New '15 Prius v owner... so far quite impressed (except for the NAV)

I just bought a '15 Prius v Five with ATP. So far I am quite impressed. I was previously driving an '06 Prius (package 8) and the v seems like much more car.

About the only thing I dislike so far is the navigation package. It has a bunch little quirky things and it just seems more difficult to use than the previous Nav system in my old Prius. A couple of things that bug me are:

• No Nav button on the steering wheel, or even on the MFD screen. What were they thinking?
• Nav button is hidden behind the "App" button... so it takes two presses to get to the Nav.
• Hitting the NAV button (when you finally get to it) does not seem to recenter the screen on your current position (unlike the old NAV) - Correction... this does not seem to be the case.
• Many of the buttons on the NAV screen seem to be a couple of millimeters off the bottom of the display... so if you hit one of these buttons near the bottom... instead of selecting the function... you often reposition the cursor and lose having the map keep up with your location
• To get rid of the cursor and center the screen on the current position... you need to hit another small button on the bottom of the display (sometimes moving the map once again)

None of these are earth shattering problems... but you have to wonder if the designer of the system ever really used one in real life, while driving. The user interface is (IMHO) horrid... and the NAV on the '06 Prius was much more usable, even though it had fewer features.

Toyota could have (and should have) done a better job on this design.

/Jim

 

Thanks. I've been here on PriusChat since 2005 when I bought my first Prius. I actually bought two since I liked it so much. Both were 2006 model year cars with option 8.

My daughter just totaled one at 128K miles... so I gave her mine (108K miles) and I bought myself a new 2015 Prius v Wagon Five with the ATP package. So far so good.

Today I had another clunky experience with the electronics. I left work... and a minute or two later, my radio froze up saying that it was making a phone call to my own cell phone number (using my cell phone). My cell phone was normal, and was not making a call. I rebooted the radio (pushing the button for 3+ seconds)... but as soon as it rebooted... it quickly moved back into the mode where it said it was calling my cell phone again. I pulled off the road, rebooted my phone (iPhone 6 Plus), restarted the car, and rebooted the radio. No more problem.

One thing I did see pop up on the screen while I was using Pandora... was a warning message that Entune was disabled when an Apple device was plugged into the USB port. I've since moved my iPhone to be powered off of a lighter-to-USB adapter rather than the dash mounted USB port. Maybe that will mitigate some issues.

/Jim

 

My mistake... I said "NAV" when I should have said "MAP". I wasn't looking at the car when I made the post... and my other car (Jeep) calls it a NAV button.

In any case...my disappointment is that there is no MAP button on either the steering wheel or on the head unit. You have to hit APPS first... then hit the MAP/NAV (whatever it is called). It is just clumsy for a feature that is so highly used.

/Jim

 

Thanks for the info about Siri causing the screen to show it was calling it's own phone. I did not know that, but I will check it out tomorrow during my drive to work.

Regarding USB: It seems that Entune (or parts of it) get disabled, or go wonky whenever an Apple device is plugged into the USB port. I have switched to using a cigarette lighter USB adapter and link my iPhone 6 Plus via Bluetooth, which seems stable. I have tested Pandora several times as well and it seems to work fine and my iPhone music stopped auto-playing. I think disconnecting the iPhone from the USB port was the trick (or at least I hope so).

/Jim

 

The home button brings you to the "Home" screen... which is not the same as the full screen navigation page. Although I am not positive... I do not think that you can navigate from the Home screen to the full MAP/NAV screen easily.

As an aside... I happen to be an instrument rated pilot, and my expectation of navigation electronics is high. Good avionics are complex... but at the same time build-in intuitiveness, stability, predictability, and are generally bullet proof. These characteristics are necessary to survive while flying a plane without being able to see out the windshield. By contrast, the entune system has none of these characteristics... except being complex.

I am getting more accustomed to the user interface... but I still think they did a lousy job on it. Maybe my expectations are too high... after all, I could by two (or more) complete Prii for the cost of my avionics. What I find most disappointing is they seem to have moved backwards from previous products.


/Jim

I was reading the manual some more tonight which has some references to the incompatibility. One such reference says that you might get unstable operation if an iPhone is connected both via USB and via Bluetooth simultaneously.

Given that the iPhone can be connected via multiple "BT profiles" such as BT Phone, BT Audio, and BT Entune... you might be able to remove one of those profiles and hence remove the conflict. In my case... I think I will just use Bluetooth for all modes of data connection between my iPhone and the head unit. Instead of plugging the phone into the vehicles USB port... I am using a cig lighter adapter instead.

/Jim

 

Good news to report. If you are driving with your Home screen normally displayed... then hitting the map section of the display brings you directly to the usable full screen NAV page. Likewise, hitting the Audio section of the home screen brings you directly to full page Audio page, not the "select audio source page.

This is much better than what I was experiencing.

The home screen is configurable with either 2 or 3 panels. I currently have mine set up for NAV (1/2 of the screen), Audio (1/4 of the screen) and top 4 phone speed-dials (1/4 of the screen). Touching either the NAV or Audio panels bringz you directly to the (IMHO) best page for each function.

/Jim

 

Here is another little thing that I like compared to my previous 2006 Prius. The Outside Air Temperature (OAT) is always displayed on the dedicated climate control panel. In fact... the entire climate control panel is very well laid out.

We live in Portland OR... and we spend many (or most) weekends at the Oregon Coast. Both Portland and the coast are generally above freezing all winter long. There is a low mountain range between the two with ~2000' passes. These often have winter weather... or especially black ice. With the 2006 Prius, I would need to switch screen pages to see OAT... but with the 2015 v Wagon... it is shown on a dedicated display. I love it!

We also spend time in Central Oregon and for those trips, we need to cross the Cascades. We also ski in the Cascades. Those are MUCH higher, and for those trips, we leave the Prius at home and take the Jeep instead.

/Jim

 

The NAV system still has stability problems... which I hope might be updated with a software update in the future.

Example: Last night during a short trip... the unit seemed to be working fine and was responsive... except the touch screen on the lower left was inoperative. This is the "information" area that lets you cycle between Distance/ETA, Distance/Remaining-time, and Current-speed-limit/Road-name displays. Both my wife and I tried to cycle through the 3 options, but it was totally unresponsive. I rebooted (push power for 3+ seconds) the head unit while driving, hoping my route would still remain active (it did)... and after reboot, the functions worked fine.

Speaking of functions... it is an awkward design that the very useful "current speed limit" mentioned above is only available in one of the 3 information screens (arguably the least import of the 3). The speed limit icon is tiny, and could have easily been shown in any of the 3 modes... or on a dedicated portion of the screen. Once again, a less than stellar user interface decision.

In fairness, I am getting used to the unit but I still believe that it could use improvement. I surely wish there was a passenger operated over-ride option to allow full operation while driving. It seems any 3rd party add-ons require opening the dash, and splicing in wires... something I do not care to do on a new car... possibly voiding a warranty. The other significant issue seems to be the very small buttons, which are extremely easy to mis-hit. My wife was getting increasingly agitated as her hit-rate is only about 50%. By contrast, my 2006 Prius had huge buttons that were trivial to operate.

/Jim