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Steering wheel audio controls

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by Daryl K, Sep 12, 2012.

  1. Daryl K

    Daryl K Member

    Joined:
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    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    Good day fellow Prius owners. Brand new owner (and even new to the Toyota family) here: just took delivery of my 2012 model Four with Deluxe Solar Roof Package (Sea Glass color) just under a week ago, and I gotta say I LOVE the car. It's the perfect choice for me. I've had a long and fruitful career as an EE, so technology is my life, and my only regret is not getting one of these sooner.

    I do have one question though, and I think it might be a software bug, but wanted to make sure there wasn't some combination of buttons I was using incorrectly. When using the steering wheel audio controls, I understood from the manual that using the UP and DOWN buttons (not volume up and down) you would scan through presets in whatever your currently-selected medium is. This seems to work correctly for CD or USB, and will skip through tracks, but when using the radio these buttons always cause it to switch immediately back to satellite, even when I'm listening to FM. In other words, I cannot scan through my FM presets using the steering wheel controls at all!

    Has anyone else seen this?

    As an aside, one reason for choosing the Prius is my 90-mile round trip work commute. As I learn to adapt my driving style I'm already getting close to 60 mpg (59.9 this morning), at least according to the trip computer. I have yet to fill the tank so I do not have any calculated numbers to compare against (yet).
     
    #1 Daryl K, Sep 12, 2012
  2. DoPeY5007

    DoPeY5007 Member

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    Vehicle:
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    Model:
    Four
    You can have a XM, AM, FM pre-set on the same screen, and hitting up and down will go through them all, regardless of the source.
     
    #2 DoPeY5007, Sep 12, 2012
  3. Daryl K

    Daryl K Member

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    Vehicle:
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    Model:
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    You're right! I figured it was something I was doing wrong.

    It seems what presets you scan through is dependent on which of the 6 preset screens is visible on the Audio section. Being an engineer mine are categorized with 1 and 2 being FM, 4, 5 and 6 being satellite. What I was doing was using preset screen 5 to listen to satellite, then manually hitting the FM button to go back to standard radio. Since the preset screen was still on my satellite presets, hitting the UP or DOWN button immediately jumped back there!

    I'm still learning the car, but am loving it every step so far!
     
    #3 Daryl K, Sep 12, 2012
  4. sLick415

    sLick415 Member

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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    Yeah doesnt work like that. Just put all your presets together starting from page 1 and enjoy the ride!
     
    #4 sLick415, Sep 12, 2012
  5. Matt M.

    Matt M. Member

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    Location:
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    The way the radio presets works on the 2012 Prius, in my opinion, sucks. (FYI I love the car overall, just have a few minor gripes and radio station presets is one of them.) I think it would have been much better if they had stuck with the old way of separate banks of presets for AM vs. FM vs. satellite.
     
    #5 Matt M., Sep 17, 2012
    J.Wilkie likes this.
  6. DoPeY5007

    DoPeY5007 Member

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    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius c
    Model:
    Four
    I completely disagree. I only use a couple XM, FM, and AM stations. I only use pre-set screen 1. I like I can hit chan. up and down on the steering wheel and it will go through them all.

    If you want them separated, why not use the 6 (my C has 6) different screens of pre-sets, one for FM, AM, XM.
     
    #6 DoPeY5007, Sep 17, 2012
  7. sLick415

    sLick415 Member

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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius
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    Three
    What does it matter if its AM, FM, or XM. A station is a station. Now if they can be better organized by category/genre, that'd be awesome.
     
    #7 sLick415, Sep 17, 2012
  8. Matt M.

    Matt M. Member

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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    The problem I have is, if I'm listening to, say, an AM station, and I want to switch to XM. On a "normal" stereo, I hit the XM button, and then can press up/down to toggle up and down through my XM presets. On my Prius, if I'm listening to AM and press the XM button, then hit up or down, it starts stepping through the presets at the location of the last station I was listening to, which was AM. If I program different banks of presets for AM, FM, XM, then to go from my AM bank to my XM bank I have to hit the tiny "<" or ">" buttons on the screen multiple times, which in my opinion requires taking my eyes off of the road way too long.

    I understand why manufacturers are going to fewer and fewer hard buttons and more on-screen buttons, for flexibility, but on-screen buttons definitely distract from driving more than hard buttons. In fact I kept my Sirius subscription on a very cheap "plug-in" type Sirius radio I have and let my Prius XM trial lapse... part of the reason is, I can reach down to my Sirius radio, without even taking my eyes off of the road, and feel the 10 preset buttons and jump straight to any preset I want, literally without ever looking away from the road. Doing the same thing on the Prius built-in audio is much more cumbersome.

    Anyway, I'm not arguing that I'm right and other people are wrong... just giving my opinion.
     
    #8 Matt M., Sep 18, 2012
  9. Botany Bill

    Botany Bill Junior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 1, 2018
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    Location:
    Keyport, NJ
    Vehicle:
    2014 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Just came across this thread. Curious if I have a bug. In my 2014 Prius 2, which I bought from dealer in October 2018, the radio controls on steering wheel don't go thru all radio stations.

    The way it works:
    Using the center audio button on the steering wheel, I can get to CD, Bluetooth, AM, and only one FM grouping. It will not go to the 2nd FM grouping. Very frustrating.

    So I usually only use the screen because going between the 2 - steering wheel and screen - is really unsafe.

    This should be easy. I should be able to control audio with no more than the glance needed to control an analog system, which could be controlled mostly by feel.

    I have issues with the screen controls as well: radio buttons are way too small, I need to look at them to press the right one. And it's to easy to select the wrong one because of heat from a hovering finger. Most of the real estate on the screen is wasted. It could be 6 large "buttons" instead
     
    #9 Botany Bill, Oct 1, 2019
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