Is Entune garbage?

garbage is a little strong, rubbish?

 

Well, of course it is… it's Advanced.

 

I early-ordered the PiP - my 3d Prius. I chose the Advanced PiP. Based on five months' usage by now, it is by far the best Prius I've had. The Advanced's features like better center screen control options, the pretty good JBL audio speakers, Softex seats and HID headlights are worth it if you are in a position to choose. I got the Toyota clear plastic bug applique screen for the front and the four door steel protective edges and these options are also nice ones.
IIRC the Advanced PiP also comes with the free (Toyota-paid) Nav freeway traffic visualization and if you live close to or habitually travel into a large urban area it quickly becomes invaluable.
I think the front radar cruise control is also an Advanced PiP feature. I never use mine in town but on long trips, boy! what a luxury! When I went to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in June from Virginia, I fell in love with it, and when I ordered the Advanced PiP I projected that I'd never use it.
So, BLUF, the Advanced PiP features are all well-designed and very nice so if you can afford it and are likely to keep the car for a few years, I recommend you go for that model.

 

I find it pretty useless actually for three reasons:

1) There is too much delay in the traffic info so it is always out-of-date. There seems to be several minutes of delay between when I turn the car on and any traffic info is available, so it seems that the delay broadcasting it over XM (which has to to include traffic data for the nation) is the culprit. Perhaps someone with a Base can comment on how up-to-date the getting NavTraffic info via cellular internet is.

2) The data is only on highways, so any surface street congestion. It may seem like I'm asking for a lot, but Google Maps provides surface street traffic info which is available for free. Simply being able to request, display, and utilize this freely available info in the Nav system would have been a huge improvement over the paid, out-of-date, limited traffic info from XM.

3) Rerouting around traffic rarely changes the route when I try it. The one time it did, I think it took longer b/c it didn't have the surface street congestion info.

I was hoping the XM NavTraffic would allow me to use built-in navigation and the larger screen, but unfortunately not. I end up using Google Maps and Sigalert on my iPhone just like before.

 

At best it is beta software. It shouldn't be in production vehicles.

 

Car manufacturers and dealers ARE big business. It's astounding that they are so far behind the technological curve on this one… It's not just Toyota, either. Most of the implementations out there are poor, a few are just fair, and none are great.

 

I only use the remote charging app, and I agree that it's beta. It could easily provide more control and flexibility.

 

Entune is fantastic!!! If you ever want to know all about construction zones that don't effect your drive home you can count on getting 30+ construction zone icons. The charge point locater app is great for locating charging stations on private property or stations that don't exist yet. Open table? Great for date night. It's a tradition to make reservations on Entune every Friday night in our family. I always forget how much of my 11 miles of EV I have left so the charge meter is super useful. Where is my car parked? Ater a night of intense drinking I can use it to tell the cab driver where I would have walked to had he not picked me up. I can stream Pandora, after I launch my Entune app from my iPhone first, then click about 4 times on my nav screen to get to Pandora. My wife takes the easy way out by just launching Pandora from her phone.

"Hey hunny, let's go catch a movie."
"Ok, sounds great! I'll run down to the garage and jump on Entune to buy tickets before they sell out."

 

I love the charging app. It email me when charge start, when charge done and if the charge is disconnected unwantedly. To view the charge status is very slow but understandable, since your request to the Safety Connect is lower priority than the actually accident request (I would say at the bottom of the queue).

 

The entune radio is garbage.
The GPS it has is also garbage.

How many radios turn themselves on when ever you start the car?
How many radios switch to usb input even if it wasn't playing when the car was last on?
How many radios turn themselves on when you open the door?

The gps has crappy directions.
I have a garmin with traffic and lifetime map updates. It cost about $130 2 years ago and it is far superior.
It is in my prius and I use it exclusively, and I ignore the entune gps.
The entune gps has its own volunme control, which is different than the rest of the entune system volunme control. Why?

The quality of the entune HD radio reciever is significantly worse than a $140 sony reciever.
The amplifier of the entune radio is pretty crappy.
When I turn the car on, I have to hit the input button 4 or 5 times before it responds.
I suspect the entune system is busy booting up and doing other stuff.

The USB input does read flash drives. Unlike a decent aftermarket unit, it ignores directories and file names, and only reads id tags. If you play an album and the album finishes, it starts over from the beginning. There is no way to automatically go to the next album.

I would toss the entune unit, except for the 'setup' and 'car' button that enable me to access other features of the car. The promised ability to monitor tire pressure doesn't work. If you read the manuals, it is documented, but it doesn't exist in reality. Toyota has vendor lock-in with the entune system due to the 'setup' and 'car' buttons.

 

The slow responce to get the Navigation to connect to the Entune app is rediculiously slow.
The Entune App for the iPhone over utilizes the CPU. Heats my phone up conciderably and drains the battery extreamly fast.

So YES Entune is a POS (as it is now).

 

I was glad I brought my "real" Garmin GPS unit on my cross country vacation trip in my PIP. The Entune Map directions were often inaccurate and sometimes actually dangerous. The BING search IMHO is a POS. Maxed out 10 finds for motels and gas stations and such, probably only finds the ones they have a marketing agreement with knowing any Microsoft product. (My Garmin GPS will find dozens more in the same search radius)
I had the Entune update installed at my first 5K service midway through the trip and I think it actually made things worse. Even now it still drops my Android connection all the time. I think the problem is the app on the phone. It crashes many times and won't restart sometimes with the car unless you reboot the phone. I could have bought the Advanced now I am glad I did not. The upgrades especially the HUD would not be worth it to me. I worked on Fighter Jets in the Marines and a lame "HUD" like the one I saw in the PIP Advanced just can't impress me. THe salesmen never even got the NAV part of the HUD to work. That was on 2 different test drives with 2 different salesmen. However the vehicle itself and power management is great and I am impressed with the drivetrain and it's software management system regardless of the PIP model.

 

I don't know if it's my android or it's Entune, but sometimes when I start my PIP, wait for bluetooth to be recognized on the head unit, I select Pandora and suddenly my Pandora on my phone starts playing (VERY ANNOYING) The only remedy is to take the battery out of my phone (because nothing I do to stop Pandora from playing on the phone works)

 

I don't know about other models, but mine is the basic PiP.
The advanced has the jbl 'green edge' speakers and amps, which sounds nifty in toyota literature, but from what I have read is less impressive in reality.

If I recall correctly, the car button shows statistics about car mileage and other stuff (which I really don't need).
The setup button controls some car settings, but I don't recall the details.

I really wished this functionality was unbundled from the 'entune' system. Then I would get a decent head unit.
I have already replaced the 6 factory speakers, which are also garbage. I bought 2 sets of $50 kenwood speakers for the doors and the pioneer squawker replacement speakers for around $30. A major step up from the OEM speakers.

I have a 2002 camry and a 1997 tacoma and I put in the sony CDX-GT700HD receiver, which has a great tuner and a decent amp. It also does a much better job of playing usb flash drives. About $150.

 

I love mine. Like bilofsky, I too love the charging app. I always check my charge level and its been very reliable. Never been wrong, had any gliches or issues. Works everytime.

The app didnt work very well on my crappy Samsung "smartphone" but they just updated the app and it works flawlessly now. I still want a new phone though.

People like Prius Kitty who say negative things about it only hate it because its better than his/her car. At least he/she got the color right.

 

the only reason I chose "PriusKitty" is b/c PriusCat was taken, yeah, I know it sounds a little feminine to you, but last time I checked I still had the family "jewels"

I don't hate it, I just don't understand why it's happening. (playing on my smartphone when it should be playing on the PIP)

 

...Don't mess with a Cat named Prius.