Prime Entertainment System Rant :(

It sucks!

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Stuff you can't appreciate in a test drive.

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welcome to prius, twas ever thus.

 

Tiny window cover art for satellite will only show with the emergency brake depressed. Meanwhile the regular lift back (2017) has great cover art. I'm sick!

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the problem is, toyota spent $100. on a big screen to impress potential buyers and auto writers. now that's 1% of the job, and the other 99% has them baffled.

 

I will remember this. 5 year hard lesson but last toyota I eva buy!

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yeah, i hear you. but the rest of the car is so hard to resist.

 

My solution with which I'm absolutely ecstatic: move up to a Samsung Galaxy S7. It works perfectly with all my 500+ contacts. Quick and reliable dialing
Never use "Factory Installed" GPS on any car I've owned, including Mercedes, Lexus, BMW, Chevy, Ford, Toyota, and Mazda. They all suck. Best GPS solution has been Garmin nuvi 3490LMT, mounted to lower left corner of windshield. It even saw me through back country roads in southern France, etc. All with great voice command and no interference to phone or other screen items. You may have to order a newer model, but you get the idea. This GPS sells for mid $300's. We gave up on Apple long ago as too egocentric and limiting when we had specialized needs.
My dad, God rest his soul an engineer thought Apple was great and simple, yet he called more often than my clients asking for help with the eccentric illogical Apple devices he had.
You have my sympathy!
Apple was first; they're no longer the best. I would much prefer to have had conventional controls for Climate Control, but I can live with the setup on my Prime Advanced. All the other stuff is so great and the MILEAGE is fantabulous! It's perfect for our southern California traffic situation. 35+ miles on a 2 hour, 240volt charge. Way to go Toyota.



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Try the volume buttons on the left side of the steering wheel.

 

How obviously simple!
I'd forgotten about that and I use those buttons all the time.
Do you know that hitting those buttons on the steering wheel to mute the Sound by holding the mode button for a couple seconds will save the program that you're listening to; when you hit it back again (if you don't turn off the car), your program will continue where you left off.
On the other hand the button marked audio on the right side of the graphic display will stop the sound completely and not save the program that you are listening to.
Some very cool features!

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I don't see why Toyota doesn't include Apple CarPlay or Android Auto? These are decent systems that are purpose-built and designed by professional software engineers who understand UI. I can think of 3 reasons off the top of my head:

1. Arrogance - they think their product is the best regardless of the options (or they think the car is so good the average person won't care about the entertainment system).
2. Ignorance - they simply are not really aware/familiar with these "newfangled" systems and therefore haven't integrated them yet.
3. Greed - they want to monetize the Entune system somehow and fear that Apple and Google's auto systems might interfere with that.

I'm sure there are other reason but those 3 stick out for me. As someone who has used both Apple CarPlay and Google Android Auto I will say they do need a bit of work and are far from perfect, but they are still world's better than Toyota's proprietary and kludgy interface. I think (hope) the mid-cycle refresh will update this for the 2018/2019 or at the latest Gen. 5. Or perhaps Toyota will make something so awesome that it will render CarPlay and Android Auto moot...

 

Reason 4 - they don't want to rely on the driver having a compatible smartphone.

 

A fair point but most of the systems with Android Auto and Apple Car Play have their own integrated system that feature the option of using the Apple or Google interface; this way a user with an older device can use the native interface while a user with a newer device can choose to use the Google or Apple interface. I happen to like options.

 

I am disappointed with the whole entune system. I've turned Bluetooth off on my phone because making a call is too clunky of a process while driving. The music interface needs to be redone. And worst of all the turn by turn navigation is not just crappy, it's dangerous and may get someone killed one day. (It told me my exit from a busy California freeway was from the right lane. Google and freeway signs said it was the left lane. I can see some poor fool following Toyota's directions and at the last second trying to cut across four lanes of busy traffic avoid missing their exit)
I assume Toyota will take responsibility for the software it puts on its cars and provide regular software updates(like apple and google do...).
Other than this I LOVE my prime!!!

 

auto companies make autos. they will never be as good at entertainment systems as companies that specialize in them.

 

Granted. They should then contract with them in order to create the best product for the end user.

HTC One M9

 

We could all start posting pictures of our cars with tablets attached atop the 11.5 with Velcro. $30K car with at $100.00 solution.