Warning for buyers

There is a way to bypass the requirement to run the entune sw on your phone. It can even be used with basic flip phones if you know how to do the carrier programming manualy on the prius interface. I can only verify this on prius 2012 package 3 as that is what I have. But I am running my verizon samsung S3 using the workaround. I don't even have the entue app on my phone at all. Big improvement on my power consumtion with this gone and no annoying icon or popups. This also has stopped the loss of connectivity issue I was seeing so often when using pandora.

 

I've read about the dual up networking workaround if that is what you are referring to, but that option/menu doesn't appear on the 2013 HDD system that I've found so far. I don't believe it has WiFi built in on this unit to take advantage of a wireless hotspot.

GT-P7310 ? HD

 

so I went in to pass this on to my dealer and we tested it on the 2013 and it still worked. this was not an hdd system but i am not sure it matters.

First off untinstall the entire crappy entune app from your phone.
Second and I am doing this from memory so I hope it is right:
go into bluetooth section and select paired devices. select your specific paired verizon device. next click the little gear icon next to connect internet. select the enable dun/pan connections option ( right next to where they say this is not needed to get entune to work....) click provider information and enter the following exactly
1) username will be your 10 digit mobile phone number @vzw3g.com example ( [email protected])
2) password will be all lowercase vzw
3) apn field will be all lowercase vzwinternet
( i think you may also need to enter your entune account info but you should have done that already with the normal method of setup)
4) click confirm provider information button at the bottom which will take you back out of that screen.

Now on the "connect for" screen select connect for internet
you device will not connect in "tethered mode" which will work for 3g or 4g

let me know if I missed a screen or something looks different and I will try and add it in.

Again this will ONLY work with verizon phones

 

Probably people like me. 90-95% of the time when I get in the car I know where I am going and don't really need the NAV to tell me how to get there. And then 90% of the rest of the time the basic NAV/GPS in the car works just fine so I don't really need to hassle with cables, mounting and everything else that a non-installed device requires. (And the car GPS always sync's to the satellites faster than my handheld devices). If I'm going somewhere a bit obscure I use my phone but it is just a couple of times a year. I don't buy the dealer updates, but for the part of the population that do these are just a profit center for the dealers.

In the future I think that the car makers are just going to have to ramp it up a bit and provide better electronics all around...or give up and just install a screen with an API so that all phones and tablets can just remote their images and sounds to the car.

Mike

 

Great idea! I would be perfectly happy just to have my image and sound fed from my phones google maps to my prius display and audio system. But then they wouldn't be able to overcharge you stupid amounts for a half baked nav ;-)

 

With the HDD system, I can only go as far as the second step. Toyota definitely has a different system between the standard and this new HDD obviously.

There is no Gear Icon on the Registered Device screen for the device at all, and no DUN Bluetooth Profile even listed.

The primary HDD Bluetooth screen below probably looks way different than non-HDD systems;


And, the Detailed Bluetooth Settings page doesn't even list the DUN profile as an available Bluetooth Protocol even though the SPP profile is listed. Without the DUN profile, then there is no PPP to establish a gateway. So, the HDD must not support it.



HOWEVER! There was a recent update today to the Entune app for Android and it seems to get rid of the constant nagging notification on my Android phone. BUT, Entune is listed as a running Application (taking up lots of memory) as a running service all the time. I need to test it now to see if the Entune running service sleeps in the background and doesn't eat up any battery power when it's not connected to the Prius. If so, then I may be willing to live with it since the updated app is now connecting much faster with the Prius, and the Prius apps are running a heck of a lot more smoothly now without lagging so much. And, they obviously updated the Pandora sound quality so now it doesn't seem any different than the actual Pandora app.

Although, there is still no contact address book syncing even though the Entune app's access permissions states it needs access to your personal information to read your contacts, but the app presently doesn't do anything at all with this permission that I can tell.

 

That figures they removed it. My guess is that app provides some kind of collection information or feedback to toyota. No other reason to force its use on people. Also on the non hdd model is specifically says the DUN/PAN is not required for Entune.. I feel that is intentionally misleading.

 

I've had a Prius V for about 3 months and noticed right away that the system is very difficult to use. They claim it is for safety that they have inhibited certain functions while driving but it actually make sit more dangerous trying to work around the issues.
Besides the horrible GUI and graphics, my next gripe is that the ETA function grossly overestimates your arrival time. A known 2 hour drive will start our saying it is 2 hours and 30 minutes. Oh, it is eventually close to accurate when you are about 10 minutes out!

I too registered my dissatisfaction with the wonderful Toyota Experience people and after some "research" by the answering person, was told that the system was operating as designed. I told her it was designed terribly.

I may resort to using the Garmin or just my phone.

 

Sorry to advise but the customer service rep was just placating you. That you have a trash navigation system in your Prius isn't a matter to be remedied via consensus opinion expressed to the U.S. importer of Toyota vehicles. Understand please that Toyota Motor Sales is a vehicle importer that doesn't have input for vendor sourcing decisions with Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan. The root of the problem relates to the essential hierarchical nature of Toyota Motor Corporation's commercial system. Nippondenso is a directly controlled member of TMC's vertical keiretsu that builds the boat-anchor navigation systems in Toyota cars.

Toyota installs Nippondenso navigation systems for the sole reason that they are a member of Toyota's keiretsu system. The fact that Nippondenso has never produced a navigation system worth a warm bucket of spit is immaterial to the sourcing decision. Nippondenso makes a lot of very excellent components; unfortunately navigation systems aren't one of them.

Because Toyota is a captive customer for Nippondenso's pathetic navigation systems, Nippondenso is effectively insulated from the free market where business is won by providing best cost/performance. This permits Nippondenso to profitably supply overpriced, underperforming navigation systems without fear of losing the contract with Toyota. Toyota's clients are the losers.

Its no coincidence that Nippondenso doesn't supply navigation systems to the automotive aftermarket because they could never survive competitive scrutiny.

Navigation systems in Honda's are great because they're built by Alpine Electronics and Honda isn't hamstrung by being tied to a keiretsu navigation supplier. If you buy cars based upon the capabilities of the navigation system; consider a Honda.

 

Nippondenso has been under fire for many years for their navigation systems. Unfortunately awarding the business to a company 'outside of the family' isn't a realistic remedial option for a traditional and conservative Japanese company. It would require a fundamental change in Toyota's corporate culture and way of doing business. Nothing is impossible, but this scenario is pretty far along the 'highly improbable' scale. It's an uphill battle for the tail (TMS) to wag the dog (TMC) when the essential message is that TMC's baby is ugly.

 

I thought Entune is the first non-Denso unit for Toyota. Perhaps, the hardware is still Denso but software is not. A lot of complaints here are software.

 

I didn't know a thing about kieritsu until it was posted previously. I went and read about it: Keiretsu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is quite informative, and makes it unlikely that Consumer Reports complaints or anything else would be able to break into the system. Kieritsu have worked well for Japanese carmakers since WWII, and nothing the consumer can do (short of Toyota sales falling precipitously, which doesn't seem to be a realistic possibility) is likely to change matters. The initial assessment stands: complaints to Toyota of America are precisely as efficacious as going outside and yelling.

 

As far as I'm aware, (and I'm on the boundary of my direct expertise here): Entune was the result of joint collaboration between TMC and TMS. TMC provided the hardware (the road infrastructure) and TMS developed the software (to drive on the road) along with U.S. third-party software developers. The audio hardware is from Fujitsu-Ten (another keiretsu supplier). The basic architecture facilitates easy software re-flash to update for bug-fixes and enhanced features and functionality. The dealer needs to be paid to do anything, so while it's easy to flash, it can't be cheap at $100/hour. What I'm driving at is that I doubt that Toyota would voluntarily pay for Entune upgrades in the absence of a client complaint.

The thing that makes Toyota products so trouble-free (generally speaking) is that they use proven technologies that have been tested and painstakingly validated over long development cycles. The Entune scenario permitted Toyota to get to market with fairly fresh connected car functionality by shortcutting the traditional development cycle for what is clearly non-essential functions. The downside is that there will invariably be some bugs to contend with.

It's a strange dichotomy to my mind that people accept and enthusiastically embrace malfunctioning electronics technology in their cell phones, their computers, and every stripe of emerging technology, but they're intolerant of any level of malfunction in their cars. You can't have it both ways. If you want emerging technologies in your car you will need to be able to accept some level of occasional malfunction.

Entune is a grand experiment in the conservative world of Toyota that I hope they are ultimately successful with.