Touch Screen Functions Grayed Out While in Motion

Just picked up my 2022 4Runner TRD Off Road yesterday. Unlike my 2018 Tacoma, my music playlists (iPhone connected via USB) are grayed out while the vehicle is in motion. I understand this is a safety feature and that I can select playlists via Siri. Still, sometimes it’s nice to be able to do so via touchscreen while I’m in motion.

Is there a way to disable this safety feature? I promise to use it safely.

Short of that, is there a steering wheel control to allow me to scroll through my playlists or within my playlists? The up/down buttons to the left seem to switch mode am/fm/etc. Can they also be used to scroll?

 

welcome

 

Strange I just picked up my 22 ORP and that doesn't happen to me. One thing you can is once you have programmed some favorite stations, scroll your multi info display to the musical note. Now you can manually seek stations with the left hand button or scroll your presets with the right hand thumb button.

And if course the manual is inly 600 pages long. I am only on page 175 so far

 

It could be a setting on your iPhone that is responsible, depending on what version of iOS you are running. Check the “Focus” or “Do not Disturb” settings.

 

Okay. I checked on my own car. When playing music from my phone via either Airplay or Bluetooth I cannot change playlists while the vehicle is in motion. I haven’t tested, but I suspect I can change it on the phone.

I remember reading about this before, and the availability of an interim wiring harness that gets plugged in behind the head unit. Then you’d clip the wire that sends speed info to the head unit, and all functions that previously didn’t work while the car was moving would do so.

 

I spent 50 grand on a car that won't let me change my music while I'm driving? Unbelievable!

 

That’s it!

 

This is not the case on my 2021 TRD Off Road Premium whether, I’m plugged into the head unit directly via USB or using my wireless CarPlay dongle: I can still scroll through my Apple Music Playlists as well as my phone directory on my iPhone 12 Pro while moving.

Maybe it’s an “upgrade” on the 2022 model year? I sure hope this isn’t an OTA firmware update I haven’t gotten yet…

 

On my 2019, I cannot (nor can a passenger) add a destination address in the Navigation app while moving, but we can select points of interest and other destinations while moving.

There are also some system settings that are not available while moving, but I can't remember what my wife tried changing when I was driving.

 

Thank you all for the helpful feedback. I went through the Focus/Do Not Disturb settings on my iPhone with no success. I’m going to check into the wire harness.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I did confirm that the touch screen works fine while using Car Play. You can scroll through and between your playlists while driving. I’m just not a fan of Car Play, particularly when you have to plug in the phone vs Bluetooth.

My 2019 Audi Q5 had a great set up, no touch screen and a well positioned knob that allowed the user to easily scroll. Best setup ever! Interestingly, in 2021, or thereabouts, the Q5 lost the knob and went to a touchscreen format very similarly to my new 4Runner.

Moving forward, I’ll probably pull up my playlists using Siri and scroll via the steering wheel control. (No CarPlay necessary.). Very livable solution

Dear Every Single Automaker - Lose the touch screen and give us back our knobs!! (Double entendres intended.)

 

I placed my order for the NAViKS wire harness this morning. $175. They provided excellent communication, answering all my questions immediately - impressive considering it was Saturday and late Saturday night.

It sounds as though it should a) solve the gray-out issue and b) provide a direct mirror of the phone. (I’m not so interested in the second option.)

I’ll will try to install myself and follow up on installation and functionality.

 

Thanks in advance for the follow up. I’m very interested. I’m wondering if denying that motion signal to the head unit will have any affect on the GPS.

 

I am PLEASED to report that the NAVIKS motion lockout bypass arrived last night, was easily installed (by me) and is working exactly as hoped! The menus no longer gray out while in motion and the GPS is working just fine.

Installation is pretty simple if you are just a little handy. Follow the directions and if you need to know how to get the radio out, there are videos on YouTube. Takes 30 minutes. If I did it again, I could probably do it in 20.

I made one initial mistake and bypassed the wrong connection. (Follow the directions closely). I called Tech Support and with a quick video call he saw the error and it was an easy fix. Note - I’ve been very impressed with their communication.

I haven’t driven around much, other than to run a quick test. I’ll follow up with long term results, or, assume no news is good news.

Thank you members for the recommendation!

 

That is great news. Thanks for being the guinea pig!