I'm looking to get a 2020-21 RX350 and intend on being an avid user of Android Auto as my commute will be fairly long. I would appreciate any tips/advice using Android Auto.

How seamless is it?
Any hiccups?
Pros/Cons?
Likes/Dislikes?

Thank you kind people!

 

I use AA for every drive in my 2020 RX. It has been essentially flawless. I really like the new Coolwalk interface, which I finally received a few weeks ago. It looks great on the 12.3" screen, showing a good size map over 2/3rds of the screen and a music player on the rightmost 1/3. Messages and calls pop up as a widget, shrinking the music player. The map can be made full screen, although I rarely have need to do that.

I used it with a wired connection for a long time, first with a OnePlus 7T and then with my current EDC, a Google Pixel 7 Pro. I bought the Motorola wireless AA adapter a few months ago and should have done so sooner. It has also been flawless. The adapter plugs into one of the between-the-seats console ports and is completely hidden. The 2020 and later models have a phone holder in the console. Get yourself a short USB cable for when charging is necessary. Some later model RXs have wireless charging, but it appears to get only middling reviews.

There are a couple of annoyances, although I don't know if AA is the root cause. One is that when AA is running you can't also listen to music on a USB stick. The AA connection is via USB (either wired or the wireless adapter) and either AA or the Lexus infotainment won't allow the use of multiple USB sources simultaneously. This is not too big of a deal, as I usually stream a Pandora station, anyway, and have it set to auto-start. The other thing is that if I am on the phone when pulling into my garage, the phone call usually (but not every time) jumps to a Bluetooth headset I have in my home office. I've gotten so used to it I anticipate the jump and tell the other party to hang on a sec.

A last annoyance is really a Google Maps issue. It will show a speedometer when used on the phone, but not when displayed via AA. It displays the speed limit, but not vehicle speed. Brain dead logic on Google's part. (Yeah, I know Waze, AmiGo and every other mapping tool shows a speedometer. The Waze cartoonish UI is terrible. Maps is the best tool for my use case, other than the speedometer issue.)

Good luck with your RX purchase. I'm 43K miles into my 2020 and still love it.