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Toyotas madness.


Phill111
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Let’s face it, Toyotas sat nav touch2 system is lagging behind its competitors in many ways. One thing that until recently was a bit of a shining light was the Google POI search. It could find anything. I used it almost every day. It could find companies to almost any poi that the standard search could not. That was up until a couple of months ago when Toyota dropped the feature. Why? Why did they make such a daft decision? Well apparently not enough people were using it. So instead we have Tom Tom places which really is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Yesterday I tried searching for RSPB Minsmere, something Google search had no problems with. POI search has not idea, neither does tomtom places. So far in all my attempts at using it, it has found nothing I have asked for, not one thing. I end up having to look up places on my phone then manually enter the address in the sat nav.

if as Toyota inform me the feature was not used enough I might suggest this was down to it being a bit hidden in the UI. A few tweaks to the UI would have seen it utilised a lot more. Making it the default POI search if an internet connection existed would I am sure made it very well used. Now we are left with a frankly terrible search option.

I am about to replace my Rav4 2017 Hybrid with something new. Had the new 2019 included google search, or Apple car play then I might have put it top of my list, but at the moment such a seemingly simple thing is putting me off. I visit lots of places each week and having to waste time researching addresses is frustrating,  more so knowing that just a few weeks ago it was such a simple exercise.

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not sure about POI but Google changed the licencing terms on things like Streetview so it could possibly be that they did for POI too.

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I did contact Toyota and the “it is not used enough so we decided to remove it” comment was from them. I would guess there were costs involved as the search probably went vita Toyotas servers. So it is probably simply a cost saving exercise. 

 

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what they told you & the real reason may not be 1 & the same. If Google are now charging them for licencing when previously free then, yes, it would be cost saving.

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Sure, either way is has really reduced the effectiveness of an already lagging behind sat nav system.

Google have always charged for commercial use which is what Toyota would have been. It seems very poor to then reduce the service to customers. It may seem minor, but t those of us that used it regularly it is a disappointment. I can see this sort of thing happening more. Features of cars, part of the sales brochures that help sell a car, being taken away later on.

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13 hours ago, Phill111 said:

Google have always charged for commercial use which is what Toyota would have been.

Apparently they didn't or they changed their definition of commercial. A lot of apps etc. all seemed to have been affected this Spring & removed services that relied on Google mapping/Streetview etc.

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I think we will see this sort of thing a lot in the future. As more apps end up in cars, more third party tools will be used. I am sure that will be a minefield to wade through in the future. Can you image if we end up with a Huawei situation and all of a sudden the OS in our cars is affected.

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1 hour ago, Phill111 said:

Can you image if we end up with a Huawei situation and all of a sudden the OS in our cars is affected.

I think that this is part of the reason that Toyota have been reluctant to go with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto until the market is pretty much forcing it on them - everything is so interconnected.

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Some cretin at Stansted Airport drove my Rav into a post when he took it for meet and greet parking, I am currently using a loan Vauxhall Grandland X, the car is a pile of poo but the Apple CarPlay is brilliant. Toyota are really need to get up to date in the UK and update our cars asap.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This is why I am not missing the Nav version of my much older car. I put my phone in the cradle and with a choice of two mapping apps - Google drive and Here We Go, can use voice commands on the go to ask for directions and get new routes. Android Auto is on the phone. This is why third party android systems are popular and replacing stereos as upgrades.

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