Looking at Prius gen 4 2016 as first Prius and have ?s

In for an answer and a pic. Does this affect MPG in anyway?

 

The switch on mine is bottom left on the dash next to the parking self-assist and auto high-beam.
I don't see why it should not be a "true" turn off switch.
MPG is not affected unless you want to skid the wheels at each traffic light, in which case I think the MPG would be affected in any case...

 

I had nav in my C. Wasn't too impressed. The nice part was being able to dictate an address on the fly... when it understood me. Didn't want to spend the money on my gen4. Apps on the phone work just as well.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

In a LOT of cars with traction control and stability control defeat, it's really just traction control and stability control soften - they're still active, just not as aggressive about engaging.

 

I don't think much about integrated navis - they are expensive and obsolete quickly. Sure they are practical, but it is an expensive not very functional "practicality" IMHO.

 

I keep thinking back to the early days of "hifi", when there were a lot of all-in-one varnished wood cabinets put out, with everything you need, all in one. The latest (clunky) turntable, an eight-track player, too cool 6x9 oval speakers, and so on. One or more of the components would fritz out soon enough, then you either just lived with what was left, or junked the whole thing. Then individual components came along, everything was compatible, the receiver became a "hub" for connecting and controlling peripheral components.

When I see the new Prius dash, with the enormous in-your-face screen, loopy sculptured dash, phone charger bay, well: it takes me back.

 

The integrated nav paid for itself the day I had to evacuate Houston because of the threat of hurricane Rita. The car was only a few months since delivery, and it took me on a 15-hour journey to San Antonio via Austin and back roads. The freeways and major highways were at a dead standstill. Route guidance with the "avoid freeways" option was the only thing that prevented me from sitting in line and running out of gas.

Would your cell phone work in that situation? Not unless you had offline maps for entire swaths of the state. This was before the iPhone. The closest thing I had to a smart phone was a Palm Pilot integrated into my phone with 1x data. You couldn't make a call. You couldn't send or receive texts. That's how overloaded the communication infrastructure is under those conditions. Sure, backhaul has been increased to handle modern data loads since then. But I'd wager that thousands of people in proximity to every cell site trying to pull down route guidance via Waze, Google, or Apple maps is going to result in little to no data.

Not everyone lives in a hurricane prone area. But I'll pay for the ability to find any and every road, without the need to tether.

 

Phones might go out, and there's legal ramifications to handling your phone while driving, but stand-alone satellite nav like Garmin and the like are good.

 

Navigation programs that are fully downloaded onto the phone at app install and don't require any connection to work run about $35...

I still have the one I bought 8 years or so ago.

 

You don't need to handle the phone at all while driving using phone navigation. It's clipped to the dash just like a Garmin, you press "start" before moving, and it does its thing.

 

I don't use an app, I have a Tomtom navi with HD traffic (which uses unused GPRS data service on the GSM infrastructure available also in the USA) sitting on my dash. It has all the maps I need in it and I can choose routes without highways.
I don't like phone apps too, because you get notifications and you see them likely on screen. And in most EU countries officially you are not supposed to do anything with your phone while driving (even at a red traffic light)...

 

But you get to pay for the update.

 

Starting to notice my knees touching the dash. In an accident I assume I will no longer have knees.

 

Not anymore. Software, maps and HD traffic service are all lifetime free updates... And when I drive out of Germany, no roaming charges.
So for me an integrated navi makes really no sense anymore.

 

The best situation, for the consumer, would be a choice of manufacturer's app and Apple Car Play and/or Android Auto built in.

 

This just baffles me. Apparently it's OK to poke at Nav and other things on a car's built-in touch-screen. And it's OK to poke at the touch screen on a Garmin or other standalone GPS. But it's not OK to poke at the touchscreen on your phone clipped above the car's touchscreen and being used to do the exact same thing (running a Nav app)?

Not that I needed to poke at my iPhone as I drove to Boston and back today. When I didn't like the proposed route, I just took another and it adjusted. The only time I gave it a poke was to agree to a rerouting that it proposed due to unexpected traffic delays.

Meanwhile I'm watching people careen by, holding their phones to their ears......

A strange world we live in.

 

My wife yells at me when I do that all the time.

 

if you're gonna drive uber, you must responde si vous plait.

 

I had the same thought when I discovered that simply having the phone in your hand is "using the phone at the steering wheel" but looking for minutes without end to the touch screen, the dashboard with all the information using a joystick like most BMWs, or touching the screen's Navi, is completely OK... you are in all cases, not looking at the road....

 

The LCD display of vent mode is a designed distraction as well. If the windshield is fogging up and I want to set mode to heat/defog, I have to:

1. Take my eyes off the road to identify the mode button, one flush, uniform button in a row.

2. Watch a small LCD display while pushing that button multiple times, cycling through the various vent options.

3. In the event I scroll past heat/defog: repeat the process.