In car Internet

[Lesfac]

I am aware that my RX450h Sport has internet connectivity but I don't have an understanding of it.

I have seen that I can locate my car on a phone app and I have seen that it is possible to pay for connectivity using Miracast but I don't intend paying for that when I have unlimited data on my phone.

I have taken the step of connecting the car to my phone's hot spot but now what can it be used for?

I have asked the car to show me the weather but it says Username or password is not correct. Try again.

I don't understand what username or password it is referring to, or where to find them to correct them.

In general what could this internet connectivity be used for?

I hope some one can educate me a bit.

[NemesisUK]

Have you downloaded the Lexus link app and created an account?

Perhaps you have done this on the Lexus portal? Have a read of the info in this link

https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/about-my-lexus

Then if you haven't already downloaded a copy of the mutimedia handbook do so from the website

https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/about-my-lexus/manuals

 

[Herbie]

28 minutes ago, Lesfac said:

I am aware that my RX450h Sport has internet connectivity but I don't have an understanding of it.

I have seen that I can locate my car on a phone app and I have seen that it is possible to pay for connectivity using Miracast but I don't intend paying for that when I have unlimited data on my phone.

I have taken the step of connecting the car to my phone's hot spot but now what can it be used for?

I have asked the car to show me the weather but it says Username or password is not correct. Try again.

I don't understand what username or password it is referring to, or where to find them to correct them.

In general what could this internet connectivity be used for?

I hope some one can educate me a bit.

You have a 2022 car so you should have (or be able to get) Android Auto or apple CarPlay on the infotainment system. These are amazing apps and allow you to do all sorts of things, including watching Netflix, YouTube or even live television on the car's screen.*

However, their main use for most people is to be able to use other mapping and navigational systems rather than the OEM offering. The mapping, navigation and in fact, the whole infotainment system has long been the Achilles' Heel of Lexus and it's all rather poor, so using Android Auto or apple CarPlay allows you to use Google Maps, Waze (my own personal favourite), Sygic or other maps, even in conjunction with What3Words if you wanted to. Lexus map updates are both infrequent and expensive, whereas these other apps are updated regularly and free of charge.

There are too many benefits of using Android Auto/Apple CarPlay to list here, so https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+use+android+auto+in+car will give you a good understanding of how it works and what you can do with it.

I use my phone as a portable hotspot to tether it to AA/ACP and give the system Internet access.

*These three examples will only run when the car is parked up, so as not to distract the driver.

[PDM]

2 hours ago, Lesfac said:

I am aware that my RX450h Sport has internet connectivity but I don't have an understanding of it.

I have seen that I can locate my car on a phone app and I have seen that it is possible to pay for connectivity using Miracast but I don't intend paying for that when I have unlimited data on my phone.

I have taken the step of connecting the car to my phone's hot spot but now what can it be used for?

I have asked the car to show me the weather but it says Username or password is not correct. Try again.

I don't understand what username or password it is referring to, or where to find them to correct them.

In general what could this internet connectivity be used for?

I hope some one can educate me a bit.

Hi Les,

As you will see there is a lot of support in general from people (Herbie included!) for using Android Auto.  I think it's ok (if it would let me join conference calls (voice only) from the car seamlessly from Microsoft Teams or Zoom, I would use it a lot more, but it doesn't... perhaps it will at some point).  It does have a lot of features and allows you to use various different mapping software (e.g. Google maps etc).  Some people swear by it.

As for the in car internet connection and what it can do for you:

1. Lexus built in maps in MM19 (as you have in the 22RX) is pretty good I think (others may disagree - routing is ok, and if connected to the internet the internet traffic information is very good - it highlights the busy roads with colour coding.  I use this a lot in central London and accuracy is pretty good.  (Of course, Google maps on android auto also does this)

2. Speed camera notifications are downloaded and updated using the internet.  Whilst the actual map data itself is loaded either as over the air, or on usb, but this is a process you do every 6 months or so to keep current, if you have internet connection enabled, the speed camera data is constantly downloaded.  So I notice, for example, if a new temporary speed camera goes in because of road works, the system warns me of it if connected to the internet.

3. Weather info

4. Petrol price info

5. Ability to control vehicle settings from the internet (and not just in the car)

6. Pre-plan a route at home on your computer (or the phone app) and send it to the car.

1 and 2 are the main ones from my perspective.

So it seems you have managed to get an internet connection for the car working via your phone hotspot, but need to create an account and login to the Lexus portal.  This is the system that the car uses to download things like weather, petrol price, speed camera alerts etc.  you may see this referred to in the menus as "Lexus Online".

I am not as down on the Lexus infotainment as some others (what drives me mad are the bugs that they do not fix, but the basic system and capabilities do what I want.)

Paul

[Lesfac]

Thanks to everyone for the information supplied.

Am I right in thinking Android Auto does not need the car to have internet connectivity because it uses the phone's internet and the phone is plugged into the system with a cable? If this is correct then it may have been confusing me when trying to understand what car internet connectivity brings to the party.

I did realise that the car could get it's internet by by using a phone's hot spot WiFi provision.

Thanks Paul for listing the features that the car built in system uses the internet for. (Fuel, weather, live traffic info etc)

[PDM]

57 minutes ago, Lesfac said:

Thanks to everyone for the information supplied.

Am I right in thinking Android Auto does not need the car to have internet connectivity because it uses the phone's internet and the phone is plugged into the system with a cable? If this is correct then it may have been confusing me when trying to understand what car internet connectivity brings to the party.

I did realise that the car could get it's internet by by using a phone's hot spot WiFi provision.

Thanks Paul for listing the features that the car built in system uses the internet for. (Fuel, weather, live traffic info etc)

Les, yes - you are right. AA runs on the phone (it just pipes the display to the car screen) and hence just uses your mobile data connection on the phone itself. This will not give the car an internet connection by itself - in this mode the car is simply being used as a display of what the phone is outputting over AA.

The car can connect to the internet via any wireless hotspot. This can be the car built in one that sits under the floor in the boot (right side in 4th gen RX), or your phone hotspot, or even your house WiFi if you only wanted to get download destinations before a journey when the car is on your driveway.

I hope you are learning to like the car.  There are quirks but you can mostly make the system do what you want it to do (once you know the right approach). It is more logical than you may initially think.

How are you getting on with the seats?

Cheers,

Paul

[Herbie]

One other thing to point out is that the car's own wifi modem (the one that sits under the floor of the boot as Paul said) is SIM-locked to just one provider, which is, I believe, Orange and it's quite expensive (high price for low monthly data allowance).

Nine times out of ten, using your phone as a wifi hotspot and using your monthly mobile data allowance from your network provider is both cheaper and more reliable (better coverage) than using the OEM system.

I'm on Sky Mobile and they let you carry over any unused data allowance from one month to the next and there's no limit on how many times you can roll it over. I've got just over 100GB in my mobile data piggybank at the moment because I've not been using the car as much recently due to a health issue, but it shouldn't be long before I'll be giving Android Auto a good workout

[Lesfac]

9 hours ago, PDM said:

Les, yes - you are right. AA runs on the phone (it just pipes the display to the car screen) and hence just uses your mobile data connection on the phone itself. This will not give the car an internet connection by itself - in this mode the car is simply being used as a display of what the phone is outputting over AA.

The car can connect to the internet via any wireless hotspot. This can be the car built in one that sits under the floor in the boot (right side in 4th gen RX), or your phone hotspot, or even your house WiFi if you only wanted to get download destinations before a journey when the car is on your driveway.

I hope you are learning to like the car.  There are quirks but you can mostly make the system do what you want it to do (once you know the right approach). It is more logical than you may initially think.

How are you getting on with the seats?

Cheers,

Paul

I am warming to the car. It certainly drives like a dream and I am getting past the disappointments of what the infotainment does badly. I suppose I am learning not to expect it.

The bum ache from the seats is not quite so bad so I'm hoping it will eventually go away.

Because the car has such a quality reputation I never expected to have to overlook the issues I have moaned about.

However the way it drives and the build quality is the ace up it's sleeve.

I have a SIM only unlimited data deal on my phone with Tesco (O2) for £17.50 a month. I hope I'll get a similar deal when the contract runs out.

Thanks Paul and Herbie for the advice.

[Lesfac]

I have finally got the internet connectivity in the car.

For others who want to do the same thing I recommended this YouTube video. I found some things not in the same places as on this video but they were to be found on my screen