It sounds like you concede the possibility of someone, albiet a stupid someone, causing an accident due to a nav hack. I have been saying nothing more than this for over a year now, and have been vilified for suggesting such a thing.

The other aspect of this thread worth mentioning, similar to the other one this week on cheating dealers, is the premise that the only reason one needs this cable is to bring the car back to stock before going to a dealer for warranty work on the nav just to hide the real, warranty busting, problem. Do we really advocate this sort of dishonesty around here?

 

i f i hack my nav i would just get a tool and push the pinout of the harness

 

No, I would build and install the cable because I want to keep the integrity of the OEM harness and have the ability to restore it to stock when I sell the car. I've done enough harness work to know that I don't want to hack on this thing - especially cut any wires - because I bought a Toyota knowing their wiring harness reliability is unquestionably superior. Any mod that doesn't involve connectors plugging into the existing harness compromises that reliability.

You have not been vilified because you believe SOMEONE will have an accident, your posts have been confrontational and contentious implying that NO ONE is capable of driving safely while changing a destination en route. It should be patently obvious that SOMEONE is incapable of operating the nav while in motion, and this is precisely why Toyota put the lockout in it from the beginning.

Many of us do not believe in dumbing down systems to suit the lowest Neanderthal among us, which is what Toyota has chosen to do because Americans will sue when they know good and well what happened was their own fault. Just like some on this board will blow up an engine, restore the stock parts, and make a fraudulent warranty claim. It's the same mentality - "I'm not responsible for my own actions if I can sue someone else and make them pay." It's an inconvenient truth.

 

Another trick I use is if I know will be going to an unfamiliar place later in the day I'll input that destination into the Nav, then press the talk switch and tell it to 'suspend guidance'. Then when I'm ready to go the destination I'll just tell it to 'resume guidance'. It recalculates directions from the current location and tells me how to get to the destination. All it takes is a little forethought and you don't need to have the capability to input on the fly. Most of us know where we are going when we get in the car, so why not program it before setting out?

 

I wasn’t talking about you, so please don’t change the subject. I was referring to other nav hack posters who would use the cable to protect themselves if they ever needed nav warranty work. You’re a moderator now, and you shouldn’t condone such things.

Please don’t change my meaning. My position was that a nav hack accident is possible for anybody. But some posters suggested that is far fetched. As contentious as I may seem, there was no reason to get personal as some have done e.g., suggesting I had a metal or physical disability of some sort. That was hitting below the belt.

 

Jesus Magellan what are you trying to be a fricken cop. You are probably on the homeowners association as well and work full time as an IRS agent or some petty policing job. I mean what the hell, don't you have something better to do that protect Toyota.

 

My moderator status has little to do with my ethics, and I have a lot more to lose than my mod status by being unethical.

You don't need a nav hack or even a nav to have an accident from inattention. It is possible to be very attentive to your situation and still be involved in an at fault accident. Attention can be focused on many things while driving, and it may not always be the right thing. At new rider's school way back in 1985, one of the instructors said, "Don't come to the track if you are not focused on riding. If you find yourself thinking about anything other than riding, you need to pull off and clear your head before going back out. You are a danger to yourself and everyone else on the track." Unfortunately, we are human and our attention can be manipulated.

So, your argument falls on many deaf ears at CL. Lexus have seen fit to install a sound system in the car that is loud enough to completely block out ANY emergency vehicle siren more than 25 feet away. Why is it not limited to a maximum volume low enough to hear a siren? We have cigarette lighters, ashtrays, cup and bottle holders in the car. Cellphones are commonplace. People drive with pets in their laps, completely oblivious to the fact that pet would be thrust through their chests by the airbag should an impact occur. Most people are also oblivious to the danger of putting their feet on the dash and having an airbag deploy. Few people have considered the fact that most accidents are preceded by a hand on the horn, and yet, that's where they're going to have a bag explode if they do hit the other car. Then there's my personal favorite - I call my wife on the phone and I have to press a number to transer to her, but I can't because I can't get the numbers on the screen, nor can I use the numbers on the phone unless I initiate the call from the phone. So guess what I do? Yep - I pick up the phone, scroll through some menus, get to her number, dial it, and press 0 to talk to someone to transfer me to her. All because Lexus disabled this functionality. Is it really safer now?

So we've got hazards and distractions galore in the driving situation. How we deal with them determines our insurance rates and our continued existence on the planet. Some people are good at managing their attention. I have met them at the race track many times. Others should never drive because they literally can't walk and chew gum at the same time, but the state has seen fit to issue them a license. Our cars are built for these people, not us.

You like Windows. Everything tucked away neatly so the user can't screw anything up. I like *nix 'cause I can configure everything to my liking without regard for someone in Redmond who capriciously decides I can't be trusted to configure anything myself. It's unfortunate you were attacked, but I don't recall seeing those threads. Send me a PM with the links, I can do something about that.

 

lexusaudio should have the cables, he has a lot of expertise with the nav and im pretty sure he has some custom harnesses!

 

Excellent point. I've seen firsthand how hard it is to diagnose random electrical problems that turned out to be bad harnesses. I would discourage doing anything to compromise a wiring harness as it's too easy to introduce unwanted and very bad side effects.

 

The pro's and con's of this argument have been beaten to death. As Rodney King said, "Can't we all just get along?". The only thing that I've learned in all of this is cutting the harness is not foolproof in the long run, and problems may show up later. And you can't uncut the wires if you have problems (warranty issue). As long as owners recognize the issues let them do what they want. Personally, the convenience:liability ratio doesn't work for my tolerance level. It is no big deal for me to enter a destination when I start out, or when stopped at a traffic light, or heaven forbid, even pull off on the side of the road to input a destination. For those that just have to be able to override the system because they can't think ahead to where they are going, just do what you have to do, but be man/woman enough to accept any warranty issues you may cause by hacking into the system. Bottom line, the issue is pretty simple.

 

I know I saw a post on here a couple months ago about a harness that was made. I believe it was made by TOMS. In any event I forget what the cable did exactly where it was to unlock the Nav system or to enable TV to be played.

Is there only one way to do the Nav hack? Or are there different wiring configurations you can do to get different results. It would be cool if you gained access to everything being unlocked with one specific method.

 

Here is the Link to that TOMS cable.....


http://www.tomsracing.co.jp/e/comp/l...001-ttv21.html

 

I’ll PM you on the link to which I was referring. It goes back to last year so there's really no longer a need to do anything about it. But you don’t have to go much further than post #21 above so see what I run in to, even today.

For what it’s worth, I agree with most of what you said in your post. I guess all I’ve been trying to do is cut down the odds a bit of my being wiped out someday on the road by focusing in on the nav hack.

Perhaps it’s a subject for a different thread, but the voice activation system and telephoning in my new G37 works like a charm and IMO virtually eliminates the need to hack the nav. My hope is that this technology will continue to advance and the call for hacking any navigation system will eventually be unnecessary.

 

Me too. While I know I have the sense to pull over when I should (and I have), it would be a marvel of engineering to be able to tell the nav where I want to go without spending 5 minutes of interactive chatter just to enter a destination. I'd be happy to use the voice system if it really worked well. I do use the presets frequently and I am happy to take advantage of anything that minimizes my interaction with the nav while in motion because I know operating it while moving does not give me much room for error.

 

Apparently any time speed is fed to the nav (and it needs to be or it will get very lost quickly) there is a chip inside that disables certain functions. I've had some discussions off the board with people who know this technology, and it's very hard wired. I was hoping it was a software thing, but apparently it is not, and modifying the hardware internally is taking a $5k gamble. Not something I would take lightly.