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So today i went out to some local shops that do head unit installations. I found that there are a couple of chinese head units (one of tesla style and the other with a 10.1 inch display) that are floating around. They said they could install the 10.1" one for about 400$ and also showed me videos of their past installations on LX470 showcasing the climate control functionality. They guaranteed that it will work and i will only have to pay after fully testing out the system. I'm a bit skeptical because these units are not from a brand. I was very keen on the Teyes, and im still talking to technicians to see if they can help me. No luck so far , if i dont find anyone who can help me with the teyes , ill probably opt for the one that i mentioned earlier ( the unbranded chinese one) and i will update on this thread how that goes... If only Lexus did this in a better way
not recommended
1) the stability of Android system from these Chinese brands is questionable. They are universal android platform with some modification for different car model. They will not be fully tested for each model. The vendor just sells the devices to other resellers with no brands on them, not directly to final customers. The resellers will put their own brand on the devices. If they messed up something they can just change another brand to sell them, 0 liability on them. I can guarantee you that 6 months later you won't find the brand anymore. And there will be no update on software part. Personally, I would not allow this kind of electronics equipment to connect to vehicle ECU. If the device messed up any computer inside vehicle you may need to spend thousands to fix.
2) your power antenna may not work the same as factory HU for any aftermarket HU for LC100
3) Tesla style large screen is really not the same style with the LC100 platform interior. The whole dash will look like Frankenstein combining with difference age marker with this screen. Also, the interface artwork from these Chinese HU is really bad (although the factory one is not good neither). Your vehicle resell value will be reduced if you still want to sell the car in the future. And there is almost no possibility you can recover back to factory status by yourself after you "upgrade" to this tesla style HU.
For LC100 with nav aftermarket radio HU upgrade there is 3 levels you can consider:
1) use bluetooth adapter and connect your smartphone with bluetooth only. I had this setup right now and it is not bad since this setup didn't change any factory setup. Functionality part you can do everything else on your smart phone or ipad. This setup is very stable and requires minimal work/money/time.
2) do nav delete on LC100 and then install some good brand aftermarket HU such as kenwood/pioneer etc. the adapter used in the installation is well tested and the AC control is not directly connected to HU thus no worry it can mess up vehicle computer. This setup requires a lot of works/money and for LX470 it may not work since a lot of parts are NLA.
3) if you still want to buy android tesla style HU, buy it from US based companies rather than some unknown chinese companies from
ebay/
alibaba. Although they will import the same HU from China but at least they will require some quality control and (possible) future firmware update.
