Data Costs For Live Traffic Etc

[Brettster]

I'm thinking of buying a pay as you go mi-fi device for the live traffic updates etc

Does anyone know how much data it consumes? Trying to avoid another contract just for the gps!

Thought about using my phone but I didn't really want to have the hotspot turned on all the time and it seems the car cannot do a data connection via Bluetooth to an Iphone?

[Lexus Si]

Brettster, complete ignorance on my part but how does the sat nav know to reroute around traffic. I don't have hotspot enabled. I sometimes get an announcement such as "broken down vehicle 1 mile ahead" or "queuing traffic 1 mile ahead".

[Steve44]

On the Lexus EU Portal YouTube account, one of the videos about the live traffic service says on the auto high frequency setting it updates every 3 minutes. The low frequency update is every 6mins. I'd imagine the amount of data will be tiny, a few hundred bytes or so, basically a string of numbers which has latitude and longitude locations and a code which the car will convert to the issue.

You can set the Nav to do auto reroutes or manual or nothing.

[DJP]

I'm not 100% sure of my answers but, I've had plenty of occasions where the nav has offered a reroute and I haven't had hotspot enabled. Maybe this is radio reroute suggestions?

Yesterday I did enable the hot spot and nothing really changed in terms of reroute, but I did notice the parking icon updated a few times. Have never had cause to use it though.

With the hotspot function disabled I get the download failed message. With it enabled I received confirmation download successful but apart from the parking icon whirring around no discernible difference.

In terms of data, my phone says I've used 12mb but I can't tell you exactly how much of this is car related. I was in the car for about 5 hours in total, so as mentioned above data consumption appears modest.

[Blisteringblue]

Your re-routes without the wifi will be using old school Traffic Message Channel (TMC) contained in the FM Radio Signals of certain channels

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_message_channel

While these can be perfectly fine they are just not as up-to-date as the realtime traffic systems that the wifi version will subscribe to.

Until I get my Lexus I use TomTom with Live Traffic on my Iphone and this is brilliant, but I know they get their data from Vodafone where all their phone users actually supply the information they use.

I'm not sure where the Lexus portal gets it from but they will subscribe to a source like that? Most also seem to carry the Highways Agency feeds too, but these aren't brilliant. Mobile phone based data seems to be the best.

Going back to a time before Smartphones, I used to run TomTom on a PDA and its first ever traffic service (it was quite dire though) it used to Bluetooth to an old PAYG phone I left in the car. When I did this a £10 top-up used to last around 6 months, and this was driving 35k a year with updates every 15 mins. But again this was before "data bundles" and 3G signals it was good old GPRS.

Personally I will just use the hotspot service on my Iphone, it's easy enough to switch on and off. I'll probably just leave on all the time if the Battery drain is not massive, they security key is never going to be hacked.

[DJP]

I read somewhere here (I think) that the traffic updates were internet linked if the car was connected to the net (such as with the hotspot enabled). When I did this today a dialog came on screen confirming I was receiving internet traffic updates. Apart from the usual red triangle with cars in there were a couple of roadwork type symbols which suggests I was getting more than the TMC feeds. The Parking icon occasionally "whirred" and some parking icons appeared on the screen. I've not taken that test any further.

I still struggle to agree with some of the routing, even taking out local knowledge. Still, nothings perfect.

[Habu]

I've never got it to work using my phones Bluetooth but it works perfectly with wifi when the car's sat on the driveway picking up the home router.

Seemingly my Iphone 5S doesn't offer connected services with the Lexus?

[DJP]

I've never got it to work using my phones Bluetooth but it works perfectly with wifi when the car's sat on the driveway picking up the home router.

Seemingly my iPhone 5S doesn't offer connected services with the Lexus?

Hmm. I'm using an Iphone 5 not a 5s but that's surprising. Does your phone contract allow tethering as I know some don't. Have you used the phone with any other device, e.g. an iPad?

[Habu]

Ah, do I need to turn on something on the phone like personal hotspot because I was just trying to connect with just a phone Bluetooth connection

[Blisteringblue]

Ah, do I need to turn on something on the phone like personal hotspot because I was just trying to connect with just a phone bluetooth connection

Yes from the Iphone, Click Settings, Personal Hotspot, it will show you the wifi password (random characters so pretty safe) and a switch to turn it on and off.

When you switch it on you should see a wifi network the same name as your phone, connect to this and type in your wifi password and you should be off and running.

[Habu]

Yup, now up and running now I've turned personal hotspot on. Thanks.

[Sleepypete (FB)]

Hi all - there's a few methods the car can get traffic data :

FM Radio RDS - traffic info comes over this. I used to get it in my CT too.

DAB - comes with another type of traffic info broadcast.

Internet - with a suitable connection method.

The satnav will then draw in info from all the sources it has available, reception permitting ...

I have an Iphone 5 so technically I should be able to use that as a hotspot that the car connects to. However, my 3 contract doesn't allow other devices to connect through the hotspot. Just thought I'd mention that as a warning in case you try to connect something to internet through your Iphone and it suddenly loses all connectivity to internet. (The fix is to disable the hotspot, complain loudly about 3 and restart the phone).

The FM-RDS and DAB data do a pretty decent job of avoiding most avoidable traffic snarlups, although I'd be curious to see what information an internet connection would add.

[Jardyn39]

I'm thinking of buying a pay as you go mi-fi device for the live traffic updates etc

Does anyone know how much data it consumes? Trying to avoid another contract just for the gps!

Thought about using my phone but I didn't really want to have the hotspot turned on all the time and it seems the car cannot do a data connection via bluetooth to an iPhone?

I’ve been using a Three Mobile Broadband Ready to Go 3GB Preloaded Data Standard Sim for 3G in a Huawei E5331 to provide an in-car WiFi hotspot. I have the Huawei permanently on charge from one of the USB outlets. The provided USB charging cable was too short, but the network coverage has been very good.

So far my actual Lexus connected services data use is 1.09MB per hour (as reported by the Huawei). My average use is 1.85MB per day and 13.05MB per week, although sometimes I have forgotten to turn it on!

This is my second preloaded SIM and although I definitely played with the services more before, I never managed to exceed the 3GB limit within the 3 months available "in car". We used the data allowance up with laptop/tablet use at the end.

I used the connected services for 3 months and then had a three month break just to see if I missed anything by not being connected. During my first stint there were perhaps two days where the additional parking information came in handy, but otherwise I didn’t really make use of the facility.

I activated the second SIM so I’d have the connected services for a particular trip. I would have preferred to use my mobile as a

hotspot and use it selectively but this would have meant a new mobile contract. Although the SIMs (bought from amazon.co.uk) keep going up in price, so far this has been much cheaper for me.

Hope this helps.

[Brettster]

Thanks for the reply guys

Figured out how to use the Bluetooth tether on the Iphone hotspot needs to be on it seems even though it's connected via Bluetooth already for phone

In fact when it's connected in phone mode the wireless won't connect or even show up

I get 1 gb a month on my contract so might see how much it uses