I like the Lexus Nav in my GS. I put the address in my phone ahead of time though since I know where I want to go. Guess I am an old dude who likes to detail his cars.

 

Thanks for all the responses to my question. I still find it odd that my wife's Sienna will mute the speakers when the nav "speaks" making it plenty easy to hear, and her Sienna is a year older than my GS. BTW, I find entering the addresses in the GS nav very easy using voice commands.

 

In truth, Siri has been much better at recognizing my voice commands today than say, a couple of years ago... maybe it’s time I tried it again with the GS’s Nav... maybe it’s learning algorithm has improved... or maybe my American accent has...

 

I did "voice training" with the Lexus technology specialist and everything I have "asked" the car to do, it did it. From the HVAC, to radio, navigation, etc. I was actually amazed it worked so well. My wife's Sienna? Not so much.

 

Lexus App Suite (not LAS 2.0) can be used both before driving as mentioned and also while driving.

If you press the steering wheel Talk/Speech button while the Navigation map is displayed
you are addressing the Lexus native Navigation. Voice Recognition Training helps here on newer models.

If you open Lexus App Suite and then Destination Search (not the paid subscription Destination Assist)
you will be able to find an address with your own phone: better Voice Recognition, more up to date, already paid for...
Press the Talk/Speech button when the LAS (blue) screen is shown and speak plain English. (2014's use the mic icon upper right)
When the destination(s) come up just tap Go To (Enter on some models) and your Point B drops into the Lexus native map.
"Go To" if going now, "Mark" if going later. Mark also embeds Name/phone info for the destination.

 

This sounds awesome. I am going to give a try next time. Thanks for the info!

 

Maybe it's just me, but who wants to remember specific "keywords" just to use Lexus Nav!? I have 3 cars each with different specific keywords just to start navigation, that's dumb! I like the natural speech engine of Google Maps/Waze. Just speak to it like any normal person and it's smart enough to recognize your commands. I guess if you only have 1 car and you live under a rock and never used Google Maps, like ever, then yeah Lexus Navigation is pretty "smart".

Automakers needs to just get rid of their dumb infotainment. Let Google or Apple handle all of it. It's light years ahead of any OEM systems, with exception maybe Audi MMI. It's just a money grab to charge extra for "Navigation system". All garbage IMO.

 

The latest gen Lexus infotainment supports apple carplay. Basically every automaker supports carplay or android auto. Stock navigation is very outdated and not up to date and traffic can be very inaccurate. Nothing beats google maps or waze.

 

OK, maybe it's just me, but I like the stuff in my car to work. I don't want a phone stuck on the dash some place with an ugly bracket or what ever. I understand that Google maps is very good and I never tried Waze.

 

With the Carlinkit, my iphone connects wirelessly to the car and Carplay loads on the factory 12.3" display, full screen. The entire time my phone is in my pocket nothing on the dash. I just long press the Menu button to switch between the stock navigation and the carplay.

 

Don't use iPhones any more as I am anti-Apple. I'll have to do some research into the kit you mentioned, but if it involves tearing the dash apart, I'm not doing it. I spent over 20 years in the car audio business and I am done with it.

 

Any aftermarket systems will require you to remove the radio & LCD screen to access wire harness. But it's not as bad as you think. If you already have 20 years experience, I bet you can do it in 20 minutes flat. I'm a complete novice and was able to install GROM VL2 in 90 minutes. No issues at all removing the radio, LCD screen, glovebox and various panels. I had to get help from another CL member on how to remove some of the panels, but once I figure that out it was straight forward. No damage to any removed parts or any rattling once I put everything back. Lexus designed the panels very solidly, don't be afraid to remove them.

 

Here is a link to the thread I started on the carlinkit:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...l#post10736436

You just have to remove the headunit/radio and the 12.3" display. Just 3 plugs that you daisy chain with the carlinkit harness two on the back of the radio and one on the back of the 12.3" display. Then just one antenna that connects to the carlinkit box.

The Carlinkit was designed for Carplay and android auto was an afterthought. The android auto is a stretched image and the carplay is higher resolution, no stretch, and loads up automatically when you turn the car on. The android auto you have to select your phone.

I too was a never apple guy until I tested carplay and was blown away how much better it was then android auto on the Carlinkit. I bought a iPhone XS and it's way better than my Galaxy S8, I converted.

Android auto with Carlinkit:



Carplay on Carlinkit:




I also hooked up a aftermarket backup camera to the Carlinkit for full screen backup cam:

 

Is there a way on Nav to keep the same city logged instead of having to type it each time?

 

Peasodos, why the Lexus app on your screen. What does that do? And I hate to sound like a broken record, but does the Grom unit work on the 2013 without problems on the rear view camera? I know it will not go full screen. Thanks.