There is now a long, somewhat exasperating history of smartphone apps that do little except demonstrate one’s affluence. For instance, the $999.99 I Am Rich app does nothing but display a glowing red gem or some text. The $999.99 iVIP Black app shows the location of VIP venues. But Lexus has now one-upped that: you can’t even log into the car manufacturer’s app unless you own one of its luxury vehicles.
Lexus’s latest fleet—including the 2013 LS 600h L hybrid that we test drove—can now integrate with the company’s Enform smartphone app (available for iOS, BlackBerry, Android, and certain Windows Phone 7.5 handsets). When a phone with a logged-in account is connected to the car, a range of app options open up in the car’s dashboard.
Within Enform, there are a number of sub-apps, most of which are location-oriented. A Facebook app only allows users to check-in to Places—no status-reading or photo-posting for safety reasons. OpenTable and Yelp look for nearby restaurants, and a Bing app can find nearby locations based on search terms (a search for “cars” brings up nearby dealerships for instance).
Enform contains only seven apps and Lexus PR representative Erica Ramirez told Ars the platform is closed. Not just any app-maker can walk up and develop for Enform. Officially, Lexus describes Enform as an “infotainment” platform—one of the more unfortunate portmanteaus to associate with a luxury car.
The real advantage of Enform is that once the phone is connected, the dashboard interface can be controlled with a joystick and a handful of buttons on the center console. The controls were a little jumpy and landing on our intended target was sometimes difficult, though the product specialists said the sensitivity could be adjusted. Text entry requires moving the cursor around an onscreen keyboard, a prospect that's tiresome in the age of touchscreens, Siri, and Google Now.
But the Enform service does come with its own sort of Siri approximation, called Destination Assist. Unlike Siri, this assistant isn't digital but is a real, live human being staffed to answer your calls and give verbal directions to a location of your choice or remotely place those directions on the map displayed in the car’s dashboard.
Enform is free for the first year of your Lexus ownership, but after that the company charges about $260 per year for continued service. Both the pricing and functionality seem a bit out of step with the times: paying to use handicapped versions of actual smartphone apps with handicapped controls is hardly an attractive prospect.
Ostensibly the system is safer and less distracting to use than, say, fiddling with a full-featured phone in your lap. But it still seemed less convenient than the voice systems that are increasingly prevalent (if still mostly unreliable) in even economy cars, such as Ford’s SYNC. Enform can accept voice input, but only for some of the apps. It also can’t holistically determine which one is best to answer your query, so you must select the right one before making your request.
Other technological accents in the car also seemed a little out of touch: a smattering of 12-volt DC ports instead of USB ports for instance. The car does include a Blu-ray player, with a disc slot and screen that slide and fold gracefully out of concealed compartments. And there’s plenty more to entertain the easily impressed among us: a reclining rear seat with ottoman! Bamboo wood accents! Heated steering wheel! Passenger-side seat controls accessible from the driver side—annoy your napping friends all day long!
While the functionality of the 600h L’s Enform system was cool, its technology is still not a selling point of the car. Except for its safety considerations and restrictions, Enform's capabilities seem like an afterthought compared to the free digital personal assistants now found in the two most popular smartphone platforms: Android and iOS. And since the system requires that your smartphone be paired with the car to work, it guarantees its most capable competitor is always around, inviting you to ignore Enform in favor of your tiny touch screen. Enform is neat—it’s just lagging behind. We look at its joystick and see the same thing we see when we look at the car’s backseat ashtrays: relics of another era not suited to the needs of today’s discerning consumer.
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