Could not get the voice recognition to work inputting an address. It would not recognize the street name, and continued to get it VERY very wrong. My previous car gave you three attempts, after the third attempt it asked you to spell the name which worked flawlessly.

For a quiet car, smooth road, background noise should not be the issue.

See my youtube video:

feature=youtu.be"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGOHY-9RJ9U&feature=youtu.be[/URL]

Like the car, but continued to be frustrated for the poor execution of the electronic interface.

 

As much as I liked my two previous Lexus, I was not impressed with the voice recognition. I eventually gave up using it.

Current car works as advertised with no problems.

 

Have you tried West Pratt?

 

Definitely share your frustration on this. It's bad enough that you are locked out of key NAV commands when in motion, but when the voice recognition is this poor it pretty much renders the GPS useless unless you pull over and stop.

In Tahoe last weekend, I was trying to get to West Lake Blvd. I had to somehow learn that it would only take "Lake" and present the options for west lake on the final screen to choose from, unintuitive to say the least. (thumbsdown)

 

I find the voice recognition to be quite accurate!

but typically, I use Destination Assist for my navigation needs.

 

Same here. I used DA and eDestination all the time vs. voice recognition.

 

That video is funny and sad at the same time.Lexus NAV in general blows.
Newer BMW voice recognition works well.

 

Lexus noticed too, so they added a real person to help you enter in destinations

 

I just wish they would add Siri (or Google Now) functionality so that I could actually get more useful information. That would probably be an easier fix than improving their own voice recognition system.

When I filled out the post purchase survey, I made sure I was very clear that the biggest weakness/driving hazard was their whole voice/navigation system.

 

This looks like a good alternative. If it works as advertised, anyways.

 

I completely agree with your comment- I too like the car, but the ease of use of the electronics/GPS is the real weak point. The voice recognition for navigation is also pretty useless to me. It has worked ok on my phone for calling people but other than that it has not been useful. I am amazed in 2013 that there is a sophisticated computer in the car that users are unable to customize to make it easier to do tasks that they commonly do. The auto industry generally and Toyota has been a laggard in electronics usability in their products.

 

Voice recognition works great in my 4GS, didn't work at all on my 2010 ES.

Try saying "Pratt Street". Is Pratt St in Baltimore in the map as Pratt, or is it West Pratt?

 

Frankly, I wonder why anyone with a new Lexus vehicle would use the navigation system to manually input a destination instgead of using DA! I have 'played' with the navigation system and VR, but whenever I need to go somewhere, I always use DA.

 

The only downside is the annual $265 subscription fee. The convenience was worth it to me but I can see how some drivers wouldn't want to pay for the service.

 

Elliot, I'm just the opposite. I would like to be able to do it myself for two reasons: 1) when my subscription runs out, I probably won't renew so I'll need to learn how to use it; and, 2) I feel foolish calling some call center to ask for directions (into the Nav). I know, it's me. My wife tells me the same, to use it since we have it.