Hello,
I know there are other posts regarding this, this is just about my install of the latest Tesla style Android 16" vertical infotainment system from Phoenix (which replaced the 12.1" they offered - they still have not updated the web page yet, and I bought the 12.1" and they sent me the 16" replacement). I bought this because I wanted better music media options - USB, streaming etc. I am an engineer and like testing out and playing with new tech, so it was worth the risk for me.
12.1" Android Navigation Radio for Toyota Tundra 2014 - 2018
Let me set the correct expectations for everyone, if you are looking for this to act and work just like a it does in a Tesla or a factory setup, it does not and will not be that smooth and responsive - they are just not there yet. However it is improving very quickly, just over the last 6 months they have made great progress and improvements. The latest hardware is really good, they got rid of the moving around of old buttons to face plate of the new one, and the fit and finish is very good as well is the shipping (my experience, not issue whats so over, and that was being shipped by USPS, so that is saying something).
I will break this into a few categories for you:
1st is the replacement of factory controls and what works and does not work.
WORKS
all the climate controls work - front and back
the steering wheel controls work
the backup camera works - for early models it adds the lines so improvement, for the later models I see the options to support the 360 camera, so I am assuming that does work as well
the vehicle icon showing doors open works
the radar option on the older models works with the center dash display as it always has, the newer models it works on the screen as it does on the factory units
Factory preferences - I believe this still works as it did on later models, my 2008 did not have any so I can see them but not change them (still need to use my canbus tool for that).
Can Bus - this unit does hook into the can bus (via factory harness - no need to plug into the ODBII port) and has all the information the original unit got form the bus.
The latest model replaces that small digital display at the very top that showed climate temp, outside temp and the airbag status. That was incorporated into the main screen and a few hard lights on the right side. However I don't see the external temp anymore, and I don't believe there was a connector for the external temp sensor (although in the settings there is one for temp display) so it could be newer models posted on the bus and older model was hard wire not sure but I no longer have ext. temp right now on my 2008.
NO LONGER WORKS
Back seat DVD player - I did not hook anything up for it, although have not physically checked it, will update later
Hard temp controls under front vents - they are still there and hooked up, however the climate temp controls now work from the main display only
No more factory Nav - not that it worked well to begin with (better options see 2nd category)
No more maintenance tracking - did anyone even use that?
No more external temp - see comment above
2nd is new stuff you get with this
Cool 16" screen. the vertical screen that Tesla introduced is great because it breaks the screen up into quadrants of information or applications. on this one you have a header section - select options hard coded in the software (however it is android so open platform for you to mess with if you know what you are doing) and it has a footer section, this is for your back and home button and also have the information and launching of climate controls. The middle is broken up into 2 equal areas for apps so you can have radio on one and something on the other one, nave so far takes both sections (I am sure I can adjust it, just have not played with it enough) the climate and door alerts are pop ups over whatever else you have in the sections. There are other launch skins and apps you can load Phoenix has a drop box with a bunch of tools and other apps you can get, and also this is android so you can load some of your favorite apps if you like (and the work on that version and build)
This is Android 7.1 btw
you get google maps. Now google works best when it has internet connectivity (get into that later in this post) but you also can download maps and use it in offline mode and early test show it does work but not as good. However finding places and getting routed to them works just fine in offline mode once you have downloaded the maps.
There are also a few other nav map options, I have not played with them yet.
you get a radio app that work just as your regular AM/FM radio does, it has presets and can scan and tune and does support RDL. It does not have XM radio or HD radio
you get a "music" app that will play music from a usb stick or other method of media, that works pretty good.
you get a blue tooth app that is used for your phone connectivity for getting and making calls as well as BT streaming music from your phone. This all works pretty well, head unit has its own mic built in and using the vehicle speakers for the sound of course. people I have called say it works and sound great (of course not quite as good as my telsa) but as good as land cruiser factory BT phone stuff. Has phone book and recent calls, however no voice dialing (yet) still working on the voice activited controls with another android app
It does not have Apple play or Android Auto, it does have a generic version of these but it really does not work as smooth or seamless as those apps work.
you get a few apps to play video, but I don't do much of that so I have not played with it yet. I can tell you that it does conform to the parking brake on to play video.
Let's talk about connectivity, one of the very cool things on a Tesla is that it has its own 4G connection (as part of the car, no additional cost to the owner) so the maps have traffic, and you have streaming music, and you have internet augmented voice commands, etc. Again this is a Tesla style, so it can do all of those things, however not nearly as well if you don't have internet connectivity. you have several choices for the connectivity:
1. if you have a great data plan on your phone you can turn on mobile hot spot and let the unit connect via wifi to you phone and get connectivity that way.
2. you can purchase a 4G dongle and plug it into one of the USB ports and get connectivity that way.
3. Stay unconnected and connect via wifi when at home or you have a know place to get coverage, download what you need for maps and to update the units OS and firmware as needed and use it as an unconnected device.
I have been playing with options 1 and 3 (spoiler 1 is a better option than 3) I am going to look into what the monthly is on the dongle verses changing my data plan on my phone - more to follow later on that.
Install
The install is pretty easy, as long as you are good at figuring things out without instructions, if you are one of those that need a thick manual and must study if for hours and then do the job, this is not for you. You will get zero instruction manuals with this unit. However they do have a good knowledge base and support site. It is for the must part plug and play, once you figure out wich hardness to use (they included 3 different ones for me, I imagine it was for the different years) and how to hook up the can bus decoder, video decoder and other "box" that is included. Absolutely no dash modification is required. the fit and finish is very good on this latest unit. only thing that is left up to you is where do you want to route the USB ports (you get 2 of them)
Interface
There are so many different screens it is hard to show pics of all of them, and you can customize and add all the apps you want so this is the area that you really need to look what is out there and what you ultimately want to use, lots of videos about this on youtube, most of them are around the tundra unit, but that basically the same as what you can do on the cruiser unit.
If you have the time and money and want to play around with something different and hopefully better than what you currently have. And you are ok with new and "bleeding" edge tech then this could be a good option for you. If you are the type you just want to have it installed and use it out of the box and it works perfectly just like if it were factory installed, then this is probably not the unit for you - right now, as I said it is improving all the time. This is why on my 2008 for sale I give the buyer the option of what they want in the cruiser.
As I learn more and do more I will add to this post, I am sure I am forgetting about something, so if I did not mention something and you have a question, ask and I will answer.
Thanks,
Michael
I know there are other posts regarding this, this is just about my install of the latest Tesla style Android 16" vertical infotainment system from Phoenix (which replaced the 12.1" they offered - they still have not updated the web page yet, and I bought the 12.1" and they sent me the 16" replacement). I bought this because I wanted better music media options - USB, streaming etc. I am an engineer and like testing out and playing with new tech, so it was worth the risk for me.
12.1" Android Navigation Radio for Toyota Tundra 2014 - 2018
Let me set the correct expectations for everyone, if you are looking for this to act and work just like a it does in a Tesla or a factory setup, it does not and will not be that smooth and responsive - they are just not there yet. However it is improving very quickly, just over the last 6 months they have made great progress and improvements. The latest hardware is really good, they got rid of the moving around of old buttons to face plate of the new one, and the fit and finish is very good as well is the shipping (my experience, not issue whats so over, and that was being shipped by USPS, so that is saying something).
I will break this into a few categories for you:
1st is the replacement of factory controls and what works and does not work.
WORKS
all the climate controls work - front and back
the steering wheel controls work
the backup camera works - for early models it adds the lines so improvement, for the later models I see the options to support the 360 camera, so I am assuming that does work as well
the vehicle icon showing doors open works
the radar option on the older models works with the center dash display as it always has, the newer models it works on the screen as it does on the factory units
Factory preferences - I believe this still works as it did on later models, my 2008 did not have any so I can see them but not change them (still need to use my canbus tool for that).
Can Bus - this unit does hook into the can bus (via factory harness - no need to plug into the ODBII port) and has all the information the original unit got form the bus.
The latest model replaces that small digital display at the very top that showed climate temp, outside temp and the airbag status. That was incorporated into the main screen and a few hard lights on the right side. However I don't see the external temp anymore, and I don't believe there was a connector for the external temp sensor (although in the settings there is one for temp display) so it could be newer models posted on the bus and older model was hard wire not sure but I no longer have ext. temp right now on my 2008.
NO LONGER WORKS
Back seat DVD player - I did not hook anything up for it, although have not physically checked it, will update later
Hard temp controls under front vents - they are still there and hooked up, however the climate temp controls now work from the main display only
No more factory Nav - not that it worked well to begin with (better options see 2nd category)
No more maintenance tracking - did anyone even use that?
No more external temp - see comment above
2nd is new stuff you get with this
Cool 16" screen. the vertical screen that Tesla introduced is great because it breaks the screen up into quadrants of information or applications. on this one you have a header section - select options hard coded in the software (however it is android so open platform for you to mess with if you know what you are doing) and it has a footer section, this is for your back and home button and also have the information and launching of climate controls. The middle is broken up into 2 equal areas for apps so you can have radio on one and something on the other one, nave so far takes both sections (I am sure I can adjust it, just have not played with it enough) the climate and door alerts are pop ups over whatever else you have in the sections. There are other launch skins and apps you can load Phoenix has a drop box with a bunch of tools and other apps you can get, and also this is android so you can load some of your favorite apps if you like (and the work on that version and build)
This is Android 7.1 btw
you get google maps. Now google works best when it has internet connectivity (get into that later in this post) but you also can download maps and use it in offline mode and early test show it does work but not as good. However finding places and getting routed to them works just fine in offline mode once you have downloaded the maps.
There are also a few other nav map options, I have not played with them yet.
you get a radio app that work just as your regular AM/FM radio does, it has presets and can scan and tune and does support RDL. It does not have XM radio or HD radio
you get a "music" app that will play music from a usb stick or other method of media, that works pretty good.
you get a blue tooth app that is used for your phone connectivity for getting and making calls as well as BT streaming music from your phone. This all works pretty well, head unit has its own mic built in and using the vehicle speakers for the sound of course. people I have called say it works and sound great (of course not quite as good as my telsa) but as good as land cruiser factory BT phone stuff. Has phone book and recent calls, however no voice dialing (yet) still working on the voice activited controls with another android app
It does not have Apple play or Android Auto, it does have a generic version of these but it really does not work as smooth or seamless as those apps work.
you get a few apps to play video, but I don't do much of that so I have not played with it yet. I can tell you that it does conform to the parking brake on to play video.
Let's talk about connectivity, one of the very cool things on a Tesla is that it has its own 4G connection (as part of the car, no additional cost to the owner) so the maps have traffic, and you have streaming music, and you have internet augmented voice commands, etc. Again this is a Tesla style, so it can do all of those things, however not nearly as well if you don't have internet connectivity. you have several choices for the connectivity:
1. if you have a great data plan on your phone you can turn on mobile hot spot and let the unit connect via wifi to you phone and get connectivity that way.
2. you can purchase a 4G dongle and plug it into one of the USB ports and get connectivity that way.
3. Stay unconnected and connect via wifi when at home or you have a know place to get coverage, download what you need for maps and to update the units OS and firmware as needed and use it as an unconnected device.
I have been playing with options 1 and 3 (spoiler 1 is a better option than 3) I am going to look into what the monthly is on the dongle verses changing my data plan on my phone - more to follow later on that.
Install
The install is pretty easy, as long as you are good at figuring things out without instructions, if you are one of those that need a thick manual and must study if for hours and then do the job, this is not for you. You will get zero instruction manuals with this unit. However they do have a good knowledge base and support site. It is for the must part plug and play, once you figure out wich hardness to use (they included 3 different ones for me, I imagine it was for the different years) and how to hook up the can bus decoder, video decoder and other "box" that is included. Absolutely no dash modification is required. the fit and finish is very good on this latest unit. only thing that is left up to you is where do you want to route the USB ports (you get 2 of them)
Interface
There are so many different screens it is hard to show pics of all of them, and you can customize and add all the apps you want so this is the area that you really need to look what is out there and what you ultimately want to use, lots of videos about this on youtube, most of them are around the tundra unit, but that basically the same as what you can do on the cruiser unit.
If you have the time and money and want to play around with something different and hopefully better than what you currently have. And you are ok with new and "bleeding" edge tech then this could be a good option for you. If you are the type you just want to have it installed and use it out of the box and it works perfectly just like if it were factory installed, then this is probably not the unit for you - right now, as I said it is improving all the time. This is why on my 2008 for sale I give the buyer the option of what they want in the cruiser.
As I learn more and do more I will add to this post, I am sure I am forgetting about something, so if I did not mention something and you have a question, ask and I will answer.
Thanks,
Michael
