Display Audio with Navigation vs. Premium HDD Navigation

When I ordered the ATP, I felt somewhat taken advantage of, because I was paying more than the package was worth and only wanted some of the options.

Now I feel a lot taken advantage of. I don't even want XM radio, but apparently I'll have to buy it, plus a data option, to get the same features that the base model provides on Entune?

Is there any technical justification for doing it this way, or is it just some Toyota bean counter figuring out how to extract more money?

 

FYI: Entune and XM are separate entities... they don't share their profits or losses with Toyota. The bean counters at XM will have more beans to count after your 90 day free trial expires, and at Entune, same story after 3 years.

If you have to upgrade to an unlimited data plan, your cell phone carrier gets that money.

But, I am just going to remind you, you complain when the data is on a DVD that Toyota sticks into the car FREE ... when you buy that car initially... and then because things change you want updates and real-time information. If you want things that way, and follow the ever-changing world, you pay for them. If you amortize that over the years, it's going to cost the same as shelling out $200 bucks a year for a new DVD with revised and updated data!

 

You can get the XM data services without XM radio.

I think there's two problems here where buyers don't feel like they are getting value for these subscription services.

1) The Base trim can get the traffic, etc. data through the phone at a lower cost ($5 for Entune data services) via the Entune App than the Advance trim ($15.93 for XM data services). Of course, this is if you don't have to pay more for phone data than you would otherwise. This means Advance trim buyers who feel they are already paying a hefty premium are being asked to pay even more on an ongoing basis.

2) All this information is available for free online (Google has Maps w/ traffic, stock quotes, and weather; GasBuddy for fuel prices). The only thing that is being done here is putting it in a nice format on the display in the Prius. There doesn't seem to be much justification to charge for this on an ongoing subscription basis after buying a head unit which can do this. I can understand paying the mobile internet data for getting the info in real-time, but that's phone data.

 

Exactly.

I have an unlimited phone data plan. How does the unit tether - Bluetooth or WiFi?

 

If you are using an iPhone you will tether data via USB.
Blackberry and Droid will tether data via bluetooth.

I covered much of this a few weeks ago, and nobody seemed to care much then...

http://priuschat.com/forums/toyota-prius-plug-in/100435-pi-prius-audio-nav-features.html#post1423572

 

Can you link the source which states that the Display Audio is flash based and the HDD Premium is optical storage?

It's not that straightforward. Flash memory has lower latency than an optical disc, but can have bandwidth lower or higher than an optical disc. So for small random accesses, flash wins out-right. But if software does large sequential reads and the data is intelligently placed sequentially on the optical disc, the optical disc could be faster.

 

I am confused by this statement of yours.

 

I now agree. I did some research and found that the 2012 Prius 3 navigation package upgrade sounds exactly like the navigation package in the standard PiP trim.

I wonder if the MFD resolution of the standard trim PiP is the same as the 2011 (and previous years) models.

 

HDD (Hard Disc Drives) are magnetic, not optical. CD's and DVD's are optical. If the NAV in the base PiP uses flash storage is should be faster than the HDD NAV in the advanced PiP.

 

... and it wouldn't make sense for the standard trim's drive be faster than the one in the advanced trim.

 

I've seen the NAV in a 2010 Prius, and I have a Garmin Nuvi, and I think the built-in NAV falls far short. For the thousands of dollars it costs, I think it's not worth it. I gather that you cannot get a PiP without NAV. Too bad.

Full disclosure: The NAV in my Roadster is even worse. I only got it because by the time I decided to get the car, you could no longer get it without.

 

No revenue sharing? I'm surprised, but I withdraw my charge of veniality, with apologies. But Toyota should not have selected a structure that costs its customers unnecessary fees down the line, like requiring an XM susbscription for ATP owners to get what base model owners get on Entune.

Umm - does one of these subscriptions automatically update the navigation data on the HDD?

At any rate, a few comments:

1. The DVD isn't free initially. It's bundled in the price of the vehicle. If it wasn't included, you'd be selling a navigation system that didn't work as delivered.
2. I don't want to update every year.
3. Compare a $200 update to (a) free navigation and traffic on my Android phone (admittedly the nav is less accurate), and (b) a Garmin GPS ($90 for lifetime updates, $50 for lifetime traffic, if it's not bundled in the purchase price).
4. And the subscriptions are like the packages. Customers have to pay for stuff they don't want to get the things they do.

 

Not everything about the nav systems makes sense.

The HDD nav probably holds more data than the Display Audio with Navigation. That's the only reason I can think of to use an HDD (other than maybe a marketing point). Above storage sizes that fit in a camera (16 gb or so), flash would add too much to the cost.

But flash is superior in this read-almost-exclusively application in every other way - more durable, less vibration-sensitive, more energy-efficient, faster start-up, and faster for random access. (That last can be somewhat mitigated by good software and plenty of RAM in the unit.)

Optical drives are even slower than HDDs for random access.

 

Harman is the supplier for the Display Audio navi. I think they also supply the European Touch & Go systems as well.

 

Tide, how feasible would it be to retrofit a 2012 entune capable factory nav into a 2011 DVD based system?

The 2011 system is dated, I feel that my old 2006 Acura had a faster more intuitive system. Sure my Acura didn't have XM traffic at that time, but the rest of the unit was much more useful. The newer nav looks like pretty significant upgrade, it's a shame I couldn't hold out for a 2012.

 

It seems that built-in NAV systems cost about ten times as much as stand-alone NAV units. It's too bad that Toyota has decided to inflate the price of the car by including this several-thousand-dollar gadget as standard, when the car's price is already high for some potential buyers.

 

Don't forget, despite all the drawbacks of built in nav, there is a bright side. Toyota has returned an MFD to all models of the Prius dashboard. That is big.
It was a mistake to remove it with the 2010 Gen. IV. A big interactive display was what made the earlier Prius unique. Now all trim levels of Prius gets a big consumption and energy screens back, along with touchscreen audio, and telephone and back-up camera.
Good move Toyota.

 

I was looking for some more information about the Display Audio Navigation and I came across a bunch of youtube howto videos

toyota audio navigation - Google Search

They make the system look pretty easy to use.

Noel