Slust

The hot trend of topics lately is "my weather is not working, this car sucks". I've seen some odd statements like "Lexus hates Canada" and "the Canadian government forbids HD Radio". Got me wondering if it might be true and what exactly is our 3IS using to get Weather and Traffic.

Long story and google searches aside...

• The Lexus IS is the first car to offer free traffic and weather updates
• Think of the hardware as HD Radio (developed by iBiquity Digital Corporation) technology
• But the service is being runned by Clear Channel's Total Traffic HD Network (TTN)
• Like cell phones, TTN has coverage zones
• These coverage zones are still expanding
• If you're in a coverage zone you should see a HD logo on the Nav screen
• The 3IS can get data from both HD Radio as well as user's cell phone (if connected to Lexus Enform)
• If you are outside of an HD zone, your cell phone's data is used
• Default setting of the car should be to use "HD only" but you can select "HD & Cellular"
• You need the Lexus Enform app on your phone if you wish to use your phone for traffic/weather
• The Canadian government originally chose DAB but the system never matured
• Testing of HD Radio Data Services began again in Canada in 2013 because of automakers and device makers requesting it
• Traffic should update every 5 minutes (15min for non-nav equipped cars)
• Weather forecast should update every 60 minutes
• Weather Doppler should update every 10 minutes (60min for non-nav equipped cars)

My Weather and/or Traffic is not updating (it says "still downloading"!!!)

1. Look at the nav screen and see if the HD icon is there
2. If no HD icon, do you have the Lexus Enform app installed on your phone and is your car set to allow both HD Radio and Cellular data?
3. If yes to either of the first two than you might have an issue you should ask the dealer about it or you simply may have a weak signal to both HD Radio and your cell phone's data coverage. My phone constantly has spotty coverage at best, even in the same area with little to no movement. I personally would blame the coverage first before I blamed the car.
4. If no to both 1 or 2 than that is probably why you aren't seeing any updates. Give it time for coverage to return or you simply may be in a no/weak coverage zone.

Links

• TTN's Coverage Zones
• Lexus IS is first car to offer free Traffic and Weather updates
• Toyota announces its lineup (more detailed information)
• Canada begins HD Radio testing (1/3/2013)
• TTN's coverage in Canada
• Lexus Enform FAQ

While the system is brand new and there is bound to be some early adopter growing pains I think we are mostly seeing coverage zone issues. While cell phones are supposed to be the backup plan, I know I'm not alone in seeing cell phone data dropouts ...even in apps that only need to transfer bytes or only a few kilobytes worth of data. Would be nice to know how much data is being transferred not just so we know if its having a hard time transferring that much data to our phone but also so we know how hard our data plan will be be hit by.

I'm praying you guys found this useful because man, I'm wiped.

doodlebug

That was an impressive amount of work you put into this post.......thank you.

While I'm having issues downloading my radar map, I'm getting traffic and weather forecast just fine.
I refuse to get bent out of shape for what to me are minor issues, because I love my car.
I will bring a few things up to my dealer in 1,000 miles. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the hell outta this car.

SonyHome

Wow! Thanks for the information Slust!

I have the HD local showing with the 3 cars to indicate I have signal but I don't get traffic or weather. Currently my setting is set to HD and Mobile and I do also have the latest Enform app on both my car and phone. In fact issue started just the time around when the new Enform apps were being distributed on the phone but before I got it on the car. Checked with my sales rep at the dealer and he said they had Lexus Regional rep look into it but no explanation of the root cause. He did tell my sales rep that it was working "outside" of the metro area. It was working for me 3 months without any issues and now it doesn't work. I've tried reconnecting my Bluetooth but didn't address the issue.



Just because I posted the issue to share with others, it doesn't mean I'm "bent out of shape". I'm just trying to figure out why it stopped working since my HD signal seems to be fine and I did use the traffic info and also had the weather widget on my home screen. Now I replaced the weather widget with fuel info.

doodlebug

I only said "I" refuse to get bent out of shape, I didn't say anybody else was. I apologize if you took offense to that. I was simply saying I wasn't going to let something relatively small **** me off. My radar stopped working a few weeks ago even though I continued to get traffic and weather forecasts. I fixed mine tonight after reading another post about deleting "personal data" in general settings, my radar has now returned.

Slust

No problem, just thought since a lot of people reported their dealer didn't know what was going on I would look into it. I find they are good with mechanical stuff but nav and software related stuff they aren't too good on.

It looks like you found the quote I'm about to share to square away the Doppler Radar issue, but figure I will share it here anyway just in the off chance this becomes the central hub for all traffic/weather related issues.


No, no there is definitely something odd going on. I played it around with it some more and now I think its a combination of TTN coverage and how the software was written to update. When I hopped in my car I had both Traffic and Local Weather but no Doppler radar. I found this quote in another topic and decided to give it a try.

It worked, but not without incident...

Glad GaryHE posted this, but it wasn't so smooth for me.

I cleared out my personal data but still no Doppler.
I couldn't re-pair my phone ...tried thru the car, tried thru the phone (turning Bluetooth off, then on), rebooted the phone, restarted the car. Did not work.

Then I tried this...

1. Left the menu on the car to re-pair the phone
2. Unpaired the car from my phone's settings ("Forget this device")
3. Turned OFF Bluetooth (phone settings)
4. Turned ON Bluetooth (phone settings)
5. Re-paired the car with my phone (phone settings)
6. Re-paired the phone with my car (car settings)

Finally I got my phone paired back up with my car (frustrating 5min). I re-checked the Doppler Radar and now I have that working. Not sure if the Doppler Radar worked before as I don't think I tried it before.

The odd thing is I wonder if my Doppler Radar would have worked before I re-paired my phone back. The reason I wonder this is because I don't have the Lexus Enform app on my phone. My car is set to receive updates from HD only so not sure why clearing out personal data and re-pairing my phone should have worked. Next time I see Doppler go out I am going to clear out personal data, restart the car and before re-pairing my phone I will see if Doppler is back. If it is then it is getting the update through HD Radio. If it isn't there is some funky logic in their program when checking for updates. Possibly their code checks the phone first before HD (not saying it does but it might) and so if there is some data stored on phone or some setting conflict it might prevent it from updating the Doppler. Again, not saying that is what is happening. Need to test it more to find out.

But right now it works.


Still an awesome car. I have about 3-4 weather apps I use for snowboarding so needing the car to do it is not really a concern of mine but getting everything to work is a good feeling.

SonyHome

Process of deleting the personal data fixed all my weather functions but my HD traffic still isn't working. I went ahead and changed it to "HD only" and it seem in this mode weather updates less frequently since information shown stated "40 minutes ago" when I shut the car off in my garage after my test drive. Also after deleting personal data my car updated the Enform again for some reason even though I did that previously. Also it deleted my Bluetooth settings so I had to remove it off the phone and repair them. I did try the weather before pairing the phone again and none of the weather function seem to work but I think my setting was in HD and Mobile.

I never started Enform app on my phone in the 3 previous months while in my car when both weather and traffic worked flawlessly. I really think something changed with our latest update. I don't have any issues receiving HD radio signals either.

Interestingly deleting the personal data also seem to have returned my HD radio sound to more fuller state that I noticed before. I'm not sure if I had some setting that caused this that got removed by doing this.

SonyHome

Just to update this thread, after doing the "delete personal data" my weather only works when my phone is connected and has Enform app running. This could have been working even before since I don't usually run the Enform app. Weather and Traffic are still not working over the HD Only.

Thanks.

SonyHome

I got a message from my sales guy stating "we found the fix to the HD radio issue! It's a simple fix. One of the towers around town here were sending out a bad signal so they called that station and they fixed their signal so everything is working now".

Now here is the part I don't get. "All we need to do is see the vehicle for a simple radio reset." Why does the radio have to be reset if the bad signal has been fixed as stated above and is this reset something I can do by myself? Sales rep said they would need to hook it up to their computer to reset.

Thank you.

Slust

Wow that is odd Sony. It does sound like a coverage zone issue.

It does sound weird that you need your system restarted but at the same time when electronics lose connection usually a reboot is needed. They even recommend that you restart your phone from time to time, I'm guessing for similar reasons. You can restart your Nav by holding down the Volume button but I guess that is only a soft boot so maybe they need to do a hard reboot on your Nav. I'd have them do it when its convienent to you as if something dorks up than its on them and then they will have to bend over backwards to get it fixed. The Lexus dealership has always treated me well. I don't fear them like I've feared other dealerships.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

brilliant post Slust

someone sticky this!

SonyHome

Past weekend I took my car in to my dealer to have them "reset the radio" and now my HD Traffic (and I assume HD Weather) is working again.

moose66

Has this reset held? The service in my wifes car is out again. Of course I have no idea how long it has been out. I only hear about it after she is not able to get it work. I have deleted and added once before. May be time to do it again.

dasrakete

Nice work but, Lexus Canada has not installed a full version of HD radio software. It's just like having a trial version of Excel or Word. Canadian vehicles have the ability to receive HD music and tag songs when on either side of the border. The problem lies with the software that does not give the full function of receiving traffic and weather updates on either side of the border. Lexus charges Canadians more but gives less. There are some HD radio stations around Toronto but, obviously more in Buffalo. HD radio did not "take off" because hen it was first trailed, not enough vehicles came equipped with this feature and stations could not justify the expense

What Lexus Canada has to realize is just like T.V. signals, radio signals do not stop at the 49 the parallel.

Lexus Canada do have their head firmly where the sun does not shine.

If you are wondering why I am so passionate about this issue"......... I live part time between Ohio and Toronto and purchased a Canadian vehicle because of my citizenship.

Hermes

Thank you very much for putting all this together, it's greatly appreciated!

Now I read above that Canadian cars are not fully equipped with the HD radio, now if I were planning a road trip down Highway 1 into California, would my local dealer install or update a full HD patch into my car, or would an American dealer do this for me free of charge, if at all possible?

dasrakete

Check with Lexus U.S.A. they are not quite as **** as Lexus Canada and will do as much as possible to maintain customers. When you get it done in the "States" post a note here.