I just bought a 2015 Prius Plug-In. I love everything about it except for the entertainment system. The software is awful, the Entune app hasn't been able to connect and even if it did, The features in it look buggy and have almost no value to me. I would love to have Apple CarPlay or something similar so that I could use the navigation and music apps on my phone rather than the awful ones that are built in (did I mention that I hate the built in system?). The bluetooth on the entertainment system takes 20-30 seconds to start playing music from my phone. The previous car that I drove was a 2014 Toyota Yaris with a very basic system but it would connect via bluetooth and play music within a few seconds of starting the car. I was wondering if anyone has any experience or input on modding or replacing the entertainment system for one that is more convenient and user friendly. I am still doing research on a mod that I saw that allowed you to mirror your phone screen on the dashboard while it is plugged in. This looks promising but I would love a wireless version. My main desired features would be mirroring phone navigation on the screen and quicker connection to my phone when getting into the car. I also wouldn't mind gutting out some of the features that are built in -- who even uses the features in Entune. I am mostly interested in a software mod if that is possible. I saw a video of someone modding the software of a Mazda by plugging in a USB stick with some software but haven't been able to find a similar option. I am a software developer so I would have some capability beyond an average person in doing this. I would also be open to a hardware mod like the screen mirroring one but don't feel quite as good taking things apart in a brand new car at the risk of messing things up.
I use Entune's remote features on my 2012 PIP, but none of the media ones except hands-free phone. I agree the software (and the car's UI in general) appears to have been written by someone who never uses it. The steering-wheel audio channel selector does not move through memorized channels in the mode you're actually using, it chooses the next memorized channel in whatever mode is active in the invisible audio UI! How stupid is that? And the "Map" button was conveniently on the steering wheel on my 2004 Prius, so I could hit it to show the street addresses I was passing. They moved it to the dashboard! I could go on. My next car must also have one or more of the popular voice assistants that can interpret things in natural language, like "navigate to the nearest Sunoco station".
For my 2013 PiP, I got very basic AV features that I care about (1) HD Radio (2) M3u play list compatibility. But the speaker quality could be better. I dint strive to replace my HU (ROI is too little)
I'd imagine the hardware is as bad as the software, so I think you'd be much better off replacing with a double-DIN adaptor and new headunit if you wanted to make it more useful.
