I wonder why Toyota ditched the Safety Connect system for the Trail Edition but included it for the SR5 and LTD. You can see the button for it on this pre-production Trail Edition. :S

my SR5 doesnt have that

Weird. Back in October the Toyota website listed both the SR5 and the LTD as having the Safety Connect. Now, only the LTD is listed as having it.

Toyota 4Runner - 2010 Models: SR5, Trail, and Limited models

cost cutting

In the brochure it is listed as being on the Trail & Limited, never on the SR5.

Those damn bean counters really made a mess of things!

Because Trail Edition owners will venture off-road away from civilization and cellular coverage, so Safety Connect won't have signal. If Safety Connect is setup like On-Star.

OnStar claims to use both satellite and cellular networks to track vehilces and relay information to the response center.

The Toyota website still shows that Safety Connect is standard on the SR5 and Limited 4Runner. My SR5 doesn't have it, and I didn't notice that it wasn't there when purchasing at the dealer, otherwise I would have asked.

Sorry to derail the topic. But what is the SOS button? Is that really some kind of distress button or just a new strange hazards button?

It uses a cellular connection to link you with Toyota's equivalent of an Onstar operator. The operator knows your location from GPS, they speak to you and call the police/fire/ambulance. Apparently it is not a rebranded Onstar service (owned by GM). Toyota set up their own rival system.

More info here: Toyota Safety Connect ? SOS - Safety and Security System Service
Toyota Safety Connect and Lexus Enform Square Off with OnStar

GM was the first with this type of system (Onstar). Mercedes uses a rebranded version of Onstar, I believe.

FWIW, my father works for CDC and has met the creator of OnStar (recently retired after ~10 years of working on it) and my dad attended several very interesting workshops about it and the ways in which it informs crisis management and response plans. The creator wouldn't disclose the amount that GM has spent on it but hinted it is around $1 B. He also suggested that they price per unit is now very affordable and they are leaps and bounds beyond all the other auto manufacturers. He said he expects other MoCos to rush to produce and implement their own systems in the coming decade, many of which will license OnStar (now a separate company from GM, of course, now that it is profitable!).



It's a pretty amazing system and it should be standard on all vehicles.