The Toyota Rav4's Hands-Free Phone Capability Via Bluetooth

I recently traded in my seven year old GMC, Sonoma truck for a new Toyota, Rav4, all-wheel drive SUV. One of the new features of the Rav4 was the hands-free phone capability via Bluetooth. I thought this was one cool, convenient, and safe feature, plus it is a feature that is free. I work for a company that manages servers 24/7. These servers are located all over the world and I get phone calls all hours of the day and night. I hate it when our data center calls me about a potential server problem while I am driving, so I figured this new hands-free feature would be a safe way to take these calls instead of fumbling in my purse for my cell phone, holding it to my ear with one hand while steering with the other and trying to find a safe place to pull over and talk. After using this feature for several weeks, I found that I was wrong.

The hands-free phone feature with the Bluetooth capability (which is built into the onboard navigation system), allows for a wireless connection between my Rav4 and my mobile phone. Any cell phone will work as long as it has Bluetooth capabilities. In the past I have used a wire headset connected to my phone and also a wireless Bluetooth enabled ear piece. They both bothered my ears and the wireless piece did not work well if you were talking to someone while going through a drive-thru at a fast food restaurant as I would sometimes hear, "Would you like fries with that?"

Bluetooth allows a wireless connection between two or more devices by using a 2.4 GHz radio spectrum with a range of about 32 feet. Bluetooth capability not only transfers voice but also handles data transmissions, which allows the user to send faxes, and synchronize PDAs, laptops and other mobile phone applications.