Prius bluetooth phonebook - too dumb?

Have you had Bluetooth in any other car?

I have had it in an Audi, Infiniti, Acura, and the Prius. The Prius functionality meets or beats the others. It is not perfect, but it basically the upper end of what is out there.

 

well we've all seen the commercials for the ford "sync" made my microsoft, probably the best vehicle phone bluetooth system out there as it also controls your radio.

The only downside is that you'd have to drive a Ford!!! . . . definitely not worth it.

 

For years, the automotive electronics has been way behind consumer electronics. Chances are your car's computer is still on 16-bit.
Anyway, the trend is catching up. It is projected to be the biggest grow of electronics in coming years, the automotive electronics that is.

 

The "hands free" environment in an automobile is quite a bit different from an acoustics standpoint than that of a headset. It would be difficult to get one set of voice tags to work with the phone, headset, and automobile. Often it is hard just to get the voice tags to work with the phone and headset.

As to the poster who mentioned that the new MS Sync system also controls the radio, the Prius voice system does the same. MP3s are different in that there is no built-in hard drive or support for artist voice tags.

Being a Microsoft product, I picture a Sync enabled car driving down the road when a Blue Screen Of Death pops up and the car coasts to the side of the road, dead as a doornail. You get it restarted by rebooting, but it only comes up in safe mode, which lets you drive at speeds less than 20 mph and only make right turns.

Tom

 

Did you type this comment on your Mac?

 

No, I run Ubuntu Linux.

Tom

 

Cool. I gave up on Ubuntu after 5.10... How is the newer stuff?

 

I have a 2005, which doesn't have manual entry or voice dialing. I admit that I don't have any experience beyond the Prius in terms of BT, but then again I don't make a lot of calls. I find the phonebook in the Prius fine for my needs and if I need to make a call that isn't in the phonebook in my phone or Prius, I have the BT override.

 

I disagree. The Prius (and all Lexus/Toyota) bluetooth system has to be the worst in the industry. I'd understand it if this was Gen 1, but they haven't made a change to the bluetooth functionality in any way since 2004.

Both my 07 BMW 530 and my wife's 08 Audi Q7 have object push and download all my phone contacts as soon as my phone (Razr/iPhone, whatever) syncs.

My 2004 Prius, on the other hand? Have to import contacts one at a time, am locked at from using the bluetooth while driving, etc. Same goes for my wife's previous RX330 and my friend's SC430... exactly the same crappy functionality.

Hardly the upper end IMHO... which is very frustrating given that the rest of the car (and Toyota/Lexus) in general is superior to most everything out there (including BMW/Audi/Benz)

 

More downside ... you'd be running Microsoft.

 

just ordered a new phone- will let ya know if I can download the phone book or not. Think it is more a of phone issue than the car...

 

Not to quibble over small details, but Bluetooth functions while driving. Many of the MFD pushbuttons are locked out while the vehicle is in motion. This has nothing to do with Bluetooth or even technology in general, but was a legal decision made by Toyota to avoid being responsible for a distracted driver. I don't like it either, but it's not a Bluetooth issue.

Tom

 

It's all a question of how each manufacturer implements the Bluetooth standard. When I had a Motorola E815 with Verizon it was impossible, because Verizon purposely cripples Bluetooth. The only way I was able to do it was to copy the phonebook via my computer to an old Sony/Ericcson T68i phone. (Ericcson was one of the developers of the Bluetooth standard) The T68i had no problem in doing the transfer on one shot.

On the other hand, now that I have an Iphone, I can't transfer anything to the Prius. I don't know who's fault that is, because the Iphone instantly transfers its phone book to my Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS (Go Garmin!)

The Bluetooth standard seems so loose that each company that implements it picks and chooses which pieces of the standard they are going to use.

There are zillions of discussions and threads on the web if you want to google them.

 

Forgive my ignorance if I come across as, well, ignorant... I've had my Prius for about a week and still learning my way around. It took me this long to try to figure out how to make the little speech button on my steering wheel work... but now I think i've done it wrong...

The first time i pushed it to set it up i wasn't thinking and set it up for "dial by number" as if i know everyone (anyone's) number. i'd rather it were "dial by name" i've input all the names with my voice rec recording but now when i hit the speech button it automatically goes to say the number.

Can i get it to do "dial by name" as default or is that only avail in certain screens?


Pretty much walk me through the whole process and any combinations you can think of because i'm pretty clueless about it... and go easy on me... this is my first Prius, First post and only second car ever... replaced my 03 focus

Thanks for your help...

p.s what does the asl or other such acronym on the vol control mean or do?

thanks again
c.

 

My Prius downloaded all of my Blackberry contacts in one go. It must be an issue with how your phone handles BT.

 

ASL..Automatic Sound Levelizer...if your manual is in the car you can go to Toyota Owners, join, log in, and select Owners Manuals...then key word narrow search.
Welcome...the sound system is not easy to master...I've had mine for 7 weeks and still learning.