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Usability of the 11.6" screen?

Discussion in 'Prime Audio, Electronics, and Infotainment' started by Jeff25rs, Jul 20, 2017.

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  1. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Yeah we had those on a previous Accord, about 15 years back. I'd be on the fence on them, since they tend to get "burnished", are a bit more hassle when washing the car. But yes, they do allow you to crack windows in rain.
     
  2. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Yeah they make cleaning and drying the side windows a pain. I've never had any of the deflectors installed (although a hood/bug deflector would be useful... maybe. Most of my chips are on the bumper, not hood)
     
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  3. Andyprius1

    Andyprius1 Senior Member

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    A good idea, to keep the battery cool.
     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    It sounds like it would be, only: monitoring battery temps with ScanGuage, I saw:

    1. Even on cool evenings, easy driving conditions, car fully warmed, around 80 kmh, the hybrid battery temp would settle in around 35C. This is in conditions where AC definetely isn't need, actually running the heat to our feet a little. I get the sense that 35C is "operating temperature" for the battery.

    2. In hot-soak conditions, ie: when the car's been driven a long way, then parked say 1/2 hour in full sun, then started up again, measured battery temps will be up around 45C. Running AC agressively after that start up, for 20~30 minutes, I saw at most 1~2C battery temperature drop, something I suspect would have happened with or without AC.

    Bottom line: every body here preaches the mantra "using AC lowers the battery temperature", and it becomes gospel. But yeah...
     
  5. HPrimeAdvanced

    HPrimeAdvanced Senior Member

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    Also Mr. Leisk, what does running the A/C so much, say in a closed garage, do to it's longevity? A/C systems can fail, and are very costly. It's all a trade off.

    .
     
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  6. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Yeah we use AC much more so in winter, in the rain. I've discontinued use the ScanGuage, it was apparently causing some sort of communications problem, but for a while I monitored AC Watts. Very handy, shows values either zero, or positive values, 100, 200, and higher, basically saying when AC is running and at what wattage. I noticed, under some conditions when the AC light is NOT on, but the car is in heat/defog mode, ie when air is being directed to your feet and the windscreen, it will surreptitiously run AC. Ambient temperature seems to be a factor too: if it's near freezing, it won't do this. It might be monitoring humidity too, not sure.

    But yeah, in summer, we rarely run AC. It's usually started by my wife, when we get behind a smoky diesel or similar. And I try to sneak it off asap, and definitely run the fan without AC for protracted period thereafter, to blow out the humidity.

    Guess I'm not a fan of AC, lol. All you have to do is look up those pictures of Prius dash disassembly, to swear off AC except for emergency. :ROFLMAO:
     
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  7. Lee Jay

    Lee Jay Senior Member

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    You have to be kidding.

    When I get in my car, it's about 160 degrees F inside, and lately it's been about 102 outside. Opening the window can clear out some heat for a few minutes, but after that it's just like sitting in front of a hair dryer. And besides, it's really noisy and uncomfortable to have the windows open at highway speeds. I use AC every time I drive the car from about April to October, baring a cold spell. The car would be, to me, unusable without it.
     
  8. HPrimeAdvanced

    HPrimeAdvanced Senior Member

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    Let's face it, Beelzebub lives 2 houses down from me; there's no way I'm running without A/C down here in Southern Ovenlifornia. I wonder what running the A/C while charging, when requested by my car, inside a closed garage, does to the A/C's longevity.

    .
     
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  9. Bob Comer

    Bob Comer Active Member

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    I'm very much a fan of A/C and wouldn't own or drive a car that I wasn't comfortable when driving. And it's not for the battery, it's for me, though I wouldn't mind if it helped the battery too.

    As for disassembly of the dash, I'm never going to do it, so what difference does it make to me..
     
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  10. Bob Comer

    Bob Comer Active Member

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    I too live in a hot climate, but it really doesn't make a difference to me if it limits the lifespan of the A/C, that's what repairs are for. It might be interesting to do a cost/life analysis with battery vs. A/C, but it would be a purely academic exercise.
     
  11. Craig21029

    Craig21029 Member

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    Thanks for making me laugh out loud! I love it!
     
  12. Xeno

    Xeno Junior Member

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    I usually leave mine on auto as well. Its very nice, with one exception.

    When a passenger decides its time to open a window. Then I am scrambling to open windows (the sonic results of only one open window at normal speeds are unpleasant) and shut off the climate control via touch screen. I wish there was the equivalent of the audio system mute for the climate controls.

     
  13. pyramidbuilder

    pyramidbuilder New Member

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    My 2 cents worth on the large screen. I like the large screen because of the map real estate. It allows me to see far more of the surrounding area. I also like the "pinch" feature to zoom the screen. Bad side to me is that the screen is too low on the dash. That means I need to look down from the road to see the screen. Also, the screen is glarey. Because it sits so far out of shade, light from the passenger side window often makes the screen difficult to see. I imagine that as I become more familiar with the car (I've only had it for a month) I will become more comfortable using the controls while driving.
     
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  14. Roy2001

    Roy2001 Active Member

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    GPS on it sucks! I am used to smart phone and find it is very difficult to locate a place with car GPS, especially if I don't know the address. I really don't like the 11" display. It is useless and make it harder to control AC or radio.
     
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  15. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    the gps is bad, but it must be nice to have a use map.
     
  16. Lee Jay

    Lee Jay Senior Member

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    The GPS isn't bad, it's outstanding (it's actually better than on my phone because of the dedicated roof antenna and the fact that it can also use dead reckoning which the phone can't). The input system for the navigation system is what's bad.
     
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  17. HPrimeAdvanced

    HPrimeAdvanced Senior Member

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    You know Lee, I wonder how much that built-in GPS (portion) adds to the price of the Prime? I know in the past, those things could easily add $2500 or more. I bet though, that they save a ton of money eliminating all the manual controls for the heating, cooling, radio, etc. I'd like to see those come back, and the GPS made an option. I just "hard wired" my new Garmin, in the lower left of my windshield for $60, at my tint/alarm/beeper etc. shop. Took him 45 minutes. The Garmin has the great new magnetic quick disconnect, and DOES report traffic problems on surface streets and freeways, from a Bluetooth link to my stupid phone.
    And it was only $249.95 including free shipping from the GPS Store, about $100 cheaper than competitors. This GPS is dedicated, doesn't interfere with phone calls, has free lifetime map/software updates, and free lifetime traffic!

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
    AChoiredTaste.com
     
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  18. Lee Jay

    Lee Jay Senior Member

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    I'd bet the GPS adds very little to the COST of the Prime. What they charge for it is another matter and there's no way to know.

    I think the GPS system in the Prime is so good that I use it about 90% of the time I need a GPS and my phone the other 10%. I rarely need a GPS in the city but I did on Saturday, and I used both. The Prime's GPS actually handled the three accidents along my route better than Google (Google wanted me to drive through one of them while the Prime directed me around it), and the one closed-road I ran across wasn't detected by either system.

    When I was out on the wide open freeways on my trips last year, the Prime's GPS system was much better than Google Maps because Google Maps couldn't find any rest areas along my route, which is odd.

    It's also nice not to have to pull the thing out of my pocket, plug it in to the charger, and find a place to put it. It's even nicer that it's got a really big high-resolution screen.

    But entering a destination can be a little bit painful, and searching can be even worse. Google is way ahead in both areas. It's common for me to search an address on Google and then enter it into the Prime's navigation and put my phone away.
     
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  19. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    I'm in the "I like the built-in system" camp but I agree, the input method could be improved (you can imagine how bad it is on my 2010's Gen 5 navigation system). But I like the instructions that come through the speaker and I like the larger screen. (My TomTom is 3.5" and my phone is 4" so... the Prius' 7" is the largest screen lol)
     
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  20. SteveMucc

    SteveMucc Active Member

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    my biggest gripe is the destination input. I whole heartedly agree with (basically everyone) that it sucks and could be drastically improved. That said, if you ever drove in Manhattan you'd really come to miss having a built in nav if you didn't have one. The inputs from the wheel angle and rotation make a huge difference. Satellite dropout due to building interference is a major issue (likely also in Tokyo and other high density cities).

    over all i'm pretty happy with the navigation system though. It "functions" well when you get the address in.

    I also don't mind the climate control system. it's certainly different from anything that I've had before, but I don't mind it really. The controls are in a single page, make sense, and simple to use.

    audio controls, however, are overly complex and not intuitive (having a "back" button so switch control sets is stupid... I doesn't have any meaning regarding what it's switching to ("back" to what?).). I find myself looking away from the road way to long to switch sources and get to a preset.