Want ANDROID AUTO ? .....email Toyota from this contact page !

I think part of it is that it seems much of the public in non-carb states are not fully aware of PHEV's because they are not advertised in those areas, I recently mentioned about the Prime we're getting to some people at our local hardware store and how it has the option to plug-in and run on electric only and they were amazed as if they never heard of such vehicles before.

When we ordered our Prime thru our local dealership back in January the salesman only remembered one other person doing a special order from Japan and that is a huge dealership. They did have one non-plug-in Prius on the lot which he went with us for a test drive just so we could get a basic feel for what the Prime might feel like and he was very knowledgeable about the non-plug-in Prius.

I think the Prime would sell a fair amount more in non-carb states IF they advertised them so the public in those areas are more fully aware of them AND dealerships tried to keep at least 2 or 3 in stock at all times for test drives and so people could buy and drive off immediately as some people might not want to wait 90-120 days for one to come from Japan like we are doing. (and as sales increase they could keep more and more in stock)

 

We live in a non-carb state and had to order our Prime (still waiting on it) it would be interesting if there was a way to see how many Prime owners there are in our state given they are not advertised or easy to get here.

I think some of the public might have been lulled into complacency about gas prices and assume they will always stay low, I'd rather be prepared with a PHEV as it could take just one crisis overseas and gas prices could go way up and even be shortages like what happened many years ago with long lines at gas stations. (even with relatively low gas prices the savings with a PHEV is worth having now anyhow)

 

Also, haven't heard anything specifically related to Toyota vehicles, but I hope the Coronavirus does not affect the production rate and delivery time of the Prime to the U.S. (obviously the priority is I hope they get it under control for the sake of people's health)

 

Okay, thanks, did not know if the Prime factory in Japan depended on any parts made in China that could affect the production rate.

 

…….Thanks, that is good news, people's health are the obvious priority, how it affects companies are secondary.

 

Just got a reply to my follow-up email, here is a quote from the reply:

"We are sorry but do not have any additional insight in this regard at this time." (end quote)

The above reply is to what I wrote in my follow-up email as follows:

We have heard there are no "current plans" to add Android Auto to the 2020 Prius Prime, but can you elaborate and tell us if that still might be a future possibility or should we give up all hope of ever having Android Auto on the 2020 Prius Prime ?

Also, If not, then why not ?

……….I was hoping they'd at least explain the "why not ?"

 

Interesting, I am still educating myself on various aspects of the Prime while awaiting delivery and I noticed you said:

"It requires Entune 3.0 running on an Android phone to access the apps like Scout GPS Link and Toyota-Alexa."

So you can have Entune just on your Android phone without needing it on the car infotainment system itself ?

We are waiting on delivery of a 2020 Prime XLE and we only use Android phones (I prefer to not even have to buy a cheap used iPhone) so I am still figuring out what all is the best way to set up and run things.

The main things I'm concerned about being able to do are:
1.) make and receive calls by voice command thru the car audio speakers
2.) use the maps and navigation on the 11.6" display
3.) have received texts read over the audio and respond to texts by voice

As far as I know I can do #1 and #3 simply by having the Android phone connected via Bluetooth
and #2 by simply using the built-in maps and navigation

So unless I am missing something I don't know if being able to use Carplay or Android Auto would really make a big difference as it looks like I can do those 3 things I mentioned above without either one.

Also, I didn't list it above, but I'd also be using the built-in Amazon Alexa.

 

Our current car, a 2015 Kia Soul, has the ability to do hands-free calls and text thru Bluetooth on our android phones and also worked when we had Windows phones, so I guess I would have been surprised if a 2020 car couldn't do the same as far as that.

We use Alexa to control several different things in our home, so it will be nice to have at least some of that ability in the Prime also.

While they don't show Prime commercials in our area, I have seen commercials for other regular cars that had Alexa capability and it showed the driver being able to use Alexa in the car to turn on things in their house while they were on the way home, in addition to just doing stuff in the car itself.

I'll have to see if I can find a list that shows all the different things you can do using Alexa in the Prime.

As far as the maps/navigation I guess we'll use the built-in one on the 11.6" display.

I have read posts talking about how pricey it is to update maps, but I was wondering how often does that really need updating ?

Unless someone does a lot of driving in new areas they usually don't drive where they are not familiar with the roads, just how important is updating the map that often ? While most places might have an occasional new road built, I would think the map should not change all that much unless you live in an area where there is a lot of expansion being done into outlying unimproved areas where a good number of new roads might be built each year.

Do the maps cover the entire country or do they just install a map for the state you live in ?

I'll have to do some research, but I'd be surprised if there are any new major roads built in our state that often, I would think most of the new roads might be relatively short residential streets when they occasionally build a new housing community, but those roads would very likely not ever be part of our traveling.

 

Sorry, I likely posted it on a related thread but not this one, here is the reply from the follow-up email I sent them:

"We are sorry but do not have any additional insight in this regard at this time." (end quote)

I was hoping they would have at least explained "why not ?"

 

Yep, I can control at-home devices thru my phone app, just thought it'd be neat (and easier) to do it by voice control from the car

I have several living room lamps on an extension cord plugged into one smart-plug so I can say "turn on the lamps" and all the living room lamps come on at once. It didn't happen all at once, but as I needed a new appliance occasionally I found one that was Alexa enabled, so now I can control the microwave and window air conditioner with Alexa, also can change channels, play and pause, when watching videos, access security cameras using Alexa. Seems they are adding Alexa to more and more things all the time

Most of the places we go would be within about 35 miles of home and we would know how to get there, very occasionally there might be a place we would need to go to we've never been to before and the navigation would come in handy.

I wonder if they really need to charge that much to cover the cost of map updates or are they charging that much because they know people are limited in where they can get such updates for their car ?

 

I wonder if the ones sold on ebay and Amazon are ones an owner bought and used and are reselling them to recoup some of their cost or do the sellers have access to buying them in bulk at a discount to be able to offer a lower price ?

Yep, free apps and computer software usually have to make money somehow, either by advertising pop-ups, or some of them might offer their basic version for free and have an advanced paid version with more features they hope a certain percentage of the basic users will upgrade to.