NJRonbo

Okay, so this occurred to me....

We all know SiriusXM is satellite radio and that signal is pulled from the satellite into your car. Your phone data is not taxed unless you are using the app on your phone.

Up until now, if you played Amazon or Apple Music through your Infotainment system, it was through an app and your cellphone data was taxed. And when I say taxed, it simply means you streamed from your allotted data available through your cellphone provider.

How does the integrated Apple and Amazon Music work with the 2022 NX Infotainment system?

The idea is, you can get into your car, leaving your phone at home, and still be able to stream either music service which is incorporated into the system.

But outside of satellite radio, streaming music services require phone data.

But where is the data being pulled from when you don't have your phone? I mean, Lexus isn't giving you unlimited data to stream those music services. Is it somehow connecting to your Verizon/AT&T/T-Mobile plan and pulling the necessary data from there? I don't see a subscription plan where you pay Lexus for unlimited streaming data.

Just curious how that all works

supergtu

I think your answer is at 16:08 of this video:
Seems they don't use phone data but a direct connection via the car's built in network.

Under the assumption that there is no such thing as free data, this probably only works while you are subscribed to Lexus' platform.

NJRonbo

supergtu,

Thank you for pointing this portion of the video out.

I knew that your Amazon and Apple Music accounts would be integrated into the system without the need for a phone.

It does *seem* that the streaming data is not coming from your phone but through Lexus. If that's the case, this is pretty incredible given the fact that streaming music for hours during a long drive, can eat into your personal phone data.

You are correct that none of this can come without a cost. There are no asterisks to what is being described. New car owners get 3 years of just about every connectivity service. However, I am unsure if there is an actual data service (outside of WiFi hotspot) that you would pay for this unlimited streaming. And, if there is, would Lexus actually give it to you for free initially and not mention it in the demo videos?

Still some uncertainty here as to who is paying for the streaming data being used.

Thanks again!

erigion

From the PDF brochure on the Lexus website:

No details about trial length or subscription costs afterwards. I don't particularly care since I'm subscribed to YTM so I would've always needed to connect my phone.

NJRonbo

Okay, didn't see that.

That answers that. You need a subscription to stream Apple or Amazon Music without a phone. Figures. You don't get anything like that for free.

I'm much better off just using my phone's data.

BTW, what is YTM?

erigion

YouTube Music. It's Google's version of Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music.

I also find it a little funny that Google helped Lexus with their infotainment system and couldn't get their music service to be integrated.

NJRonbo

That is odd. You would think it would be included with Google's contributions to the system build.

erigion

Who knows what deals are needed for things like this to get done. It's not about subscriber numbers since YTM has about the same as Amazon Music and both of those services are 20 million behind Apple but all three are 100m behind Spotify. Granted those are all worldwide numbers, but you'd think the most popular service in the world would be included but whatever.