Tesla style head unit

I honestly don’t know yet, it arrived the day after we left for Kansas so it’s just sitting around on my kitchen counter at home. I do regret buying it, I now feel as if its going to be a hassle for the rest of my life and my personal belief is that they rushed it to market. If this one fails, I’ll be getting a refund.

 

Don’t hold your breath with whatsapp either. He finally after months of waiting sent me the update for the fan issue and it shut my unit down. Last night I get a response on whatsapp from him asking the same two questions he already knew the answers to. I must say after a years long battle with this company, anyone who is on the fence about buying one of these should definitely look elsewhere. Customer support with Eric has got to be the worst I have ever had to deal with. I am now out the $850 and left with Chinese junk. I have a tech support guy that keeps asking the same questions over and over and when you email customer support they refer you back to Eric. Ok I am done ranting now but really just want to get it out there to those of you waiting for the bugs to be worked out, buyer beware with these guys.

 

I had the exact same experience…no answers for a month then one person would correspond a couple times then ghost me…a month later different person & start all over …same thing…and over and over. Pretty sure they do it on purpose to push you out of the warranty period. I have to keep a little reset tool in my armrest and commonly have no HU for the first 10 mins in the morning.

Going to throw this thing away soon and do an ipad with a Soundman mount & an audio source dsp

 

They definitely have pushed me out of the warranty. I can’t say my experience was quite as bad as yours but nevertheless they aren’t out for helping unless your wanting to buy a unit. Once they have your money its all over. I should have bought the linkswell unit, my neighbor bought one and has had zero issues. I will probably just throw my old unit back in a call it day.

 

Wow. Never heard about the “Linkswell” unit until your post. It looks exactly the same. Is there a thread somewhere in here about those?

 

Nope unfortunately not, the only one I know who has spent the money on it is my neighbor and it works flawlessly. I’m considering biting the bullet and getting one as I really like the design of this in our trucks I just want one that works.

 

Update: Just installed the replacement unit everything but the reverse camera works. What a nightmare experience. Now I have to go on an endless back forth with Eric. Then pull the unit (again) send it back and wait another two weeks. Do NOT buy this unit, it’s a complete piece of junk and a waste of time and money.

 

Follow up: does anyone know where to buy these clips? They are to the climate control unit and two of them snapped taking this damn AuCar unit in and out. Only way to buy them right now is to buy the whole unit grrrr.

 

What Linkswell likes to do is change the UI and then price their unit 150% higher than the competition to make you feel like you’re getting a better product. It’s all the same.

 

Hello there fellas. I got the previous version of this HU, and I'm quite pleased with it after getting Sergey's FW. I was wondering though, is it possible to get a 360 view with it since I already managed to install front and side cams? I know I can use the Cam app to access a specific camera feed, but having the 360 view would be awesome. Happy New Year to everyone!

 

Do you know this for sure? Or just guessing. I'm seriously on the fence about getting the aucar but these bad experiences have me thinking of getting a linkswell. How do you know it's all the same?

 

I’m near 100% certain. Sure there might be some differences in actual hardware specs like ram or capacity, but these units are all coming out of a few Chinese factories. Depending on how the US-based (or China based Aucar?) reseller wants the unit specc’ed as far as UI is how it gets locked down. The “facebook/Russian firmware” as I call it, unlocked essentially everything the unit had preinstalled on the one I had in a GX470. The password locked menus literally have options in them pertaining to different make/models of vehicles. It’s just a base universal android with a vehicle specific harness and fascia/buttons.

Rhino radios/linkswell/Phoenix automotive/etc all peddling the same basic stuff. You can search “Tesla style Tacoma” on alibaba or aliexpress and find a ton of these units straight from China. It’s honestly hard at that point to say which reseller has the “better” unit.

edit: the UI that linkswell was using on their unit to claim it was “better” in addition to a bunch of other BS they peddled with zero factual basis was immediately unlocked on my Phoenix unit (for a gx470) via Russian firmware. I was on a Tesla style unit Facebook group and it was absolutely silly.

 

For me personally the “ russian firmware “ just makes your unit look nicer. All it really does is unlock a few features and a whole bunch of things that just don’t pertain to our vehicle’s and as you already stated, a bunch of other vehicles. Is it worth $100 ? That’s in the eyes of the person buying into it. For me no it wasn’t worth the extra money. The only downside to buying a linkswell for me is the older android 9 system, however when I watch my neighbor show me how well it works I am very tempted. He also was able to pick up the phone and actually talk to tech support while doing the installation for assistance, which is here in the USA. I am struggling to even get an email from tech support right now and at last they want to send me a new core board to have me replace it to see if it fixes my unit. Like you said they are all basically coming from the same area in china but there are differences between whats out there.

 

Update: heard back from AuCar and as it turns out the RCA cable wasn’t fully seated. Reverse camera now works and the unit seems to be performing as it should.

 

The aftermarket firmware is advertised not just as an unlock but also was supposed to clean up the firmware to run faster and at least on my GX did a few other things like let me actually change the splash screen at startup from the jank fast n furious looking Lamborghini image it had, turn the volume down permanently on the system alert sounds and android volume which was a godsend for sound quality, and more. Was it worth $100, probably not, but the pos unit should’ve came like that from factory for the almost $600 I paid at the time on a group buy.

I’m not really here to debate the ins and outs of these units, and to each their own, but the only reason that unit stayed in my GX is because Lexus thought it cute, like most automotive manufacturers currently, to integrate HVAC controls into the stock stereo. There really were no other full replacement options at the time. On any vehicle with standalone HVAC I’d rather add a standalone tablet.

 

Hi, what part did you buy? A hardwired or a Wi-Fi one?

 

I was able to use the cellular signal by enabling hotspot on my mobile phone and then connecting the unit to the hotspot. Browsed the internet, watched Netflix, etc.

 

Black one is Sirius XM (not supported) and white one is GPS (supported).

 

That post was 14 months old. It's been figured out

 

Day 1 with the replacement unit is in the books. Everything works as it should. GPS

oops - apologies - just joined so rookie mistake.