Enform Apps/Apple Carplay

[Blah Blah]

Hi Everyone,

Recently purchased a 2016 Lexus IS350 F Sport.

I love it and it's met my expectations in every way, except, Enform and the in-car tech.

When I purchased the car, Enform was the high-tech selling point.......I probably should scratched the surface and looked further into it, because Enform is a joke by today's standards.

If you look at Apple Carplay or Android Auto, these seem to be the gold standard for connectivity and in-car tech (and come standard in many other car brands) and Enform doesn't come close.

The iPhone App's interface looks like a 5 plus year old app and all it really does is allows you to upload an address to the (equally useless) in-car Navigation. The in-car Navigation is also rubbish compared to Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze.

For the first month that I had the car, Pandora was part of Enform, then Pandora pulled out of Australia....so, that doesn't exist now. No news of the number 1 and 2 streaming music providers (Apple Music & Spotify) being integrated.

Any comments and/or does anyone know whether Lexus are looking into improving this area of their cars?

 

[Atlantis]

This is probably why my next car can't be a Lexus.

They are so far behind on interface technology, it wouldn't make sense to buy a car which is years behind the other manufacturers.

If they ever decide to include Android Auto, I'll be back in an instant. Until then, my money is worth more elsewhere.

[FrankyX]

Yes this is an issue. But one thing that you need to remember is that mobile technology and tech in general is progressing so fast and it appears that most of the motoring world is not keeping up, or so it would appear.

The 3IS models with the Enform platform is 4-5 years old now, and while the idea of sending a location to your car and finding fuel was a nice idea 4 years ago, in today's world, it is an embarrassment to Lexus in comparison to today's tech.

Toyota/Lexus have said for years that they are staying away from Apple CarPlay & Android Auto and it appears they are developing their own tech, which again is not the right way forward IMO.

I was called by Lexus Australia earlier this year as a follow up on seeing how the car is going (and trying to get me into the new model), but the first comment I said was that the refreshed IS model technology was still miles behind and was a disappointment. I told them that I no longer use the SatNav in general as it is usually wrong and simply Google & Apple Maps is just so much faster and more accurate.

I don't hold hope for the next generation IS (prob 2020/21) in this space, but I'm crossing my fingers I could be wrong.

I personally haven't used Enform for well over 3 years.