Clock Operation and Daylight Saving Time feature

As we drive across country in our new Prius 5 I notice that the clock on ths dash display is just a dumb clock and does not change as the time zone you are in changes.

On the NAV display there is an option for timezone and daylight saving time.

The strange thing is that the time to get there on the NAV also does not change with respect to timezone and you must change it manually each time you change a zone. (which is a poor design for a GPS system who knows where it is.)

So my question. What does the daylight saving time function do.

I see no place to enter the date so what effect (if any) does the daylight saving time setting actually do?

Stan Ames

When you say "Time to get there", do you mean ETA or ETE?

Tom

David (aka Blind Guy)

The clock doesn't automatically change when daylight saving time kicks in, so you toggle the ON/OFF switch to display the correct time.

Thanks for confirming my observations. I was hoping that somehow I had just missed something simple.

We are just about finished with our coast to coast trip in our new phase 5 Prius and our general conclusion is that the drive train and overall car represents the top end of technology but inside the electronics are a tad in the dark ages.

Stan

I can't think of any car that will change the clock's time according to changes in the zones you drive in...

I can't even think of a watch that does that either...

The Navi knows the current time AND consequently your location. It shouldn't be that hard to do the conversion and display the local time (and date).

My Honda NAV does this.

It's not as easy as you think. The time zones do not follow straight lines. There is a lot of zigging and zagging to accomodate county and town lines, bodies of water, etc. I know someone says his Honda nav does that, but that's surprising. GPS works on Universal time (GMT). The local device (your nav) uses your setting to add or subtract the rigth number of hurs from GMT. The daylight time adjustment is a convenienc that just adds (or subtracts) an hour when you set/unset it.

I agree that it is disappointing that the clock display doesn't get its time from GPS. In my old Acura the time was displayed on the nav screen, so it was always correct time. GPS time is extremely accurate. The standard clock in my Prius keeps very good time. Like most modern electronic clocks, it doesn't seem to gain or lose more than a second or so a month. Since it doesn't have a second display, I tell how my clock is set by listening to NPR on the hour and noting when the "All things Considered" theme starts. That is always going to be no more than a second past the hour. So far my car's clock is right on.

BTW I maintain a public time service for computers (tick.mtnlion.com). Some very large companies use it as their time standard. I use software (NTP) that gets the time from about 10 sources. Some are atomic clock based, and some come from GPS. It is accurate to about a ten-thousandth of a second.

When I drive, I like the clock to be accurate within a minute. The standard clocks far exceeds that expectation.

Daylight Savings Time has now come and gone, and the clock on my Model V did not change. I turned Daylight Savings Time off in Setup, but the clock still did not change.

Any ideas?

The clock does not have any setup functions. All it has are H and M buttons. These advanced buttons allow you to adjust forward the Hours and Minutes of the clock. I know this is an advanced and cutting edge feature, but with time and experience you will become adept at manually changing the time twice a year.

Seriously, it is surprising that a technologically advanced vehicle with an expensive GPS system requires manual clock setting, but it does.

Tom

Well, shoot, I didn't even thing to do a manual adjustment. I thought the Daylight Savings Time setting actually did something! Thanks for the tip.

Although all PCs automatically update the time of day, I do not know of any automobile clock that can do the same. However, there is no technical reason why this could not be done, especially for those vehicles connected to the outside world with onboard GPS systems.

Jim

My Honda CR-V's clock changes to and from DST automatically.

Well then, come on - Toyota - get with it!

Better yet, let's get rid of Daylight Savings Time.

Tom

This same basic question was asked in another Thread, and IraS answered that for those Prius equipped with Nav, the Time Zone and DST functions in the Clock Set Up was for the Clock readout in the Navigation screen, ONLY trouble is...we can't find it ANYWHERE in the Nav screen!

If ANYBODY knows where it's located on the screen, or what needs to be activated to make that display operable. PLEASE post it here!

David (aka Blind Guy)

Looking through the Nav manual, the only time that I see displayed is estimated arrival times when doing pre-route planning, etc.

Related question:

I have a 2006 model, WITHOUT the nav package. The clock is unnaturally accurate. I never have to adjust it, and it always changes the minute within one second of my WWV-calibrated watch. Other than changing the hour for each DST change, I have never had to touch the minute button since purchasing the car 3 1/2 years ago.

Do others have similar experiences? Is the Prius clock somehow externally synchronized (like my watch)? Or does my Prius just happen to have an anomalously accurate time base.