2013 Prius v Map HDD Navigation/Firmware Update When?

Apple is the last company on earth I would trust to "run the show" - I work in tech and data security and I would be jailing Tim Cook on contempt in very short order if he fails to assist the federal government quickly in the current controversy - after, of course, going through the appropriate judiciary process. Google is probably a lesser evil but I wouldn't let them run the show either. And there are still vast portions of the world including the U.S. and Canada where there is inadequate or no cell phone service at all and I drive in some of them. Apply Carplay and Android Auto are no use in the hinterland or for those who cannot afford to or do not want to pay for the cell phone bandwidth these technologies require.

And it would cost me far more than $169 per year in data charges to use a cell phone navigation app and, like I said, cell phone navigation apps don't work at all in vast areas of North America even though coverage is slowly getting better.

 

This is veering off into politics, but the leaders of very many of the big tech companies are behind Tim Cook and Apple on this data security issue.

This has absolutely nothing to do with maps of course.

And while I'm not a big fan of Apple Maps or Car Play (from what I've read either), I'd have to say Toyota's system is worse. I have both 2012 Plug-in with Nav and a 2016 RAV4 Hybrid with Nav, and they both are at best mediocre. Apple Maps is superior, and Google Maps is vastly superior.

 

No one in national security and law enforcement supports Tim Cook's position. I understand his argument but it cannot and will not prevail. He needs to cut is losses now before the Apple brand is damaged.

I completely agree on the superiority of Apple Maps and Google Maps but one has to have at least 3G cell phone service to use them and a cell phone data plan that supports them. You show your location as "Earth" which I assume is not in rural middle America, the mountain states, the southwest U.S. or Canada.

It's interesting to "zoom in" on cell phone company coverage maps and see the areas of the U.S. that have little or no service. From a high vantage point, coverage does look wonderful but that doesn't cut it in rural America outside of metropolitan areas and off the Interstate highways.

 

I live in Toronto. I'm rarely out of cell coverage, bit for the few times I am, I'd be fine to use my Garmin, which has unlimited lifetime map updates.