Hack to use phonebook in 09 Prius while driving

You are right we paid for something that is totally useless. the rational for not having the ability to use the features is a little unbalanced when you think of the things you can adjust vs what you can't. After all pushing a button is the same regardless if it is for the nav, phone, climate control, energy/consumption or even volume on the audio. It's all the same so how much did they spend to be so selective in what they locked us out of and why?

 

Wow, I thought it was just me being stupid with our '09. I can understand it not letting you punch in digits while your driving (same reason you can't punch in street names for the nav), but com'on, it won't let your scroll through your phone book and push an entry.

The way I'm working around this issue is that I can still hit the shortcut key on my phone as if I were making the call from the phone. The bluetooth connection then takes over and I can carry on my phonecall hands free. I can then use the steering wheel button to hang up when I'm done.

Oh, and the Dial by Number command is stupid too. Each time I or my wife say, "Dial by number" and then "312-226-....", it repeats the number as 312-0226....". Why it puts the extra zero in it, I have no idea. If my wife says the number, it does the same thing. Don't have that issue with any other number we speak.

Frustrating!!!!!

 

find speed wire
cut speed wire
install switch

problem solved

 

http://priuschat.com/forums/audio-electronics/394-speed-sensor-defeat-update.html

 

I can use the MFD speed dials while driving.

 

Use speed dial or voice dial-by-name.

Tom

 

Or go to http://www.evnut.com/prius_speed_wire.htm. It's got a lot of pictures on the procedure. It took me about 30 minutes.

 

Am I missing the obvious answer here? . . . spelled, costaletech.com lockpick??

Doing the speed sensor is one thing, if you're simply looking to carefully get more 'umph' while driving of ice (works great for our AWD 400h lexus) ... but doing it for bluetooth? IMO that's over kill.

 

What about everyone contacting Toyota if there is an easier solution they would have it an if customer satisfation, return customers and referrals mean anything maybe they would work it out with us or for us. Has anyone actually made contact with them on the subject?

 

Ok; I sent my concerns in an email to Toyota and from their comments those of us who purchased the equipment have not complained enough to get anyone's attention. Therefore it isn't likely they will chage it.

MAKE SOME NOISE AND SEE IF we can make them reconsider thier thought on the safety aspect. and provide a work around


:director::director:

 

Don't feel bad about the $850. The screwing Prius Navigation owners got is in the $2,000 range.

 

when you add the cost of a totally different display screen, the cd changer, the stereo, the speakers, going to the dealer to have the alarm system activated, having more buttons, the bluetooth is more or less free.

what bothers me about the bluetooth is why toyota/toshiba/denso's spent the money on flash memory to store the bluetooth bios if you never plan on upgrading it.

afaik the bluetooth software is probably 5 years old

the nice thing about its flash memory is you will probably never loose the phone book

call toshiba/denso instead, maybe you can score us some new bluetooth firmware, or tell us where to download it, or maybe someone will be able to edit the image file to remove the
blackout, and rewrite it to flash memory, thus making cutting the wire or installing a fix unnecessary

maybe they can add bluetooth 2.0 edr or stereo headphone support but toyota doesn't want
to pay for it

 

Thanks for sending an email. I doubt Toyota will do anything about it. There are many things owners have complained about for years, and loudly too, yet nothing's been done. Case in point: seat height. So I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a fix for this. I think many owners have given up a long time ago and those who really wanted to do something about it had to do so on their own (e.g. Speed Sensor Defeat or Lockpick)

I love my Prius as much as I loathe these myopic Toyota execs. I hope the new Insight can provide some real competition.

 

For one thing, adding a switch is wayyyyy cheaper. Also, it's only off during the dialing, not all the time. This will also allow your passenger to see the messages an FM station has while moving. I have a 2005, but I think this also takes care of the MP3 lock as well.