Silent death of Prime apps on the 2020

Err, that may be YOUR point but that was not the point I was making when I responded to the post stating "...with Toyota, if it doesn't have it when you buy it, you will NEVER get it." I, as well as some others on here, just mentioned the Apple CarPlay upgrade for the 2018 Camry as an example illustrating that is not always the case. You are correct the upgrade was possible because of the Camry having Entune 3.0, but my point was only that Toyota does in fact sometimes give you something that wasn't on the car when you bought it. You seem to think that the issue of Entune 3.0 vs Entune 2.0 somehow negates my point, and the point of others who pointed this out.

 

And I yours!

 

I have the same issues with entune on my 2020 PP XLE . Has anybody contacted toyota corp about this issue? If not we need to all together contact them . Maybe they will listen.

 

Following up on this thread with some info I received recently.

A person purchasing a 2022 Prius Prime was promised by his sales guy and went as far as to say his window sticker stated "Remote Connect" would be in his car. Which he went on to say, included remotes starting, charging and HVAC.

I told him, SALES guys have been known to LIE, as was my case with my 2020. (i have come to the conclusion they may not have been lying but they were definitely severely misinformed about newer versions of the car and the apps working with them. Mainly because my Service Tech was under the same assumption and went as far as pulling my car in to see if they could get things working!)

Anyway, he replied and confirmed that he was expecting his car to arrive with everything working. Ha, i have gone back to Toyota's site and can NOT confirm that the Prius Prime will now work with Remote Connect app. The only thing I can find on Toyota's site is on the Remote Connect page that has a section about "Plug-In and Fuel Cell" vehicles and it does mention controlling these cars (although no direct comment about the Prius Prime) Toyota Remote Connect | Remote Start Your Engines!

I'll be following up with him, when he actually picks up his car. we will see..... unless someone here already has a 2022 and can confirm.

 

I can't speak to the 2022 Prime, but there is a lot of confusion about "remote start" which is something one does with an internal combustion engine. This is done to "warm up the engine" and to "heat and defrost the cabin."

Under most circumstances, one does not "warm up" the electric motor in an electric vehicle.

Because the Prime is electric until it runs out of battery charge, there's little point in remote starting the gas engine except in some very specific circumstances. (There has been discussion about retrofitting a Prime with an after-market remote starter and it may be possible but difficult because the Prime is designed not to start when it's connected to a charging cable.)

The remote heating and defrosting is achieved with the remote climate control and, because it uses the electric-powered heat pump in the Prime, it is independent of the gasoline engine.

I recall a couple of people posting to this Prius Chat forum about wanting a conventional remote starter for the gas engine because they did not keep their Primes plugged in and wanted to be able to heat and defrost their Primes which were parked outdoors in extremely cold weather. (The heat pump does not function without heat from the gasoline engine if the ambient temperature is less then 14⁰F / -10⁰C.)

Nonetheless, the concept of "remote starting" versus "remote climate control" seems to elude most car salespeople.

 

Agreed, and understandable. Toyota also didn't make it easy for a while, because they had separate apps for things and one was called "Remote Connect" which did a lot more than just remotely turn the vehicle on. I think someone over there got a little smarter and eliminated all those old apps including the "entune suite app"... now you are just simply supposed to use the "Toyota" app, which is supposed to include everything for your specific car (once you plug your car VIN in)....

Currently my 2020 shows in the App:
Odometer reading: (nothing showing)
Gas tank level: (nothing showing)
Charge Stations
Services done on the car
Manuals - Warranties
Roadside Assistance (can click on this if needed)
Safety Connect (can click on this to manage account)

Sadly, you can't access ANY of the above, if you are in your car and it connects Via Bluetooth to the car. This simply allows you to use the Entune Suite (on the multi-media unit in the car only, not in the app). Kind of dumb all around for a car that has so much tech built into it that you'd think the app would allow more functionality (wish they wouldn't have taken a way the Remote Climate control and Charging options!)

 

You MIGHT be able to find them as abandonware somewhere (maybe the raw APK files).

 

which apps work for your 2017 prime?

 

Currently, there is no Android app available. Navigation settings are in Japanese. When attempting to update, a prompt indicates that the set time zone is not met.