can't view touch/nav screen in direct sunlight

I havent had that problem on mine. Have you gone into the settings to adjust the brightness/contrast?

 

That is a bad link. The correct one is www.hoodmanusa.com .

 

I have had this problem, but only very rarely (maybe 4 or 5 times in six months) when the sun is in just the wrong direction.

On the other hand, I don't have NAV, so the only thing I really need the screen for is climate control.

 

I haven't noticed a problem with the sun at any angle so far, but I do notice that the screen & dashboard indicators dim considerably when driving with your headlights on. That's fine at night, & I don't drive with mine on during the day, but I know that a lot of people like to drive with their headlights on at all times. I would think it would be hard for them to read their screens during the day.

Not at all saying that's the issue here; it's just something I've noticed.

 

The sun thing is a problem for me now and then -- about 1/2 the time the passenger visor can fix it, and the other half the sun is coming from the back passenger side and I can't do anything ...

As for the headlights in the daytime dim screen, just dial the brightness dial all the way to the top, there is a little click and you're in "daytime mode" and have the daytime contrast & colors instead of the night ones.

 

i have had your problem and i think it has to do with the extreme angle of the sun as i live in the Puget Sound region also.

when i cant see, i usually have something i hold to shade the sun out like a newspaper. i can say for certain that adjusting brightness and contrast is a waste of time.

i also only have the problem most frequently late in the afternoon when the sun shines in directly onto the screen. this is aggravated by the fact that i live in Olympia where the freeway runs east west instead north south and the sun is directly in your face. forget the visor because its useless.

im sure you know what im talking about. i have lived in so. cal for 9 years in constant sunshine and the angle of the sun just simply doesnt present as much of a problem as it does in Wa St.

danny you being located as far north as us would also face the same extreme angle.

 

Thanks delrey! I don't think I'd noticed that feature.

 

Finally - other people can share my pain. Living in Arizona, the sun is constantly in the the way of the nav screen causing it to be so bright that there's nothing you can do to see it. What I did was get a fat 6" limo tint strip at the top of the windshield, all the way across, even on the 'bumps' printed around the rearview mirror. It's helped tremendously since the Prius windshield is one of the largest windshields ever made for a car. It also makes the Prius look cooler - a lot cooler. It cost me about $15 to have installed and I'd never live without it. Granted, the screen is angled poorly and is in a poor location, and has poor shading. Due to this, before my strip of tint, the screen got so incredibly hot from direct sunshine that I could not even touch it without burning my fingertips! I still get direct sun on some occasions, but it's much, much less than it used to happen!

 

Then switch the display to "Day Mode"!
With the lights on, there are 3 buttons in the top right.

Day mode, Screen off and OK.

Day mode supresses the auto dimming. It does not work if the KM/MPH is pressed, so maybe you will have to change the setting of MPH first, then select day mode then return the MPH to its original setting. This was taken from the German handbook, page 182. YMMV

 

On my recent drive through the California and Arizona deserts, I found that rather than wearing my hat, I placed it on the dash above the monitor. it did a fine job of removing the glare from the screen (brim overlapping the screen).

 

I like it! A place to keep my hat handy and a screen shade, awesome.
I'll give it a try.

 

I got a piece of black plastic at a hardware store - I think it is a tread for a step or something, and any carpet store could sell you one piece of plastic mopboard - and I velcroed one piece hanging out over the speedometer and another above the touch screen. Works unless the sun is low and directly behind me. Since they are soft plastic I'm not worried about getting hurt if they fly around in an accident.

 

Their response to me was that they aren't planning on a Prius-specific hood, but if I measured the display they'd see if they had a hood that would work. If I'm going to measure, I can cut construction paper and take care of it myself.

Must be no other NAV system has visibility problems. Otherwise, one would think a company looking for new ways to sell a product would jump at the chance to develop a new application. Those plastic hood shields had to start with someone...

 

Re: Hood inquiry update: let's start a letter campaign!

I sent them an e-mail too, and received the same response. I agree that if they get enough requests, they may reconsider producing a hood for the Prius screen.