Nalod

IS this exclusive to Lexus or does other brands/models face obsolesence in this range as well?
So does adding a black box mod a fix? What is the cost and who makes it?
This is the way of progress im afraid.
Wife has a spare 2009 Mercedes SLK toy she likes to drive and the old ipod jack just does not cut it anymore. I needed to add a bluetooth to maintain current access to audio. the car does have phone blutooth but not for the entertainment.

JDR76

Thankfully none of my cars are impacted. The 3G issue goes through 2017 on the GS (mine is a 2019) and 2018 on the Highlander (mine is a 2019). Tacoma also seems to be not impacted. Phew. I would be very irritated by this.

websurfer

Interesting that Toyota didn't plan ahead for this. I guess we'll find out. I wonder if 2020 model vehicles are affected or not?

JDR76

According to both the Lexus and Toyota pages, no 2020s are impacted.

LexusGSboy

So one would think that the module could be replaced? Maybe this is a mod someone needs to try I can't imagine that the module requires a lot more power or anything but I'm definitely at the edge of my technical knowledge of these things.

My guess is that it would impact any brand/model that uses the 3G network. From what I could tell it looks like Verizon shut down their 3G a few years ago. The 2022 date seems to be the shutdown of AT&Ts 3G network although I don't know that 100% - I'm reading between the lines of some of AT&Ts announcements. I didn't look up what T-Mobile or Sprint have done. The car manufacturers likely buy wholesale time on a carrier or carriers networks - just like Virgin Mobile, or other "store brand" cell phone plans do. I'm sure there are lots of contracts and legal stuff about how long the service will be maintained, etc... but ultimately the cellular provider will want that part of the spectrum back so they can utilize it for supporting more devices on the current generation of the cell network or for rolling out as part of the next generation of the network. Not all parts of the spectrum are created equal - some are better for certain things - some may be better at distance, some may be better at going through structures. I've always heard that one reason AT&T's network didn't penetrate into buildings as well was because of the part of the spectrum they owned. Each carrier only has so much spectrum they can use; they generally acquired it through auction from the FCC, by buying another carrier, or buy purchasing that spectrum from another owner.

I don't know what carrier others car manufacturers use - one thing I found quickly was that OnStar in the UK would would be ending in December 2020. I suspect with 5G quickly working its way into deployment there are a lot of cars that will loose service - 3G came out in mid-2001 - that's a long time in the tech industry. 4G was 2009/2010 depending on the country.

jkeller

^^^^^^

" I've always heard that one reason AT&T's network didn't penetrate into buildings as well was because of the part of the spectrum they owned"......that was T-Mobile not AT&T. T-mobile solved that issue with 600MHz band 71 that came online in 2018. If you're on T-Mobile with an older phone, iPhone X and older for Apple users, you will still have that issue, as those phones didn't have band 71. And it can't be added since its not a frequency in the phone's modem chip. If I remember correctly band 71 is only used in the US, and nowhere else in the world.

01raja

newer models have newer built in phones. A new unit would have to be swapped out to keep Enform (Safety Connect).
who wants to pay for every old phone in the roof to be swapped out. Per this thread many owners didn’t activate Safety Connect for the $8/month$80/yr.
all cars All makes with SOS/Collision notifications are affected by 5G rollout.
will double check on key fob start.

suthernguy

lexus should be ashamed of their arrogance to the customer they continued to use very old technology ,3g, in new cars i have a 2017 RX . 4 g was in the US 7 year earlier. They did not keep up with technology. I use the enform servies almost every day. I cant express how pissed i am. I am planning on replacing one if my cars and it was going to be a lexus, as it stands now i dont think i will buy a lexus.

pd7702

This is why I don't care much for in car infotainment systems. They'll always be out of date in a few years with how fast technology develops. Oddly enough, the ancient double din standard configuration is the most future proof setup you can have in a car. Though luxury car manufacturers wouldn't be caught dead installing them into cars these days.

BTW, never forget the undying versatility of the aux jack: Used this one for a long time in my old car and it sounded great.

marjenmill

This is very disappointing. It's bad enough that most if us have to pay for this service, but then to have no remedy when they knew this was coming? At a minimum, I hope they enable the key fob functions for all vehicles.

MX73

Sorry need to chime in. It's just not Lexus. There are other manufacturers that this affects as well.

No one can predict technology advancements. Auto manufacturers just build cars. They don't predict technology advancements. Chipmakers are probably already developing 5GLTE/6G/7G technology right now for rollout in the next 5-10 years. Most of the vehicle's onboard technology are frozen before or during vehicle development. This is normally years before the actual vehicle production. Then the technology is tweaked during the vehicle's production life. Here is a good example. The iPhone 12, which is not launched yet, is advance on paper but by the time it comes out, it's already dated technology. You know why? Apple has already developed or testing their next-gen A15 and A16 chips.

jkeller

From what I've read on Macrumors.com, iPhone's design/components are locked in Nov/Dec for a release the following Sep. So 2021's iPhone models are very close to being locked right now.

MX73

Exactly. We are all paying for out-of-date tech. Doesn't matter if its cell signal, nav, etc. All system locks do not account for future techs that are coming or going out. Just food for thought when you go out to purchase something you thing is new technology but is already out of date by a generation.

To be honest, I'm not surprised by service connect that runs off the CDMA 3G technology. It happened before with the Lexus Link. That was an analog service that I think at the time, Verizon was cutting off. It left a lot of owners without Lexus Link. But Lexus provided a refit kit.

websurfer

Macrumors aren't always right.

Lexuss07

The person to contact and is responsible for this discontinuation of this 3G service is Shaun Yzquierdo at Lexus Corporate in Plano TX. He is responsible for these connected technologies, and he would best be able to help you.