Entune and navigation in USA

All of Entune is free, and the only cost for navigation is if you update the maps.

 

When the roads change.

I've used a GPS system whose maps were about 5 years out of date and it's surprising how many little changes there are here and there. You can still generally get away with using the old maps, but if a major road project is built in an area you frequent or especially if you plan to go on a road trip into an area you're not familiar with then you'll probably want to get them updated.

Here in Vancouver a major freeway interchange (the "Cape Horn" interchange) was completely overhauled with new movements in various directions, and it was actually dangerous to follow GPS instructions based on the old map.

 

I still think the navigation on apps like Google Maps is light years better than the navigation system of any car manufacturer.

 

Prius sister is right, Entune nav is atrocious except when you are in Wyoming and South Dakota when crummy Tmobile signal is completely lost and you forgot to download offline maps! The money you spend updating nav better spent on a garmin gps or something even a really old smartphone with google map would suffice. Not saying nav is completely useless it did help me on road trip but you cant pinch zoom nearly as fast as google or look up restaurants on the way in less than 7 seconds so may be better to find an awesome phone mount like a cd mount since i never use the CD tray for anything. Just my opinions!

 

You first want to see the age of your version. It is found under one of the gizmo options like map data. You could ask your dealer to look up on the car and tell you too. Updating is probably a good idea every two years, given constructions and closures. There is no such thing as having too many nav options. I often use Google Maps on bluetooth instead. There are some things you should know about this nav.

It does not know the word "this" and will tell you "next" even when you are at the intersection, in the furthest lane. You almost gotta laugh, but you know you will miss your turn. To remedy, it will jump to your rescue with sage advice: Either, "make a legal u-turn" or turning either right or left, which leads to another of the same, to get back where you started. Just so you know, it is a tolerance tester at times. If you have proneness to do so, you will scream at it. This all said, it has a feature that I like. It will program five destinations in the sequence of your choice. And it is inflexible wuth routing other than the first choices unless you decide on your own and makd it follow along.

The best reason for nav is to stop wasting time being lost. But the screaming comes when it comes. You will find yourself saying, "Are you kidding me?!"

Update at the dealership. It costs almost two hundred if what I have read is correct.

 

Are you sure? I asked about this when I got my C because my Escape required you to buy a new card to update the maps but my Toyota dealership told me that if there are updates they will do it during services for no cost. It may be that my dealership does it free and others don't? I don't know.

 

They will update your Entune software for free (most of the time if you bug them about it), NOT the maps (that one can cost upwards of $150).

 

I asked them about the maps specifically and they told me they do it for free. Sounds like it may just be something my dealership does and not Toyota as a whole.

 

Please report back if they actually update your maps for free. I'm pretty sure the person who told you that was not informed correctly, since I highly doubt any dealership would give $150 updates for free, but hopefully you'll prove me wrong, and then I can get mine updated too.

 

If they do update Maps for free please let us know the Dealership address!

 

I also find features like Lane Assist incredibly useful, especially for LA traffic. I also have T-Mobile, but they have pretty good coverage where I go so I don't have that problem. Maybe another carrier for you? Unless you mean just a road trip through those states

 

I don't use Entune, but one thing I've noted with my Garmin GPS is that you have to second-guess the lane assist directions. For example the GPS will often say "be in either of the two left lanes" - but the catch is that by the time you actually arrive at the intersection a brand new lane has appeared in the form of a left turn bay. So if you weren't in the very leftmost lane while you approached the intersection then you won't be able to make the turn.

 

Yeah, sometimes I have problems with Lane Assist but it's not too often. For me it works most of the time. If I miss my exit or turn it's usually because I didn't realize it was coming up already but it's easy for me to just make a u-turn or go out the next exit and have it reroute. No biggie.

 

A little off topic, but it warms my heart to see someone say that. So often today, missing your highway exit just on a normal commute, where you know your way and don't need navigation assist, has become such a dreaded happening in heavy traffic that drivers are causing jam ups repeatedly to avoid it.

I see it happen almost every day. Hardly anyone thinks, "Oh I'll just go to the next exit, turn around and come back" even when it's only a short distance. Instead, when they find themselves in the left lane on a 5 lane highway, and suddenly realize their exit is approaching, they panic.

I'm sure many of us have experienced being in the left lane during rush hour when the speed in that lane gets slower and slower and then comes to complete stop. The rest of the lanes are still moving, slowly, but moving. And you're thinking, "Damn there must have been an accident in this lane up ahead." But no - it's that guy who forgot to get over for his exit, panicking, and because everyone else is tailgating, he can't change lanes and has to eventually stop to avoid missing his exit, while he waits for a hole to open up. When it does, he performs the same maneuver in the next lane and works his way across bringing the entire highway to a dead stop one lane at a time.

All it takes is a few drivers like that on the road with you during medium to heavy traffic, along with a few large trucks that take forever to get back up to a speed, to make the commute a miserable experience. In the absence of actual accidents, construction, or bad road design, I suspect more traffic jams are caused by those two bad driving habits, tailgating and not anticipating your exit, than we realize.

 

I find that most people who drive a route often enough to be familiar with the area generally don't miss their exits because they're used to being in the right lane when they need to be. It's more often people driving in an area that's unfamiliar to them that get into this kind of trouble.

I got by for many years without GPS, feeling that I didn't need assistance to find my way around. But I have one now and I wouldn't be without it. One of the many nice benefits is that when you're driving in an unfamiliar area and you miss a turn or an exit you don't have to sweat it - the GPS just takes it all in stride and gives you a new routing. When I was self-navigating it was a lot more of a hassle to miss an exit, but when it happens now there really isn't any stress at all unless I'm in a hurry (which I try to avoid as much as possible).

It's odd, because I'm still perfectly able to self-navigate. But the GPS makes it so easy and lets me concentrate on the traffic instead of maps and street signs that I wouldn't be without it. If I'd have somehow known how much it improved the driving experience in unfamiliar places I would have bought one much sooner.

 

Oh yeah, I totally agree. I also see the idiot who MUST get onto the interchange they need but changed lanes too late and end up stuck in the middle divider area waiting for an opening. Really, I'd rather not risk all the debris that

 

Sean Nelson said:

"I find that most people who drive a route often enough to be familiar with the area generally don't miss their exits because they're used to being in the right lane when they need to be. It's more often people driving in an area that's unfamiliar to them that get into this kind of trouble"

I agree. Most people who drive a regular route do remember. But in heavy traffic where almost everyone is following too close, you could be driving in a pack of over 500 cars in a half a mile space on a 4 lane highway. It only takes 2 or 3 of those drivers, less than 1%, to be distracted by something and forget.

But it requires both bad habits for the jam up to occur. If even half the people on the highway weren't tailgating, it wouldn't have such a dramatic effect, as it would be easier to change lanes. Unfortunately, at least where I drive in Rhode Island, well over 90% are tailgating on the highway.
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