DISAPPOINTMENT

Why, @Salamander_King, why do you have to fight the unfightable and cancel the Toyota Connected Services that come free with the car? By the way, I thought it cost only $8 a year after the trial, but it's apparently $80 a year; so, I will pass on the paid subscription when it expires.

From my limited data points so far, the equation for the battery SOC in the Toyota app is as follows:

T = 0.86M + 14

T: battery SOC in the Toyota app
M: battery SOC on the MFD

Therefore, they show concurrently 100% SOC with a full battery, but the battery SOC on the Toyota app also includes the HV reserve, showing 14% when the "--" on the MFD first appears. This is actually useful because you can see the actual charge in the HV reserve when you are driving in the HV mode. Also, it will be interesting to see if the Toyota app goes over 100%. It could if you are regenerative-braking with a full battery.

Of course, the most important data points will be when the "--" first appears on the MFD and when 100% is reached while charging. I will update the coefficients in the formula if necessary when I have these data points.

 

For my first PP, 2017 PP Premium, I did not have Safety Connect and any connected services. I have never felt I was missing anything. I tried using Entune, but it was a useless APP. So I quit using it. For my 2020 PP LE, I had Connected Service and Toyota App. I gave them a try and very quickly found them neither to be useful nor enjoyable. They did not enhance the user experience. I disconnected them.

For my 2021 PP, I installed the Toyota App so that I can cancel the trial and opt-out of the connected service. Then I uninstalled the app from the phone. That was the very first thing I did after I purchased the car. As you may already know, the purchasing or leasing of a Toyota vehicle gives automatic consent and allows Toyota to collect personal and vehicle data with or without the use of their service. The only way to stop them from collecting data is to opt-out (or go extreme and physically remove the telematic components from the inside of the car.)


Obviously, if you are thinking to cancel the subscription, then you know the "service" is not worth the $80/year cost, but for "free" you are keeping it. But it's not really free. Even though I have no use, if I do not "opt out" of the service then they will continue to collect my personal data and use it for their and others' marketing analysis. As the adage goes, "If you are not paying for a product, you are the product."

Yeah, if your equation is correct, then Toyota must have programmed the app SoC calculation including the bottom 14% but not the top 16%. It is strange if that is the case. But as buggy as the app is I can believe that SE did not spend much time in writing the code and testing them. Yep, that would be in the true sense, "it's not a bug, it's a feature." LOL

 

So, the app was showing 7% just before MFD showed "--" and then it showed 0%. But then last night it fluctuated between 2–7%. So, it's showing a fairly random number around the actual SOC.

I now regret that I have activated the Toyota app suite. Now, I get "Download was interrupted and files may be corrupt, so please redownload" and "Your phone must be connected for apps to work" etc. pop-ups all the time and they are driving me crazy. I don't know how to redownload what/how and/or stop these pop-ups. Fairly useless app suite that doesn't work well.

 

Yep, that was the final nail in the coffin for me in my previous 2020 PP LE. At that time, I was on a trip away from home and using Scout GPS which requires phone connectivity and the Toyota App. It stopped working in the middle of the trip due to a required software update. And, I could not get that update installed. So, I had to navigate the city without GPS. After returning home, I called Toyota customer service, but they were just as inept as the app. So, I decided to opt-out of the connected service and uninstalled the app.

 

The experience on the outdated Denso large-display head unit on the XLE and Limited is a lot worse as opposed to that on the Fujitsu Ten small-display head unit on the LE!

 

I can see that. I did not have a connected service on my 2017 PP Premium, so it never gave me a message on the large 11.5" display warning about the software update. But, then there was no Toyota App. It was Entune 2.0. For my current 2021 PP Ltd with the 11.5" display. Again, since I don't have connected service (opted out) and I don't even have the Toyota App on my phone. I have not seen any update notice on my screen. The problem with the LE head unit was that it did not come with a built-in GPS, so if I wanted to use the Scout GPS that was integrated into the Toyota App (still called Entune App Suite on the car), then I had to have the Toyota App installed on my phone and it had to be connected to the head unit. After the incident I encountered, I uninstalled the Toyota App and Scout GPS from my phone and just used a stand-alone Garmin for my GPS need.

I don't use the built-in navi on my current 2021 PP either. The map data is too old and shows old exit numbers around Boston. It was OK when the signs on the road still had the old exit numbers posted. But after 2 years, those signs are gone from the roads. It gets too confusing if I try to use the onboard navi when I am in or around Boston.

 

Right, no GPS, although it has Android Auto now.

I wonder if you had Toyota Connected Services, you would get an update for the map. I doubt it though. However, it does successfully show the traffic. Yes, the Toyota GPS doesn't work well and even gets you lost sometimes.