Why can't technology develop a replacement HD navigation screen to replace our original Nav screen when it someday fails?
Seems like this should be easy for today's tech geeks. Are there some special constraints?
Anyone had any experience trying for a Nav screen HD upgrade?
Am I being too radical?!
Cheers!

 

Replacing the display with a higher resolution model only gives you an image that will appear smaller unless you also rewrite the firmware driving the display. Or are you simply looking for a replacement screen in case yours craps out???

 

I should disclaim that isn't really my area of expertise but I do play around with vehicle interface systems from time to time.

It's probably not too difficult. My sense is that I could probably make an airchomper edition nav unit that plugs and plays into the car with 2 months of full time work. I bet there are some smart people in poorer parts of the world could do it in an order of magnitude less time.

In fact, I've heard of people in Russia / Ukraine cracking the ECUs in our cars so that they can mix and match the ignition equipment and ECUs in junked cars / JDM cars. The infotainment system is seperate from the ECU (I believe, but I could be mistaken) however anyone who can crack the security feature of the ECU probably has a head start on cracking the infotainment.

In an unsavory part of the internet, I once saw someone selling the ECU code for various Toyotas and I almost wanted to wrangle up the bitcoins to buy what they claimed was the ECU calibration settings for the TOMS SC430 in the GT500 - it totally could have been a scam but I'm inclined to believe that there's something to it because the seller was aware of the similarities and differences between some security features on the RX300/Harrier/Highlander.

But what's that information and expertise doing on some unsavory part of the internet and what does that mean for some of "today's tech geeks" who want to extend the functionality of the LS430? Any time you hack a copyrighted system, you skirt up against some of the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions. What's the consequence for breaking some digital locks on something you own? It's a Federal felony with a punishment of 5 years in prison and $500k in fines.

I'm inclined to think that you could 'get away' with it (a la Viastech and Grom) but why expose yourself to that liability? And imo that's the point of the DMCA - the chilling effect.

 

While it probably can be done, it is probably not cost effective. The population of LS's (and other Lexus models of the same vintage) are shrinking and will continue to do so. Add in, only a portion have the Nav unit and only a subset of those would be interested in upgrading. So, to be realistic it probably won't happen. That said, if an upgrade was available, I would probably get it.