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New Sport - Mirrorlink Works


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Warning, Man Child alert,  some spitting of the dummy ahead :yahoo:

Well my new IS300H Sport arrived today with a nice 9 miles on the clock.  Going to take a while to get used to the dial from the Premium Mouse but I guess I'll get used to it.  Slightly underwhelmed but it is almost exactly the same car as before.  Not sure why they have given us a 10" screen when they don't fill it?  Infotainment as Sh1te as normal, and had to wrestle with lots of manual ensembles to get the DAB to even find any stations.  A few old posts on here pointed me in the right direction luckily.   Standard Nav is a horrible interface with the dial, and I couldn't move my Memory Points from the old car as there is no import option on the standard nav.  I barely use it now anyway, always use my phone, hence my want of Mirrorlink !!

New toys were nice, adaptive cruise control was a little freaky but the lane warning was not exactly what I was expecting?  Will try them more tomorrow on a longer drive.

Ride is a lot different on the 18s from the 16s I had on the old SE, performance seems about the same.   Does look better than the old SE and I think I must be bucking the trend with the Sport not having a white one for the Black wing mirror / white car contrast, but as its a company car I never want to pay for paint.  Tight Northerner :whistling1:  Red and black leather is nice though.

Well I borrowed my daughters Samsung Phone though because I was desperate to try out the Mirrorlink.   It's a little buggy and you can only use certified apps which in my case are Sygic Premium Car Navigation (note the car in dash version comes with a hefty price tag, current £62 today if I was to buy) and Spotify which works via another App called Rockscout.

With a bit of fiddling they all work.  Interface is a little limited because of the Lexus Dial.  Seems to be more geared to touch screen infotainment dash systems.  But I managed to work my way around it.

Spotify and Rockscout were very buggy, looks like you are going to have to make sure none are even close to running before connecting to the car because you get a media not found error until you clear spotify and start it again.

Sygic works too, you have to make sure you have a route in before you start the Mirrorlink because without it I was unable to get to the menu on the dash with the dial, however with a route in you can click enter and it gets to the menu which you can then use on the dash.

Is it better than my phone on a vent mount?  I'm not 100% convinced, I will curse the bugginess that is for sure, as an OCD IT Manager, but I may try and embrace it.   Trouble is I will need to swap my phone and buy Sygic,  My Moto doesn't support Mirrorlink and neither does TomTom or Google Navigation.  However at least Sygic subscribe to TomTom traffic so I'm sure I will get used to it.

Anyway some photos, a quick one of the car and then mirrorlink if interested and it's such a shame the infotainment is as bad as ever.

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Car certainly looks sharp. Very stealthy I must say.

With regard to the 10" screen, surely that's because you don't have the premium nav? It looks like the 7 inch one we get on the pre facelift model with the border around it. 

Whats wrong with the lane changing alert? 

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Cheers wheels are very smart I have to say.

 

Yes already missing some of the premium features, all the voice recognition, must admit I just thought that was standard, bit silly of me, but not even sure premium nav was an option with the sport? I got it free last time from a Toyota Lease deal.

 

For the lane warning when playing on the drive felt the vibration on the wheel when setting, but out in the motorway it just looked like a car pic in the lanes and as you drifted the lane you were heading to just sort of flashed? Probably just me will try again tomorrow.

 

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

 

 

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11 hours ago, Blisteringblue said:

Cheers wheels are very smart I have to say.

 

Yes already missing some of the premium features, all the voice recognition, must admit I just thought that was standard, bit silly of me, but not even sure premium nav was an option with the sport? I got it free last time from a Toyota Lease deal.

 

For the lane warning when playing on the drive felt the vibration on the wheel when setting, but out in the motorway it just looked like a car pic in the lanes and as you drifted the lane you were heading to just sort of flashed? Probably just me will try again tomorrow.

 

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

 

 

Yes they do, might be a pain to keep the car looking good though with the black paint, especially with the state of motorways and loose chippings all over the place now. 

I don't really use the voice recognition much - it can never seem to understand my Yorkshire accent.

I don't think the premium nav is an option on any spec lower than Luxury whereas before, it was available on the SE but not the executive or advance models.

With regard to the Lane Keep Assist, the multi-info display will have different settings whereby you can have a chime or vibration of the steering wheel.

In practice, I think it flashes if you are close to the line or its bringing you back into the lane and vibrates only when you're on the line itself.

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28 minutes ago, rayaans said:

With regard to the Lane Keep Assist, the multi-info display will have different settings whereby you can have a chime or vibration of the steering wheel.

In practice, I think it flashes if you are close to the line or its bringing you back into the lane and vibrates only when you're on the line itself.

Cheers, I think I sussed it on the drive today, it was funny the first time I changed lanes with it on and have the car provide force against it.  I guess I will get used to it.  I like all the radar stuff, the adaptive cruise is brilliant, although it leaves too big a gap in my opinion and people move into it which causes a bit of an auto slam on.   I guess you can't change that setting anywhere?   I guess you will learn to anticipate the more you use it.

Had the same black the last time and it's not as bad as a white car I also had?  But we are spoilt for choice for cheap hand car washes up here, so never worth cleaning it yourself.

Standard Nav was OK if I'm being honest, the traffic was about right which I guess is coming from the RDS radio now.   The big test will be the M6 coming home.

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28 minutes ago, Blisteringblue said:

Cheers, I think I sussed it on the drive today, it was funny the first time I changed lanes with it on and have the car provide force against it.  I guess I will get used to it.  I like all the radar stuff, the adaptive cruise is brilliant, although it leaves too big a gap in my opinion and people move into it which causes a bit of an auto slam on.   I guess you can't change that setting anywhere?   I guess you will learn to anticipate the more you use it.

Had the same black the last time and it's not as bad as a white car I also had?  But we are spoilt for choice for cheap hand car washes up here, so never worth cleaning it yourself.

Standard Nav was OK if I'm being honest, the traffic was about right which I guess is coming from the RDS radio now.   The big test will be the M6 coming home.

Yes the setting for the adaptive cruise can be changed. It defaults to longest distance when turned on

On the right side of the steering wheel, you'll see a car with waves coming out of the front, if you press that, it'll change the distance - the shortest one works best for me

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK, the inner child got the better of me, have bought a HTC One M9 just so I can use the mirrorlink facility in the car.   Wasn't spending brewsters so looked for the cheapest highest spec phone to do Mirrorlink, was a toss up between this and a Sony Z3 and ended up with a silly price one on eBay.  So it's a bit of a throw away purchase if the mirrorlink does seem as "buggy" as first play.  Lets hope Sygic Car Navigation is on a par with TomTom :w00t: Anyway it's a new gadget to play with for a bit.

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This is interesting. What was the phone model you tested it with? I think one of the main complaints was that Toyota / Lexus never updated their Mirrorlink version from 1.0 to the more modern 1.1. So basically you could only use it in the IS 300h with an older smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy S3 (Mirrorlink 1.0) as opposed to newer models like the S6 and S7 that use Mirrorlink 1.1. 

If you get it to work with your M9 I suppose that would mean Lexus finally decided to update their Mirrorlink version to 1.1 for their 2017 models? 

I've ordered a 2017 IS 300h myself last week with the new premium nav 10.3" screen. Would be interesting to see if it will have the updated Mirrorlink version as well. 

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Manual says its mirrorlink 1.1 it was the first thing I checked. Tested on a Galaxy S6 and the mirrorlink was native, which I am LED to believe the HTC is too. Mirrorlink 1.1 is certified apps only, hence only Sygic as the only premium Nav App, I think the 99p BringGo nav app also works but reviews are not the best. Spotify is via 3rd party rockscout and I think there is a HTC car app that gives an android auto look. Got the phone for £99 and sygic is free for 7 days and also currently 50% off until 10th August (still £42 though) so will give it a good test. If its too buggy will just sell the phone on and go back to my Moto via Bluetooth.

 

 

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

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The Lane Control System on mine can be switched off permanently by a button on the bottom right of my steering wheel & the Voice Recognition is now much better 

particularly when I Dial rather than Call my Contacts as the latter introduces a further step before the Call Connects.

The switch to Battery Drive in Traffic is a new feature that is impressive.

Tel

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HTC phone arrived and while it works its not as good as the Samsung. The screen remains on and the usb ports don't give enough power to charge and run so it was discharging while using. Far too buggy and taking a call while the mirrorlink was running and you go off, so you have to navigate through all the mirrorlink settings again while driving.

 

Will drive me mad and sygic is no tomtom.

 

Given up already, will sell HTC on and its Bluetooth and tomtom on a vent mount for me

 

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I've sampled many satnav combos in my MY15 300h and settled on google maps nav, sometimes TomTom ( old subscription) both running from an Iphone 7s plus. Works very well as google maps sends the turn direction audio through the cars stereo, takes/receive calls ok and I can browse my music collection on the phone whether local or streamed through apple Music using the cars contoller. Best sound quality is through the cable but works over Bluetooth too.  

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Alas I'm android so don't get the cable music experience, Bluetooth only for us but that is good enough.  I have a 64gb USB stick with a lot of music on, but when I just want a random shuffle I will use Spotify over Bluetooth.

I am really disappointed with the phone Bluetooth in the new car though, that was one thing that worked perfectly in the old car.  Now no matter where I am the first 10 seconds we have un-audible dalek speak which settles down and then happens again at various intervals if a long call.

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  • 6 months later...

Mirrorlink update 6 months on.  I now have a Huawei P10 which has mirrorlink, but I only use it for spotify integration.   Unfortunately Mirrorlink 1.1 locks the phone out so I only use the mirrorlink when I am happy to use the in built navigation, usually when not bothered about traffic and then the phone ends up in the glove box just doing spotify.  Otherwise it's tomtom on the phone on a vent magnet and I just use Bluetooth to stream spotify but can't really change the music without looking over your shoulder.

It is still buggy, with pops and crackles and pauses but it is better than 6 points touching the phone to change songs.

Still feel it's a massive compromise for this level of car.   I had a Fiesta from the body shop not long ago and even that had Ford Sync which was Spotify on the Head Unit.

Never bothered with the sygic subscription, was £60 for car connectivity and even the Lexus Standard Nav is better :w00t:

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