Corolla Head Unit

[Robbie K]

*Corrola ZR owner here. 
I took ownership of my brand new corolla ZR in May 2017/this year. (ZR - top specked with sat nav) 
and have found nothing but problems with my head unit and have been railroaded by Toyota. 

I bought mine directly from my local Toyota dealership and no one there seems to know a thing.
The Toyota Link app from the App Store on my phone was last updated in 2015.. which tells me that Toyota 
don't care much here in Australia for the technology side of things when it comes to the head unit. 

Ive had the infamous problem of the mandatory update that gets stuck at both 62% and 86%. Refusing to allow the update to work
I had to drive around for 2 weeks with the head unit without Toyota link apps before it finally and randomly decided to let the update work. 

Since updating the what is clearly 2 year old and heavily outdated apps and experiencing extreme lag and issues with apps. 
As well as having the frustrating annoyance of the apps not working and telling me that I can't use them because the car is running. WTF lol 

I've given up! Ive been through phone calls, emails, Facebook social media team. Toyota care team etc and got no where!

Am very disappointed to get my top and the range 2017 car and stuck with maps/navigation that hasn't picked up on 3 new estates and their roads 
all built in the past 3 years and intersections that have become roundabouts that happened 3 years ago that don't appear. The maps froze on me the other day.

Others on this site can only suggest that I sell the Toyota OME headhunt and spend more of my own money on a new 3rd party headhunt that has apple car play. 
That's great and all.. But I paid for what I got.. And Toyota should be held responsible and should be updating its apps/software .

For now.. have found that I avoid the head unit and only use it to play music. 
I use my phones maps and other functions to do what I need it to do. I think its ridiculous that I can ask/tell Siri where I want to go and she opens up maps and within 30 secs I'm being navigated to where I want to go..
The cars voice/speech system only knows one navigation command and that's "GO HOME". -_- 

Edited June 26, 2017 by Robbie K

[Surfsideminer]

Hi Robert,

That does not sound like good news for anyone.

Edited June 26, 2017 by Surfsideminer

[campbeam]

Your experience is confirming what was in this Car Review https://practicalmotoring.com.au/car-reviews/2017-toyota-corolla-zr-review/   

This URL probably explains where Toyota has been directing its development efforts.  https://www.automotivelinux.org/announcements/2017/05/30/automotive-grade-linux-platform-debuts-on-the-2018-toyota-camry

 

[Roustus66]

I had a Prius c from 2012 until mid 2016 when I bought a Corolla Hybrid, both with SatNav & can confirm that Toyota maps are way behind in updating. Even buying a new card when it is released (for an exorbitant sum) means you are at least 6-12 months behind actual new roads. This is usually only a problem when talking about new subdivisions or new bypasses or the like which aren't that frequent but of course matter if that is where you need to go. The biggest downgrade from Prius c maps to Corolla was the loss of the Speed Limit display, plus the Voice Recognition in the Corolla is basically only good for use with the phone whereas in the Prius I could also use it to enter navigation commands. "Go Home" voice in the Corolla is pretty much useless as it keeps taking me to the phone, no matter how I try to pronounce "Home". I do use the SatNav quite a lot & learnt to live with its limitations but it is really disappointing that a company the size of Toyota would supply what must be one of the worst OEM systems out there (my brother has a Ford & his SatNav & Voice seems to be much better, although his screen is tiny). Dropping ToyotaLink from the Internet to only the phone app was also a backward step. So much for after sales customer satisfaction. I must say that the two Dealers I have had contact with have both been positive experiences.