Toyota Unveils Entune, App-Ready Sync Fighter, At CES

nice!! i wish my Leaf would use my cellie provider... oh well. hoping for an app from android

 

Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

It darned well better be backwards compatible.

Toyota Vehicles : Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show / Toyota

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

By the way, there are a couple of important contacts at the bottom of this announcement:​

Media Contact:
[redacted]​

Toyota Contact:
[redacted]​

I have had luck in the past submitting complaints to folks like this instead of through traditional customer service numbers and email addresses. They tend to forward your complaints up the ladder rather than through customer service processes and infrastructures. If anyone thinks that new multimedia systems should be released with upgrades available to current Toyota owners, or you have complaints about the current system, these folks might be able to get results. ​

Hope this gives you a better outlet the next time your NAV/audio system makes you see red.

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

skilbovia,

Can I ask that you please NOT send your emails via the above method? It may feel better to "go around" the customer service support system, and feel like you have better "access" to people who make decisions you're after, but it really isn't better. We are actually required by some laws to route consumer product concerns through our call center, which has the tools to track and document them. So if you sent something to me with a product complaint, that's where it would go. It's not because I don't like you, it's because I'm complying with the law and our corporate procedures.

It also just creates more work for the recipient, if that's something you care about. For example, I know Greg and he is working furiously on having a great presentation and release for the Prius announcement at Detroit next week - something I think all Prius people are interested in. I just don't think it's helpful to add to his burden right now. And BTW, even if Greg dropped everything to help you, I can flat out say he would have zero ability to support your request for product changes.

I don't mean to attack you directly at all, but you articulated a method that others have used as well, so I thought I might just notify everyone what happens with these types of requests.

Sorry you're upset, so I'll thank you in advance for your understanding. Fire away if you have questions.

Doug Coleman
Prius Product Manager
Toyota Motor Sales, USA

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

So, Mr. Coleman, now that you've entered the fray: will the new nav software be backward compatible or require new hardware?

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

Doug:

First, I'll respect your wishes and not send emails directly to the people listed in the email.

That said, when I read the posts relating to how dissatisfied the folks in this newsgroup are with the Navigation/ Audio system and how little is shared about solutions, fixes, resolutions, etc, it makes me tend to think that complaints to customer service via the normal routes just aren't getting anywhere, And in general when I get stonewalled by any company that takes my hard earned money and doesn't treat me just a little bit special, well, I tend to take it seriously, especially when next to my house, my car is the most expensive thing I will ever buy. Maybe my expectations are higher than most as I spent the vast portion of my entire career in sales for a very large test and measurement company, working with customers that spent thousands if not millions on equipment and guess who heard about it and had to make it right if they didn't particularly like how my company treated them. And by the way, I used to get yelled at by my customer service group for going around them as well, but I did it if I thought it was in the best interest of my customer so this is nothing new.

But enough about me. Doug, YOU have a problem with each and every person that buys (and pays a ton of money for) a Prius with a NAV/JBL audio system. And I'm one of them who was totally pleased with his Ford Escape with the Ford Sync System until it started leaving puddles of transmission fluid on my garage floor. So I bought a Prius for mileage and reliability. It's my third Toyota in the last 10 years (other vehicle: 03 Solara SLEV6 replaced by 06 Sienna XLE) so I'm a loyal customer. I expected an audio system in my Prius that would at least let me find and play an album of my choice from a memory storage device by saying it's name. After my experience with Ford Sync I can't tell you how disappointed I was with Toyota's top end audio system. I'm so disappointed that next time around Toyota won't be a slam dunk. Yes, it's that bad. Incidentally, my wife is very excited about everything she has heard about the new Prius v as a replacement for her Sienna. I'm saying "not so fast" because of this issue.

So here's what I want:

I want the audio system user interface fixed and I want an upgrade to be made available to everyone that spent a fortune on the NAV/Audio package free of charge. If you need help with the feature set, there's lots of us here to help you.

I want the navigation system fixed so that updates reach us faster and less expensively. I'd say quarterly updates for $25 per disc might get me to buy one but at $200 for a yearly upgrade, forget it. Incidentally, if I were you, I would be embarrassed about charging $200 for this yearly upgrade. I also want performance to be at least as good as portable units from the likes of Garmin that are much much less expensive.

I want the range of static free FM increased so that it meets the expectations of the folks in this group who have owned other cars and were very disappointed with this system's FM performance. There's a ton of complaints about that too. And I want it upgraded for free.

I want this to be taken seriously enough for you as Prius Product Manager to develop a plan for how you are going to resolve these issues and report your progress to us on a quarterly basis.

Doug, I don't dislike you either and I hope you are not offended by my being so direct. Please let me/us know how you plan to handle these issues.

Regards,

Skilbovia

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

I would just be excited about this system if I could:

(1) install it in my 2010 Prius as a bolt-in exchange for my crap nav system that I paid $2k for, and
(2) if the Entune system could use Google Maps to provide turn-by-turn navigation through the system. Toyota's system is horrible at turn-by-turn, any "incomplete" area is avoided and the navigation suffers tremendously, not to mention the horrible driving lockout that prevents us from putting in a destination while moving.

Vic

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

**sound of crickets**

I guess we've got our answer.

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

No. This is totally new hardware- much of it from the ground up. It would be like you asking Apple to upgrade your iPod to an iPhone. But I have to ask, honestly, is it reasonable for a consumer to ask a company to accommodate such an upgrade?

Thanks for your understanding on the emails. I get your frustration... and I'm sorry to hear about it. I do hope you have registered your issue with our call center. What happens is those complaints do get aggregated and analyzed... not by the call center people themselves... but by our technical quality people.

There's two types of complaints you have... one type is that your product does not work as promised/expected (i.e., it's broken or not working, like the FM radio). This is a quality complaint that I will honestly tell you, based on our structure, I do not handle. The formerly referenced technical quality people do. So this will likely sound hollow to you, but trust me these types of issues are being analyzed inside and out. I wish I could tell you how it's going to come out, but I can't, because I simply don't have access to that.

The second type is one that is about not being competitive with an offering (like the voice control of songs and the navigation interface). In your opinion, our system does not stack up like the competitors. I am much closer to those types of issues, and I will honestly say, you're absolutely right. Our offerings in audio the past several years have been lagging. That's what we intend to fix with the new audio systems with Entune - it is a vastly superior feature set relative to our past systems. My question is, if the system was uncompetitive in your eyes, and so important to you, why did you buy it?

I really wish I had more power to just wave a magic wand and solve your complaints with the vehicle, but I don't. I'm sorry about that. Really, at most I can just describe to you how we do things and how we try to help you. At the end of the day, if you feel we haven't delivered on the customer experience you deserve, we'll lose you as a customer. Shame on us.

Doug Coleman
Prius Product Manager
Toyota Motor Sales, USA

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

I can answer that one. Because the vehicle features were more important in the decision than the Nav unit. I wanted the roof and took the Navigation thinking (apparently falsely) that Toyota would make good on the lack of usable features of the nav by pushing out a decent update once they figured out the issues people were complaining about.

Honestly, how hard would it be for you guys to push a disc to us with the most requested programming changes? The hardware is usable depending on the software given. The problem is that the software is the exact same framework that I had in my 2004 Sienta when I was in Japan with pretty much no changes since (and actually some features removed from the Japanese version I owned in 2004).

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

"My question is, if the system was uncompetitive in your eyes, and so important to you, why did you buy it?"

Because I made a rash assumption based on what I know about Toyota quality that if I spent lots of money on an Integrated Nav/Audio system, I was going to start playing with it and be pleasntly surprised. No, I didn't walk into the local Toyota Dealership with a USB flash drive, plug it in and test it out. I didn't think I had to based on my Toyota experience and my experience with Ford Sync. I saw the USB slot and assumed that there was a reasonable user interface behind it. My bad. I didn't drive to my house to see if the Nav system got my house's address correct, which it didn't. I assumed that Toyota quality and reliability.... Shame on me. In short, I didn't think I had to take the car home for half a day to try out every feature. But I should have and will next time. Fool me once.... BTW I love everything else about the ATP package, except for the crappy audio/Nav system.

"That's what we intend to fix with the new audio systems with Entune - it is a vastly superior feature set relative to our past systems."

What this says to me is that you are more interested in getting new customers than you are about keeping current ones. Lots of companies have continuation engineering groups that do just that: modify and upgrade systems and capabilities to keep current customers happy. When Entune was being designed there was obviously no one in the meetings saying "wait a minute, what are we going to do for all the ticked off customers that are stuck with the current system?" This is just software, Doug, and i don't think anyone is expecting Toyota to retrofit the entire system to Entune, But I do expect Toyota to upgrade the current Nav system with better location capability, upgrade the audio system with better search capability, better utilize the voice capability, and come up with a few db of gain in the FM signal path to allow the FM radio to perform as well as their competitors for free.

"At the end of the day, if you feel we haven't delivered on the customer experience you deserve, we'll lose you as a customer. Shame on us."

I have $70,000 worth of Toyota equipment in my garage and you're telling me you don't give a crap if you lose me as a customer? I think I've just been flipped off.

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

You're probably right that lots of companies have continuation engineering groups. I suspect we do have one, but I honestly don't know. But that aside, I'm not sure how you draw the conclusion that, because we found our product to be uncompetitive, and we developed a whole new system that is, that we don't want to keep our current customers. I'm not understanding the logical leap there.

No, I didn't say I don't give a crap. Quite the opposite, I said it's a shame when we lose customers because we didn't live up their expectations. And I personally can't stand it when a customer has a problem with their vehicle - especially their Prius - because I want everyone to have a great experience. It does get to me (and the rest of the company).

Doug Coleman
Prius Product Manager
Toyota Motor Sales, USA

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

I have absolutely no idea how hard it would be. I'm in marketing, not the audio engineering division. Honestly, I just don't know.

In my experience, though, generally people who are not familiar with a certain system's development challenges (be it an audio system or a whole car) tend to over-estimate the ease of implementing something new. It seems easy on the outside. I fall into this trap all the time when asking our engineering people different questions about what can and can't be done. I'm continually amazed at the constraints (be they technical, time, or cost) that simply result in a negative answer.

That's a long way of saying it is probably not as easy as you think - it may not be even possible with just a software update - but again, I don't really know.

Doug Coleman
Prius Product Manager
Toyota Motor Sales, USA

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

I appreciate this back and forth. It's not often that you get a manager of one of the largest international corporations fielding questions and supplying answers directly. With that being said, I read this:

and then your signature:

I would think that of anyone we have access to here on these forums, you would be the man that could find out if he didn't know.

Again, I do appreciate you being here and helping us. I don't mean to come off as inflammatory. I'm just frustrated for spending over $2000 more than others for something that is less useful than my $200 iphone, a $20 windshield mount, and a $40 nav app.

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

I'm extremely excited by the new Entune, but like everyone else, I'm not jumping for joy, Toyota has really dropped the ball on Navigation and Radio quality, the sound inside the Prius was a big let down from my past vehicles, and thats with JBL. Even now, many competitors still have better sound and systems.

The navigation, while not being the best, is ok, but Toyota really really needs to rethink their stupid $200 disc to upgrade navigation, that is beyond ridiculous, considering the inital $2000 to get it, and its many drawbacks, I would not feel so bad if it was a more responsible and realistic $25 or $50 upgrade, but $200 is wrong.

 

Re: Toyota Announces Entune Multimedia System at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

I personally don't have any problems with the audio -- and I believe the audio quality from internet-based radio will probably be a let-down -- but my biggest peeve with my current nav system is the navigation. I know that many users have no bad problems with it, other than the driving lockout, but the stupid "incomplete" areas really get under my skin. The last OEM nav unit that we have was Honda, and it has the same problem, but at least you could enable navigation through the unverified areas. The Toyota system does not give the option, and goes many miles out of the way because of this. I mean, just check my map of coverage to see the scope of the problem (white areas are not complete):


If the Entune system will enable a better, cell-phone based nav system (Google Maps or a Garmin app) then it would be a quantum leap in improvement. As it is, my brand new 2010 Nav has me and my wife contemplating removal of these expensive systems. It was a big waste of money when I could have installed a much better aftermarket system for less.

But back on topic.... Entune looks very promising. If the price is right I'd be interested in seeing if it could replace my current system. Waiting on some real-life reviews.

Victor