It is ridiculous to pay $150 for a disc to update the maps on my navigation system, especially when my phone already has built-in GPS. I called Toyota Support today to complain, and they actually documented my call and gave me an incident number. Toyota cannot be making any serious money on these DVDs. They should just give them away for free to their loyal customers who ask. The woman I spoke to said that many people had called in with the same suggestion. I encourage all Toyota owners to do the same by calling Toyota Support at 800-331-4331
I think coffee should be free Who has the right to charge money for books How did anyone possibly come up with the idea of charging for sex
I completely agree with you ... As a matter of fact I never use the navigation system from my Prius because it is so outdated and prefer my cell phone.
Hopefully there will be some kind of cool Google Android Auto option coming to get around it and make things better maybe ?
They've nixed the 12 volt outlet in the dash for 2016. Coincidence? I think not. (Just partially in jest.)
I wouldn't get your hopes up too high, every manufacturer does this. Even if you do get the new DVD it will still be out of date. My 2016 fresh off the lot is missing roads that were built within the last 2 years or so.
I use the Prius navigation all the time all over the country. The caveat is that I often have to use my phone to get an address and then let the Prius guide me to minimize data usage. There have been times though when I've had to follow the road number vs the directions through some new interchanges, etc., but it's still done pretty well for a 2014 over the 50,000 miles we've driven so far and I've had the same problem with my Garmin even though its maps are kept up to date. We have an 8,000+ mile trip coming up next month to Nova Scotia and I expect it to get us around just fine. If I didn't have the phone though, the Prius nav would be difficult to rely on in cities. For me, the POI database is severely lacking. It can't find popular restaurants that have been in business for years. To be fair though, I just double-checked the Garmin for an Italian restaurant in Grand Junction CO that the Prius couldn't find by Name. What I found was that the name of the place is misspelled in the Garmin database, El Bistro instead of Il Bistro. When I entered "El" in the Prius, it found it just fine. And that's not the first time spelling has been the problem. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the Prius nav is good, just that it's worked pretty well for us over a lot of miles. As I've said in other threads of this nature, I do a lot of preplanning for our trips and pre-enter destinations, including food and fuel stops, so maybe that's why mu success has been better than most. Now if I could just get them to make the interface more user-friendly and get rid of the lockout so my wife could enter destinations while I'm driving. Heck, just being able to say "Find next <restaurant of choice> along my route" would be a huge improvement for us.
First time posting in Prius Chat. Have a 2013 Prius V that I bought new in May 2013 with navigation. Had not used it much as Garmin has been my Buddy for years when taking longer trips. Yes, Garmin has a few issues but generally pretty reliable. Was taking a short trip around town without Garmin available and realized that the Toyota navigation was so outdated in relation to 3 or 4 year old roads. Checked the map version and found it was the 4th quarter of 2010 - nice Complained to dealership and they would be pleased to update via DVD for $299 Canadian. No satisfaction at all with Toyota Support - turns out the same issue happens with Lexus but the Dealer is more receptive to one free update. Given all the other shortcomings and poor design of the Toyota navigation system, it sits stuck in 2010 as wasted memory. For a company that prides itself on being forward thinking and innovative, their navigation system is an embarrassment. Currently on my 7th Toyota since my first new 1974 Celica GT 5-speed and have been very satisfied, but this sucks. A free map update for a loyal customer when first noticed would have helped.
They should be free to download so you burn your own DVD otherwise charge a nominal fee, say $25, to cover the cost of the DVD and shipping. This cannot be a big revenue stream for them or any real revenue at all stream so they should make it free. It would be a great selling point.
I think the sticking point is Toyota still has to pay license fees to the old-school companies like Navteq that compiled massive amounts of map data way back before everybody had smartphones and the gathering process could be more crowdsourced. Back in the day, gathering that much detailed map information took actual work. The work got paid for, and Toyota's using it under contract, and the contract apparently doesn't have an "or give it away free if you want to" clause.
Garmin updates are not free, but more reasonable, around $50, occasionally 1/2 price. I haven't bothered in years, too
Navteq was sold to Nokia in 2007/2008. In 2012 the navigation part of Noka was called Here. In 2012 the Here part of Noka was sold to a consortium of auto companies; Audi, BMW and Daimler. Gathering the information and compiling into map ready format takes money. Google makes money by harvesting the data and selling advertising. I'm not so sure Toyota is willing, able, or legally allowed to offer motorists data. AFAIK the current navigation, OEM, are only one way.The money corporations pay companies like Here allows those companies to offer low cost, or even free, programs to the public.
One word: Capitalism. You can go on Amazon right now and buy a standalone Garmin car GPS unit with free lifetime map updates for half the price of a single Toyota SATNAV DVD. But Toyota has you by the short hairs.
Is that Canadian thing? Our Garmin, we've had two different models in the last ~10 years, always came with lifetime free map update.
It's an older Garmin thing. And yeah very true: now they typically include free updates here as well. I might just pull it out: we follow well trodden routes so often, that I forget it's even there.
