote service on the Clarity... After all they dont plan to sell a lot of this car.... especially they are selling it at a lost in NA comparing to Japan
