RAV4 PHEV software updates

[TonyFR]

Mention is made in various posts about improvements being necessary to improve the klunky app and the links between the car, app and MM17 displays.

I would be interested to know if:

1. any significant updates have yet been made to the My T app, i,e, functional improvements, and are any expected?

2.how do we get to know if any software updates are available for the car, and what is the best way to handle them, if any?

3. does Toyota do car firmware and software upgrades when the vehicle is in for service?

4 and anything else on this subject (compare and contrast with say Tesla where owners often complain about too many upgrades being available and required - but at least doable from home!)

[philip42h]

The My T app updates regularly -i.e. every few weeks to include minor updates and bugfixes. The latest version on my 'phone is dated 8 Oct 2021 and appear on my 'phone on 11 Oct 2021 via auto update. I am not aware of any major functional updates in the pipeline but suspect that we'd learn about them via My Toyota.

Updating software on the car is not a standard service item - there's no tick box to say that the software updates have been completed.

Toyota has traditionally made minor engineering changes throughout the lifetime of a model that can be introduced into production at any point so that there can be minor differences between one model year and the next and even within a model year, And in general these changes are not applied retrospectively through the service system. Software changes are no different. You buy the car and continue to run the car "as delivered". There have been exceptions:

• Safety issues will be addressed via a recall
• Faults and failures will be addressed under warranty - the replacement part(s) may reflect the later / better design
• The addition of Apple Car Play and Android Auto was a specific exception where the owner was able to opt to pay for the upgrade

I'm not expecting any firmware or software updates to be made available so don't need to worry about how to handle them.

Map updates are an obvious exception, but these are being discussed elsewhere ...

[ernieb]

MyT app. The PHEV does not get some of the updates that are available to other models and certain years.  I'd expect these to be rolled out to the PHEV model at some time.  These are things like, flash lights to find the car in a car park, hybrid coaching etc.

[philip42h]

19 minutes ago, ernieb said:

MyT app. The PHEV does not get some of the updates that are available to other models and certain years.  I'd expect these to be rolled out to the PHEV model at some time.  These are things like, flash lights to find the car in a car park, hybrid coaching etc.

OK, a little surprised, but maybe we should do a comparison?

On the main services screen I get:

• Service and Maintenance
• Send to Car
• Find My Car
• Hybrid Coaching
• Warning Lights
• Car Calendar

Find My Car doesn't do anything clever - it just pops on a map the last known location of the car and the current location of the 'phone. No flashing lights or anything fancy.

Thinking about it, I'm not sure that it makes that much sense to offer "hybrid coaching" on a PHEV. The HEV is a petrol powered car with electric economy measure while the PHEV is an EV with hybrid range extension - maybe they will find a sensible way to offer PHEV coaching ... ? The hybrid coaching on the HEV is nearly worthless. But I assume that you still get a record of your trips, speeds and fuel consumption etc.?

[nlee]

Mine is a PHEV. Similar to your options but I have "Driving Analytics" over "Hybrid Coaching". I guess they do the same thing (i.e. overall reports on distance, speed, etc., And that's where I view the individual trips).

I did notice from other screenshots that where I have the button on the main screen for the Battery on the PHEV, with the current charge level, that is the button to lock and unlock the car on some other models.

[ernieb]

Some cars have three buttons on the opening page from what I’ve seen.

[philip42h]

Buttons on the opening page? I don't think I've got any of them ... I can see %fuel remaining and total mileage plus links to "Where to?", Connected Services Center", "Find My Car" and "Hybrid Coaching / Last trip"

There's a comprehensive list of My T[oyota] features listed here - I've got some and expect never to get others as they are either not applicable to my car (starter Battery state and PHEV charge state) or not implemented on my car (various remote functions not implemented on a 2020 RAV4 HEV). If Toyota implement new features based on the data they are already collecting from my car and features already implemented within the car I'd expect to get them in due course - but that's quite a big IF; otherwise I've got what I've got and all I expect is the normal slew of unnecessary interface 'improvements' ... 🙂

[ernieb]

It looks like definition problem.  I call a button an area designated on the screen that when pressed takes you to a different page. So on my opening page I suppose I have 4 ‘buttons’, Climate Control, Remote Charging, Where to - Send to Car, Connected Services Centre.

[nlee]

@philip42h To clarify my earlier post, this is the screenshot I saw for another model with the two "buttons", one for remote air con and the other for remote lock/unlock.

The "buttons" on my PHEV replace the lock button with the charge button as below 

[ernieb]

This is my PHEV.

[nlee]

51 minutes ago, ernieb said:

This is my PHEV.

Fully charged and ready to go!

[ernieb]

Yes, I move the 240V mains box and brought the granny cable control box into the garage via a disused 4" tumble dryer outlet so wanted to test the connections and check it was all functioning OK. 👍