Toyota - Highlander :: 2015 Poor Navigation System And Voice Commands

We just purchased a 2015 Highlander to replace our 2005 Highlander that was totaled. We used to use a Garmin with the 2005 Highlander. When we purchased the 2005 the moon roof was an option. Now, it only comes with the XLE or above. The only features of the XLE we were interested in were the Navigation system and the moon roof. Otherwise, we would have been happy with a simple LE with no options.

This weekend we took our first road trip with the 2015. While the navigation system itself seems to be ok (it didn't send us the wrong way or anything), the design of the user interface really is horrible (at least when compared to the Garmin).

My wife was driving so I thought I would take our old Garmin and program in a few addresses into the new 2015 navigation system. I couldn't figure out how so I called up the dealership and found out that we can't do so while the vehicle is driving. In fact, I don't think you can do it while its in park either. We were told that the voice recognition system could be used to enter a destination (but not other addresses for future use).

Well, the voice recognition system was something we weren't very excited about when we first tried to use it to make calls a couple of days earlier. Nonetheless, we tried. It literally took us 30 minutes for the system to recognize the address: 1 Grand Avenue, San Luis Obispo, California.

While the instruction indicate that you should say the entire address as above, the system was unable to figure it out. (We don't have any accents and we had trained the system earlier in the week.) The system had all sorts of problems. Finally, we got the system to understand the destination by first stating the city and state, and then stating the street and street number. I don't understand why the directions would not tell you to do that to begin with. I can see that the voice recognition system is going to take a lot of getting used to.

But, my biggest complaint is that the navigation system will not allow you to enter new addresses unless the car is in accessory mode (the engine is turned off). My wife was driving and so I could have easily done so without any safety issues. In addition, when we were trying to find a restaurant at our destination, it would only list about 7 or so restaurants. It stated that additional restaurants could be seen only when the car was no longer moving. That is simply ridiculous. So, apparently, we are now required to stop the car and turn the engine off before we can determine where we want to eat at a place we may have never been to before!!!!

The problem is that there are a ton of touch-screen options that you can still do with the navigation system and Entune while the car is moving that are just as distracting or more. So, the designers have not in any way made the car safer to drive. Only more annoying. Moreover, the car already has a sensor that knows when there is a passenger. So, it should allow full access if it notices a person in the passenger seat (at a minimum).

The cost difference between the LE and XLE was $5k. There is no way I would have purchased the XLE had I know how clumsy the user interface to the navigation system is. The voice recognition system sucks and does not in anyway improve the safety of the passengers. It just increases their frustration level with the system.

My recommendation is that if the navigation system is the reason for you to consider the XLE, don't!!! Get the LE and buy a Garmin for less than $200, which is much easier to operate, has more customization options, and does not prevent you from doing things have no relationship with safety when a passenger is onboard.

Oh... also, the navigation system will only accommodate 100 addresses. In this day and age when you can get a tiny 64GB secure digital hard drive, such a limitation makes no sense. The Garmin also let me change the navigation voice to a male Australian accent that my wife (the primary driver of the car) like more. No such luck with the Toyota navigation system (at least that I could find).

There are actually a whole bunch of other little things about the navigation system and Entune that I can harp about, but those are my biggest complaints. Another one is that once I entered some addresses, I found that it would only sort by name or date. Date??? Why would I want to sort by Date? What about distance from current location??? Wouldn't that be more relevant? But that is not an option.

Otherwise, the 2015 Highlander itself is very nice.