"the door can't be opened in the mountains"-there is something wrong with Toyota's unmanned rental car, and the specification of "leaving it in place" has caused controversy over Toyota's "guide error".

"The door suddenly stopped opening in the mountains of Hida, and it got stuck." ── A tweet from a user of the unmanned rental car rental service "Chokunori!" Provided by Toyota Motor Corporation is controversial. Kentaro Ejima (@kenn), a contributor and evangelist of Quora in the United States, rented a car with the same service and visited the mountains of Hida on August 3, when the Bluetooth connection between the smartphone and the car was suddenly lost and the door It is said that it can no longer be opened and closed.

Chokunori! Is a car rental service that allows you to make car reservations, open and close doors, and make payments using just a smartphone app. The door can be unlocked from a smartphone via Bluetooth, but the physical key is managed by each sales office and is not rented out. Therefore, if the Bluetooth connection is lost, the user cannot open or close it by himself.

Mr. Ejima contacted the support center, but said that it was impossible to open and close the door remotely. "I was surprised to hear that if I thought I could do an emergency remote unlock, I couldn't do it." (Same as above)

After that, a Toyota helper who arrived at the site opened the door, but the engine could not be started due to the security function, and the car was eventually towed. Toyota, on the other hand, said it did not provide an alternative means of transportation. "I was thrown out in the middle of the Hida Mountains," Ejima tweeted.

Regarding the fact that there is no way to unlock when the Bluetooth connection is lost, Mr. Ejima says, "As an engineer, I have no choice but to say'Majikayo'." Twitter users who saw the series of posts also said, "I'm scared that there is no physical key," "I was surprised that I didn't expect analog support," and "Although it's a new service, the assumption is too sweet." Came up.

When I interviewed Toyota about the service design in the event of a Bluetooth failure, I withheld the answer that "currently being confirmed including the cause".

Regarding leaving the user in the mountains, "Originally, we were supposed to provide a substitute car due to a breakdown before renting out, but we could not respond according to the terms of use. To that effect, the user in this case I apologize for the inconvenience, and I will refund the full amount. I am very sorry for the inconvenience. "

[Correction history: August 4, 2021 8:55 pm Initially, it was stated that "the fee was fully refunded", but since the refund is yet to be made, the expression has been revised. In addition, Toyota Motor Corp. added an apology comment that the replacement car can only be rented if it is found to be out of order before the rental. ]

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