I just got an email from pioneer...

Did anyone else get one of these?

Anyhow.. if anyone wants to compile a list of key comments/questions I'll be more than happy to pass them along.



"Invitiation to Participate: On-Line Discussion about Pioneer AVIC-Z1"


Dear steve,

As a Pioneer customer, we value your opinion regarding every aspect of our relationship with you. Moreover we want to know what we can do to improve how we market our products as well as the products themselves.

With that the case we would like to invite you to participate in an online discussion regarding the AVIC-Z1 you recently purchased, starting from Tuesday, August 22nd through Thursday, August 24th. Please understand there are no right or wrong answers, no obligation and no one will attempt to sell you anything. You will simply be one of a select group from around the country invited to talk about the AVIC-Z1; including how we can make it better as well as how we can improve our communication with consumers like you in the future.

While we value the opinion of all our customers, we can only include 100 individuals in this project.

This would be great. I hope they get 100 people that really cover the issues that we all have and address them quickly.

I hope you hit them hard about turning off the navigation and blue tooth functions while the vehicle is moving. That is why I have decided not to get the unit at this time. I will wait to see if they make any changes to the Z1 to let me use my judgement as to what is safe or not and not enforce theirs on me.

this is great news!

pls keep us posted with any updates!

Do us proud and come back with some answers.

-Litos

Post questions you would like answers to or concerns here and I'll be happy to pass them along.

One my small issues is why they cant allow the darn thing alternate colors for the lights behind the buttons.. I'd prefer green for my F150 (though its not the end of the world)

im also wondering about hard drive upgrades, software updates etc..

I also think something that would be REALLY cool is if they worked with a company like valentine and made a small interface module for their radar detectors. That would be a cool feature

gracenote needs more updates on a regular basis.. I have put in 5 cd's that I purchased over the past week and none of them are in the library.



I think we all know why they would disable the lights trick on the box.. its all about liability.. they could only plead ignorance for so long.. once the little trick became so well known I think they knew they had to plug that hole.

Ask them about Storing MP3s from a disk on the HDD. That would be an awesome feature. And use the ID tags to populate the Database.

Or why the XM Radio function doesn't seem to come with graphic logos with the generic XM model XM tuner.

Why the navigation features have been dumbed down while driving. This was a "feature" that was not needed.

How to speed up some of the menus.

-Litos

I would like them to add the ablity to play mp3's off of a DVD. I could store hundreds that way and not even bother using the Hard drive.

yea I got that email also and replied. I hope that I am chosen to be a participant!! I will keep reading and go back to the pet peeves list as well!

Hey if anyone can ask them to please go back to navteq maps and please make a cover for the z1 and make a security feature for the next z2 or for the z1 like a pin number required to enter the z1 like the garmin pin number feature. Thanks and God Bless.

Yes, definately a pin number whithout which a stolen Avic can not be re-activated.

Also a polarized Screen-coating to minimize glare and reflection.

A must: MP3 capability.

A small volume knob at the bottom left for quick access without taking the eyes off the road rather than the two up and down keys.

Also a polarized Screen-coating to minimize glare and reflection.

Wear polarized sunglasses. Works wonders for glare reduction, and if you get the uv a/b blocking lenses, your eyes will thank you when you're older 8)

In fact, you'll see the screen darken at an angle if you wear polarized glasses. I don't know if that has to do with the way LCD is displayed, but I'm pretty sure that most LCD screens do this.

Maybe someone will come up with a polarized screen protector for the Z1, like the ones I keep seeing on eBay.

pin number whithout which a stolen Avic can not be re-activated.

That would go far to keeping these savages off of our Z1s. Still, I made a facade for mine, from a scanned image of my old stock h/u. Glued cardboard buttons on the front, that I cut out from a second image of the h/u.

Some day, like bluetooth technology, hopefully anything you buy for your car, can be "bonded" to your car's ECU or whatever it will be called, and never unbonded without a pin. That way it'll discourage most petty thefts.

I want to be able to pause and fast forward from my Sirius sat receiver like I could with my sportster model.
Updated maps and POI's
Traffic on the Sirius receiver.
Navi learning feature is ok but so far not great for me.

mrbrent said:

I want to be able to pause and fast forward from my Sirius sat receiver like I could with my sportster model.

x2

mrbrent said:

I want to be able to pause and fast forward from my Sirius sat receiver like I could with my sportster model.
Updated maps and POI's
Traffic on the Sirius receiver.
Navi learning feature is ok but so far not great for me.

The NavTraffic comes from XM so Sirius would have to add their own traffic service.

Radio information. Even my most basic car stereo shows the artist and song title. The AVIC-Z1 doesn't even show the station call sign.

god i feel like a dumbass...i just made a post about getting the email and there was already one there hahahah

This one sounds stupid BUT

What about "autosensing" ipbus

We've had a lot of people on here wiring up the ipbus incorrectly and getting no sound etc... It works perfectly for networks (autosensing network hubs/switches) why not for the ipBus

What about being able to transfer phonebook/Addressbook easier!

Maybe load it to a CD (excel format) and then just insert into the Z1

Bluetooth "autotry" as in ty and connect to the last connected bluetooth phone... both myself and the wife have bluetooth and I have to manually connect rather than it being automatic (probably because it's seeing both phones from sartup)...

BOTH phones are activated into the Z1

Unfortunately, I drive the car more than she does... it's a pain at times

scenaria said:

Post questions you would like answers to or concerns here and I'll be happy to pass them along.
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I think we all know why they would disable the lights trick on the box.. its all about liability.. they could only plead ignorance for so long.. once the little trick became so well known I think they knew they had to plug that hole.

I for one hope you do ask this though. I know this country is run by the liability lawyers these days but please point out to them that every OEM navi unit sold in any car in America (at least all the ones I have been in) don't have this lockout. You do have to "Ok" a screen that tells you not to do anything while driving but everything still works.

jfisher said:

mrbrent said:

I want to be able to pause and fast forward from my Sirius sat receiver like I could with my sportster model.
Updated maps and POI's
Traffic on the Sirius receiver.
Navi learning feature is ok but so far not great for me.

The NavTraffic comes from XM so Sirius would have to add their own traffic service.

Sirius already does. Pioneer just doesn't support it yet.

And add me to the list of people dissapointed with the Sirius support. My old Kenwood 1U HU with a simple 2 line display still displayed more info on those 2 primative little lines then the Z1 does with a 7 inch video display.

Maybe they should hire some engineers from Kenwood.

Tell Pioneer to drop the free "roadside assistance" and put the money and effort into a program like this:

I know it was said before, and I think I said it in my other reply here, but I was thinking about it again.

Ability to protect our Z1 with a PIN. up to 10 characters, alphanumeric even with symbols, and the **only way** to unlock a lost PIN, would be to call Pioneer and give them private info you choose to save with them, like mom's maiden name, etc, etc... like 3 questions that you have to answer correctly before they'll give you the number.

I guess since product registration is optional, this should be optional too, but I can't see why 99% of the buyers of a $1000+ car stereo wouldn't take advantage of it.

If these savage thiefs know that this model is just about unusable, when in someone else's hands, I would hope it would deter theft, and not to mention most of us, like it was already mentioned, would feel better about putting in personal info into this z1, so the service people or valet parkers cannot toy with it.