New NX and two questions: Fuse box cover? and "Find my Car"

[Alzibiff]

I found what is shown in the photograph, in my glove box when I got home from picking up my brand new car - any idea what it is? The photograph shows what appears to be a fuse box cover taken from both sides but my dealer says it is a box for holding fuses .... I don't believe them as it is clearly not a box! I had a dash cam fitted before I collected the car and am wondering whether the technicican failed to put this cover back. Thing is, I don't have a clue where it may have come from. 

Second question ... how is the "Find my car" feature on the Lexus Link app supposed to work? I told the app of my car's location to start with but I was expecting (a) for it to know already and (b) to show me automatically where the car happens to be whenever it goes out.

All a bit stumped at the moment 😞

Thank you

Alan

[Herbie]

No idea about 'Find my car' but that's definitely the fusebox lid.

I'd hazard a guess that they installed your dash cam using a piggy-back fuse tap and now it's too big for the lid to go back on. You could cut a notch into the lid to allow it to go back on or some people just leave them off and in the glove box.

The fusebox itself will either be up behind the glove box or up inside the driver's footwell. Sometimes they are quite a way up and you have to get on your back to look up towards the dash rather than kneeling outside the car and looking towards the engine bay.

[Steve Oliver]

3 hours ago, Alzibiff said:

I found what is shown in the photograph, in my glove box when I got home from picking up my brand new car - any idea what it is? The photograph shows what appears to be a fuse box cover taken from both sides but my dealer says it is a box for holding fuses .... I don't believe them as it is clearly not a box! I had a dash cam fitted before I collected the car and am wondering whether the technicican failed to put this cover back. Thing is, I don't have a clue where it may have come from. 

Second question ... how is the "Find my car" feature on the Lexus Link app supposed to work? I told the app of my car's location to start with but I was expecting (a) for it to know already and (b) to show me automatically where the car happens to be whenever it goes out.

All a bit stumped at the moment 😞

Thank you

Alan

Hi Alan - you and me both! It seems the "Find My Car" function isn't actually intelligent at all. It relies on you telling the app where "you left it" and then if need be, you can ask the app to direct you back to it. Such a shame, other countries get a myriad of clever services in their connected apps - like starting the engine, warming up the cabin, closing the windows, locating your car, checking tyre pressures, etc etc - and we get...... er, nowt. 😞

Cheers

Steve

[Tel]

My Fuse Cover is filed with my Lexus Documents as Technicians do not cut the cover to facilitate the Piggy-Back Fuse.

My Iphone shows me where my car is parked & the directions to return to it.

Tel

[Herbie]

17 hours ago, Steve Oliver said:

It seems the "Find My Car" function isn't actually intelligent at all. It relies on you telling the app where "you left it" and then if need be, you can ask the app to direct you back to it

I use the 'What 3 Words' app on my phone for that very purpose if I'm somewhere new. They've divided the whole world into 3 metre x 3 metre squares and given each square its own 3-word reference, such as 'Bottle.Guitar.Food' or 'Bird.Garage.Ladder'. It's so accurate that the front door of your house has a different 3-word reference to the back door.

If I'm somewhere new, as I step out onto the street from the car park I open the app and get the 3-word reference for that exact position and then it's a trivial matter to get back there later.

[royoftherovers]

9 minutes ago, Herbie said:

I use the 'What 3 Words' app on my phone for that very purpose if I'm somewhere new. They've divided the whole world into 3 metre x 3 metre squares and given each square its own 3-word reference, such as 'Bottle.Guitar.Food' or 'Bird.Garage.Ladder'. It's so accurate that the front door of your house has a different 3-word reference to the back door.

If I'm somewhere new, as I step out onto the street from the car park I open the app and get the 3-word reference for that exact position and then it's a trivial matter to get back there later.

I still have my Nokia 6300......what`s an app ?

[Herbie]

1 hour ago, royoftherovers said:

I still have my Nokia 6300......what`s an app ?

Nothing that you need to worry about with that phone John 

[spacenase]

12 hours ago, Tel said:

My Fuse Cover is filed with my Lexus Documents as Technicians do not cut the cover to facilitate the Piggy-Back Fuse.

My iPhone shows me where my car is parked & the directions to return to it.

Tel

Same here after the dealer fitted my dashcam.

 

[Herbie]

15 hours ago, Tel said:

My Fuse Cover is filed with my Lexus Documents

Presumably at home?

Not sure about the wisdom of that if you need to know which fuse to replace when you're miles away from the house.

[Tel]

Fair point but I will rely on the AA to resolve should the above happen.

Tel

[Alzibiff]

On 9/11/2019 at 6:22 AM, Tel said:

Fair point but I will rely on the AA to resolve should the above happen.

Tel

I'm with you there Tel - not managed to see the fuse box which this cover actually came off yet and to be honest, if it is that difficult to see, there is no way that I am crawling about trying to replace any blown fuses in there!.

The 'What 3 Words' app mentioned by Herbie sounds very interesting and something I will look into but I suspect I will use my Iphone in the majority of cases like Tel.

Must say, I was VERY surprised about the lack of connectivity with this car given its place in the market. We also have a Nissan Leaf in the family which knows where it is and can tell us, allows us to remotely sound the horn and switch on the lights as well as a host of other features. It seems a shame that I have to use a third party phone app to locate the car when it is parked in an unfamiliar area and am now looking to buy and fit a separate WiFi dongle to plug into the LEXUS so that the SatNav can determine traffic conditions and warn me of safety cameras without me having to have my phone set up to provide a "Personal Hotspot" every time we go out. (Please let me know if I have that wrong and I have failed to understand how the SatNav works).

On the fuse box cover matter - consensus of opinion, (apart from the sales executive who I bought the car from) agrees with me. Thank you.

[ColinBarber]

41 minutes ago, Alzibiff said:

now looking to buy and fit a separate WiFi dongle to plug into the LEXUS so that the SatNav can determine traffic conditions and warn me of safety cameras without me having to have my phone set up to provide a "Personal Hotspot" every time we go out

Why set up your phone every time you go out? You set it up once on your iPhone and the car automatically connects to it each time you turn it on.

[Alzibiff]

46 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

Why set up your phone every time you go out? You set it up once on your iPhone and the car automatically connects to it each time you turn it on.

On an Iphone, you must have the personal hotspot enabled for this to happen which has two consequences

(1) It drains the Battery rapidly if not connected to a power source

(2) The Iphone will not connect to a home network - or any other known WiFi network - whilst the Personal Hotspot is switched on and therefore consume data should you wish to surf the internet when sat in front of the telly (for example).

I haven't tried it in my new Lexus but don't think that a simple Bluetooth connection to the Iphone will allow the car's SatNav to use the internet. Thank you for the reply though Colin.

[cruisermark]

2 hours ago, Alzibiff said:

I'm with you there Tel - not managed to see the fuse box which this cover actually came off yet and to be honest, if it is that difficult to see, there is no way that I am crawling about trying to replace any blown fuses in there!.

The 'What 3 Words' app mentioned by Herbie sounds very interesting and something I will look into but I suspect I will use my iPhone in the majority of cases like Tel.

Must say, I was VERY surprised about the lack of connectivity with this car given its place in the market. We also have a Nissan Leaf in the family which knows where it is and can tell us, allows us to remotely sound the horn and switch on the lights as well as a host of other features. It seems a shame that I have to use a third party phone app to locate the car when it is parked in an unfamiliar area and am now looking to buy and fit a separate WiFi dongle to plug into the LEXUS so that the SatNav can determine traffic conditions and warn me of safety cameras without me having to have my phone set up to provide a "Personal Hotspot" every time we go out. (Please let me know if I have that wrong and I have failed to understand how the SatNav works).

On the fuse box cover matter - consensus of opinion, (apart from the sales executive who I bought the car from) agrees with me. Thank you.

I think that cover belongs to one of the footwells (a) because it looks similar in appearance to the one on my 430 and (b) another member recently posted using the footwell fuse box when fitting their dashcam - I would have a good look in both footwells.

[HarryM]

I think the find my car stuff is very interesting at the moment, MB are in trouble as they have been tracking there cars and people have said its against GPDR so I guess having the position of every Lexus at all times of the day and night on a server somwhere could be deemed a bit intrusive. 

[ColinBarber]

On 9/12/2019 at 10:54 AM, Alzibiff said:

On an iPhone, you must have the personal hotspot enabled for this to happen which has two consequences

(1) It drains the battery rapidly if not connected to a power source

(2) The iPhone will not connect to a home network - or any other known WiFi network - whilst the Personal Hotspot is switched on and therefore consume data should you wish to surf the internet when sat in front of the telly (for example).

I haven't tried it in my new Lexus but don't think that a simple bluetooth connection to the iPhone will allow the car's SatNav to use the internet. Thank you for the reply though Colin.

Use Bluetooth for personal hotspot, that way it doesn't cause any noticeable impact to the Battery when devices aren't actively connected to it and you can use WiFi in the normal way.

[Steve Oliver]

6 hours ago, ColinBarber said:

Use bluetooth for personal hotspot, that way it doesn't cause any noticeable impact to the battery when devices aren't actively connected to it and you can use WiFi in the normal way.

Yes, but as established, the Bluetooth connection doesn't provide all the services you may need, eg. Street View and Petrol prices...

[ColinBarber]

10 hours ago, Steve Oliver said:

Yes, but as established, the Bluetooth connection doesn't provide all the services you may need, eg. Street View and Petrol prices...

Unless there is something weird about the NX Nav, BT provides all services - it just provides Internet access the same as wifi. Live traffic updates, Street View and other apps via BT worked on my old IS, it works on my current GS and it works on my wife's Prius. Connected services is flakey at best so maybe it was coincidence that is wasn't working when you tried BT?

If you have an Iphone, or any other type of smartphone, I cannot understand why you would want to use the slow, poorly navigated implementation of Street View on the Lexus Nav system - so much easier and faster directly on a phone.

[Steve Oliver]

On 9/14/2019 at 9:54 AM, ColinBarber said:

Unless there is something weird about the NX Nav, BT provides all services - it just provides Internet access the same as wifi. Live traffic updates, Street View and other apps via BT worked on my old IS, it works on my current GS and it works on my wife's Prius. Connected services is flakey at best so maybe it was coincidence that is wasn't working when you tried BT?

If you have an iPhone, or any other type of smartphone, I cannot understand why you would want to use the slow, poorly navigated implementation of Street View on the Lexus Nav system - so much easier and faster directly on a phone.

Have to say that that wasn't my experience when I tried it - I have got wifi working now, but I will switch back and check. As for your latter question, it's not really the Street View, more petrol prices etc. I used the SV as an example.