Hi guys, this is my first post. I'm about to pull the trigger on a 2016 IS300 F sport. I put a deposit down on a nebula grey with red interior, but I can still upgrade it if needed. I'm trying to decide if its worth it for me to get the navigation package. I have read on this forum that many people feel that it is slow, unresponsive and has random freezes. Most of the posts I've read are from owners of 14/15, so I'd like to know if Lexus has made any improvements to the new model. Any insights would be helpful!

 

I have a 16.. compared to any smart phone it's MUCH slower.

Can you get a backup camera with no nav? What does the non nav dashboard look like?

 

Yes it actually comes with the Blind spot monitor with traffic alert and backup camera. I can't say how different the non nav dash looks like compared to the nav since I never played with the nav version. I know it doesn't come with audio sources like Pandora or I heart radio, just Bluetooth audio and satellite. So would you say it's better to skip the navigation?

 

I would absolutely be able to skip the navigation, forget the pandora/slacker/i heart radio app, I never use them (because I do it all on the phone and it's 10 times faster via the regular bluetooth connection)

But I would not be able to skip the backup camera... blind spot monitoring is a cool feature that I'm glad I have.

If you've got an iphone with google maps or an android phone, you'll never use the navigation, it's just too freakin slow, outdated and useless compared to how advanced google maps is.

 

Thanks for the reply. I think I'm gonna follow your advice and stick with my original choice. Maybe I'll add a spoiler and dynamic cruise control with the money I save.

 

Entering destinations in the NAV is best done using voice commands. Much quicker.

 

Which I have done. And it's still 10 times slower then google maps.

With either iphone or android you simply press one button and say "Take me to 1 main street" as far as you can and it says "Navigating to 1 main street"

In less than 5 seconds you are on your way. With the lexus navigation it wants the city, PAUSE, street, PAUSE, Number, PAUSE.. it's seriously out dated.

 

Then something is wrong with your system. You can say "enter an address" then "123 Main Street, Seattle" and be on your way. Only the old nav would make you pause like that.

 

I agree with this. I've never had an issue using the verbal address entry, and I have a pretty strong accent.

 

We've sort of turned into a society where our an attention span lasts two seconds. If we don't get what we want right now we loose interest. I'm speaking in broad general terms.
Of course a recent smart phone is going to be faster at Nav. Google has spent billions on getting Google maps and it's voice recognition to do what it does.
But once the address is entered in the Lexus Nav, which only takes a minute it works pretty good. I'd much rather have the convenience of the in dash display and audio voice prompts from the car so I don't have to fumble around with a phone or worry about my battery draining. My phone stays in my pocket when I'm driving. Less distraction more convenient.
Android auto and Apple CarPlay are sort of trying to bridge the gap between the car and smartphone. But they are both proprietary implementations. Toyota / Lexus and others don't want to implement them because they are worried that consumers might base their car buy decision on what car their smartphone works with. So Toyota is working with Ford to come up with an open standard, a programming API that will work across the board with any device . I think that's a good way to do it. I like Apple and Google but I seriously don't want them having too much influence over the car industry and what car I purchase. Sorry for rambling..

 

I like having a factory Nav as its a better experience during the drive. However, Apple and Google have the best user interface engineers on the planet and the OEMs are painfully behind. I wish every OEM embraced CarPlay and Android more openly as these platforms being best of breed will eventually win.

 

This sounds like a classic case of creating a standard to defeat all standards, and is a horrible idea. All we're going to end up with is more "standards"; none of which are actually standard across the board. As a software engineer and product manager, I can tell you that Ford and Toyota are going to allocate a lot of resources developing this standard only to find that the smartphone companies won't integrate it into the OS. Without OS level integration (like CarPlay or Android Auto), you're limited to using an app to control your car. This would be perfectly fine if apps weren't restricted to certain permissions (especially in iOS), but they are and so what you could potentially do with the system is limited. In the end, we're going to end up with an infotainment system that only works if you have a specific app on your phone and can only do what the app supports. This means that features will be limited to what Toyota/Ford want to build in the app, and updates will have to be made by Toyota/Ford.

Also, obligatory XKCD comic.

 

I think we can all understand that car development moves at a much slower pace than smartphones or computers. These things take time to implement and test and when it comes to technology auto manufactures oftentimes still don't get it right.
Worldwide Google and Apple have thousands of people working on maps alone. I agree lets leverage those resources in our cars, but lets also do it in a way that's open and fair to everybody. It shouldn't matter if you have an iPhone, Samsung Galaxy or whatever brand using any OS. If there's an open standard API that both the Auto manufacturers and Phone manufactures agree upon and use, then in the future every device will be compatible with every car. The winners will be the consumers. Not Apple or Google. Today Apple and Google are trying to push their proprietary technology down the throats of the Auto industry. Obviously Apple / Google have a lot to gain if every car only supports their respective technology.

 

So lets say all cars support Google and Apple so what happens to those people that have a Microsoft or Blackberry or some other brand. Tuff nuts, buy a new phone or choose a different car?
How far will this go? Should we let Google and Apple control our lives and block out any other competition?

 

I heard Beat Sonic is developing Airplay interface for our car. I saw a video demo of it for GS I'm sure it's coming for IS.