[Media Mistake - False] No FM, Bluetooth, or USB Audio either?

[gregincal]

The BMW 5 series supports full CarPlay control via bluetooth. I'd accept CarPlay via USB, but I don't like pulling over to the side of the road to select what album I want to play next. That's why I use a USB stick, but now that I've switched to Apple Music I can't access newer albums I haven't purchased.

 

[timk225]

Tesla is once again purposely deleting a standard option (audio system and abilities) from the base model to coerce people into PAYING MORE MONEY to get what they call "premium" features that many other comparable models have standard. Tesla wants to average the $42,000 per car that Elon Musk quoted.

It won't happen on MY 3! I'll buy my own Sirius Satellite Radio receiver, and if I have to, I will bypass the wiring and go straight to a 12 volt DC source to power it. I will not be forced into paying more for "options" the car should already have!

 

[PhantomX]

I'll have to check that out. I know that was NOT true of my 2014 Prius Plug In Advanced. Just checked the Toyota website:

Audio Streaming

The audio system enables users to enjoy audio played on a Bluetooth®-compatible portable player or smartphone from the vehicle's speakers via wireless communication. 40

Note: "Press" refers to a physical button on your phone or the multimedia system faceplate. "Touch" refers to a button, command or menu drawn on the display touch-screen.

1. Press the AUDIO button on the faceplate
2. Touch Source
3. Touch Bluetooth® Audio icon (If a Bluetooth® audio device is not connected, connecting Bluetooth® audio screen will automatically appear. Click here to learn how to connect a Bluetooth® device.)
4. If the Bluetooth®-capable audio device is paired and connected, audio will begin playing automatically
5. Touch Select Device if no device is connected
6. Select the Bluetooth® device to play from and then select Connect All or Connect as an Audio Player to start using that device
7. Touch || to pause the track
8. Touch > to resume playing the track
9. Press and release the ∧ SEEK/∨ TRACK button to move forward or back to the next track
10. Touch the speaker icon and Sound button to change the sound setup

Please let me know where you see all the music content (files, playlist, genre) from your phone on the car's display. You may be correct, but I haven't seen anything like that functionality (unless you are talking Android Auto and Apple CarPlay).

I don't have the exact step/screen shots since we sold our Sienna when we got the X, but my recollection is a browse button below the album art when in the bluetooth streaming menu. It'll let you see all albums, playlist, and songs in your phone. This is with the Entune system, not Android Auto/Car Play since Toyota doesn't have them yet.

BMW i3 is similar. It's in the Bluetooth menu, with different options to select albums, song, and playlists in the upper left corner of the i-Drive system.

I do use Android Autos in the GTI, but I will be very surprised if bluetooth menu is only basic functions like those in S and X.

 

[rxlawdude]

I don't have the exact step/screen shots since we sold our Sienna when we got the X, but my recollection is a browse button below the album art when in the bluetooth streaming menu. It'll let you see all albums, playlist, and songs in your phone. This is with the Entune system, not Android Auto/Car Play since Toyota doesn't have them yet.

And what I posted is the 2018 MY Entune description, which does NOT support anything more than last track-pause-play-next track, at least from this description. Other Toyota marketing materials mention "accessing your playlist" using Entune, but that most likely translates to "select your playlist on your phone" and play it over BT.

Again, if you or anyone else can point us to an authoritative source showing playlists/artists/genre/album folders for selection on the car's display for content on a phone connected via BT, please do so.

 

[gregincal]

Tesla is once again purposely deleting a standard option (audio system and abilities) from the base model to coerce people into PAYING MORE MONEY to get what they call "premium" features that many other comparable models have standard. Tesla wants to average the $42,000 per car that Elon Musk quoted.

It won't happen on MY 3! I'll buy my own Sirius Satellite Radio receiver, and if I have to, I will bypass the wiring and go straight to a 12 volt DC source to power it. I will not be forced into paying more for "options" the car should already have!

What are you talking about? The audio system abilities are the same amongst all versions of the Model 3.

 

[PhantomX]

And what I posted is the 2018 MY Entune description, which does NOT support anything more than last track-pause-play-next track, at least from this description. Other Toyota marketing materials mention "accessing your playlist" using Entune, but that most likely translates to "select your playlist on your phone" and play it over BT.

Again, if you or anyone else can point us to an authoritative source showing playlists/artists/genre/album folders for selection on the car's display for content on a phone connected via BT, please do so.

Here you go.

Take a look starting around 30 seconds mark.

 

[Tam]

...engineering laziness is not sufficient justification...

Thom Callahan, President of Southern California Broadcasting Association sent a letter to Elon yesterday:

http://www.scba.com/assets/pdf/Tesla Motor Company.pdf

"Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena assure us there is no engineering reason to not include AM Radio in all electric vehicles, and indeed, are available in the Chevrolet Volt, and Nissan Leaf."

 

[crackers8199]

Here's a question for current owners. My phone is paired with my current car. Quite often my son will play music from his iPhone using the aux jack in my car. Since there is no aux in the model 3 I'll let him pair his phone and play music. My question is if the current Tesla implementation lets multiple phones be connected at once for receiving phone calls and streaming media. So that if we're listening to his music I can still get a call over BT in the car. I know there are some that allow that and others that only give it to one phone at a time.

i'm curious about this too, but for a different reason - planning on (potentially anyway) adding a portable satellite radio and using bluetooth to get the audio to the car since there's no aux in...if i can run it via bluetooth and still keep my phone connected, and have both the audio from the satellite radio and phone calls work at the same time (i.e. interrupt radio when call comes in), that'd be ideal. if not, i guess i'll have to get used to switching back and forth or figure out a way to do a FM transmitter...but i'm really hoping to avoid that. no desire to keep trying to mess around with / find an open FM station to transmit to as i go.

as a secondary question - any way to install a FM direct adapter (something like this: https://www.amazon.com/SiriusXM-FMDA25-Direct-Adapter/dp/B000KGLL84)? i'm guessing there obviously is no antenna wire to tap into...

 

[Jeff N]

They also have a metal frame. That was the reason that BMW gave for disabling AM on the i3.

Yes, but the Model 3 has a steel safety cage frame and aluminum outer doors and panels pretty much like the Bolt EV so there isn’t any obvious reason why it cannot have AM radio like the Bolt.

 

[gambit48]

Tesla is once again purposely deleting a standard option (audio system and abilities) from the base model to coerce people into PAYING MORE MONEY to get what they call "premium" features that many other comparable models have standard. Tesla wants to average the $42,000 per car that Elon Musk quoted.

It won't happen on MY 3! I'll buy my own Sirius Satellite Radio receiver, and if I have to, I will bypass the wiring and go straight to a 12 volt DC source to power it. I will not be forced into paying more for "options" the car should already have!

What Tesla option are you talking about? PUP just gives you extra speakers. Even the S/X don't have the option to play through their phone at all. It's a pretty basic feature, but it's missing period. It's not an attempt to nickel and dime you. If it were, I actually wouldn't be that upset about it as the competing German luxury brands nickel and dime you all the time too.

Here you go.

Take a look starting around 30 seconds mark.

Man, that's amazing. First time I've heard of bluetooth audio doing anything more than just play/pause and skip tracks. I gotta check out my mom's i3 and see if hers does something similar too.

 

[TEG]

What about web browser with Youtube capability ?

 

[Cyclone]

Here's a question for current owners. My phone is paired with my current car. Quite often my son will play music from his iPhone using the aux jack in my car. Since there is no aux in the model 3 I'll let him pair his phone and play music. My question is if the current Tesla implementation lets multiple phones be connected at once for receiving phone calls and streaming media. So that if we're listening to his music I can still get a call over BT in the car. I know there are some that allow that and others that only give it to one phone at a time.

At the moment, the S/X allow multiple phones/devices to be paired, but only one be connected at a time. It's an interesting setup when my personal and work phones fight for who connects now that Apple won't let me keep my work phone's Bluetooth off until needed.

 

[bro1999]

Really? Not everyone has unlimited data. Omitting navigation? On a car as expensive and "futuristic" as a 200+ mile EV? That's just... dumb.

Google maps is hardly a data eater. I use it almost every day, and it used a paltry .17 gigs of data last month. And if you're a REAL data miser, it has an offline mode where you can download areas you frequent over WiFi to reduce data usage to almost nothing.

 

[PoitNarf]

It's an interesting setup when my personal and work phones fight for who connects now that Apple won't let me keep my work phone's Bluetooth off until needed.

Turning off Bluetooth from the Settings app does turn it off completely. It’s only when turning WiFi or Bluetooth from the control panel in iOS 11 that it isn’t fully turned off.

 

[crackers8199]

At the moment, the S/X allow multiple phones/devices to be paired, but only one be connected at a time. It's an interesting setup when my personal and work phones fight for who connects now that Apple won't let me keep my work phone's Bluetooth off until needed.

what about FM transmitter...is there any kind of antenna wire to tap into?

 

[gambit48]

Google maps is hardly a data eater. I use it almost every day, and it used a paltry .17 gigs of data last month. And if you're a REAL data miser, it has an offline mode where you can download areas you frequent over WiFi to reduce data usage to almost nothing.
View attachment 250480 View attachment 250482

I dunno. I did one trip one time and one way was over 250 MB. I know cuz apparently I was roaming and Sprint (work phone) cut off my roaming data when I hit 250. I was wondering why it stopped working as I was nearing my destination. I was lucky I had my personal Verizon phone with me as well. I'm guessing it would have been around 550 MB or so round trip. Don't even think it was that long of a road trip. 4-5 hours? Only had 2GB plan on my Verizon phone so that would have really hurt if I hadn't had two phones/data plans.

 

[Cyclone]

what about FM transmitter...is there any kind of antenna wire to tap into?

I am not sure I understand your question. The S/X have FM receivers accessible through the media player.

 

[Cyclone]

Turning off Bluetooth from the Settings app does turn it off completely. It’s only when turning WiFi or Bluetooth from the control panel in iOS 11 that it isn’t fully turned off.

Apple needs better wording here then. This is why I haven't upgraded my device because:
Use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in Control Center with iOS 11

If Bluetooth is turned off, you won’t be able to connect your iOS device to your Bluetooth accessories until:

• You turn on Bluetooth in Control Center.
• You connect to a Bluetooth accessory in Settings > Bluetooth.
• It's 5 AM local time.
• You restart your device.

The Guardian should also update their article:
iOS 11: toggling wifi and Bluetooth in Control Centre doesn't actually turn them off

To actually turn off Bluetooth and wifi users will need to head into the Settings app and manually turn them off, which deactivates them until 5am the next morning, or use Airplane mode.

 

[AustinPowers]

What Tesla option are you talking about? PUP just gives you extra speakers. Even the S/X don't have the option to play through their phone at all. It's a pretty basic feature, but it's missing period. It's not an attempt to nickel and dime you. If it were, I actually wouldn't be that upset about it as the competing German luxury brands nickel and dime you all the time too.

But at least a "normal" FM radio (usually with CD player) comes standard on pretty much all German models. Even in those far below the Model 3 price range. They will nickel and dime you for all kinds of extra-comfort crap though, I quite agree with you on that.

 

[gambit48]

I'm going to give Tesla the benefit of the doubt here and assume they're trying to be Apple and force the advancement of streaming radio (unless we discover the FM radio is physically there, but isn't active for some bizarre reason).