Navi really Bad. Plus, Map Turn List on Home Screen?

No auto map updates. The map data is on an SD card in your dash. (see your manual) The map updates come out in the fall each year and they run about $169.00. Even though the Toyota maps and your Garmin both run the same database (Navteq) the POI database on the Toyota is watered down as compared to the Garmin.

 

For $169, you can buy a brand new Garmin with Lifetime Maps. More I find out about Toyota Nav system less likely I will be keep using it. That's very sad for brand new car with all those bells and whistles. First, I found out I won't be using Charge Point credit. Next I found I won't be using Sirius Radio. Then I found out Entune is a crap. Now, Nav is almost useless. What else is going to be on my list, I wonder??? And, it's only 3 days since I got the car!!!!

 

True. The suckyness of in dash nav is not something new. It's been trying to catch up to standalone nav from the very beginning. (all vehicle manufactures have been in that boat) It's better than it used to be. Give yourself two weeks to only use your in dash nav and see if it gives you errors or route errors compared to your Garmin. I'll bet it's not "that" bad. Some areas of the country may be worse than others. My wife uses and swears her 2014 Camry Hybrid in-dash nav is great. Note; don't use the "shortest setting but use the quickest instead" for a Garmin feel.

As for Sirius, I tried it and was not impressed. It can't compare to my terabytes of custom FLAC format music. Plus they send you crap to come back for several years. I still get "come back to us junk" from my 2014.

 

Nav is NOT "almost useless". In fact, in some ways I find it better than Google Maps. I even started a thread on that.

First, it's always on. I don't have to pull my phone out of my pocket, connect it to the charger, start the app, and find a place to put the phone. And it's always showing me traffic conditions.
Second, it's large and much more easily visible than a phone.
Third, it can actually find rest stops on highways (Google is somehow unable to do this).
Fourth, it can use "dead reckoning" which means it still works in tunnels, inside parking garages and in other places where GPS isn't available (this has saved me before, and Google has cost me big time because of this failing).

Yes, the voice recognition is pretty terrible, it's hard to set destinations compared to Google Maps and Toyota's update mechanism would be laughable if it didn't make you cry first. But it's far from "useless". I use it about 10 times as much as I use Google Maps in the car. Google Maps excels at finding things like places to eat and so forth. But Google's map data is far from perfect even with all the user-supplied corrections. I've supplied many because I've found many. Most have been fixed, a few were never fixed.

 

Thanks for the heads up advise. I don't do too much traveling requiring Nav. If I had a choice with or without Nav on Prime, I would have preferred without. If they made Prime with Prius Two feature, that would have been my ideal car. I will not open an account with Sirius. All I need is NPR station on regular radio, but I am already missing not having a CD player on this car... sigh

 

Just download a free CD riper. Rip your CD's to a high quality variable bit rate MP3 and copy to your phone and stream via BT. It will sound just as good as the CD and it's portable. I copy mine to the phone and to a 16GB iPod Nano and connect the iPod via USB. It performs and sounds better on USB than BT but at 16GB you're limited to only 6.8 days of 24x7 listening.

 

Yeh, yeh, I know that's the way to go. I am just too lazy to look for the external CD ROM I have somewhere in my pile of gadget junks. Neither my laptop nor desktop PC have CDROM. Most of my musics are already in either in my phone or MP3 player, but I still have a quite few CD's I havn't got around to copying them. Then again, I still have quite few cassette tapes I sometimes play on cassette tape player in my 2005 Sienna.

 

At least you didn't say 8-track.

 

Thanks for the comment. Since it is a built-in NAV, I will make some use out of it, I think I just worry that it will not be accurate and out dated without automatic update. I am certainly not planing to pay for the update. I've never used phone to navigate, so being better than Google Map does not mean much to me. My GO TO NAV has been always GARMIN. I have had three different models of GARMIN GPS NAVs in the past and for each upgrade they have improved vastly for its interface and functionality. I really haven't used the Toyota's NAV yet, so I will reserve the final judgement until I compare it with my GARMIN.

 

+1 For those that have not used a full featured Garmin, it's hard to understand how good they are. They excel at advanced complicated routing over long distances. Google Maps is cool, but it can't do complex routing like a Garmin can. Garmin alerts you to school zones, rest areas, and so much more. Yes, other products have bits and pieces that excel but over all they don't measure up.

I started out using Delorme Street Atlas USA 6 on a laptop with a GPS puck and lived with that for many generations of the slow to show changes Delorme database. It would take several years for new streets to appear. Then in dash NAV's started to appear and they sucked as well as being VERY expensive. After several years I got my first 4.3" Garmin Nuvi. I got rid of the laptop and Delorme and never looked back. The in dash Nav's got better but so did the Garmin's. Then I went to a 7" screen Garmin Nuvi 2797 and loved it. I still use it for long distance trips. I've learned I can rely on it. It was flawless from OKC to Nova Scotia. Flawless from OKC to the west coast to Vancouver to Jasper, AB. And on and on.

Yes, I WILL give the NAV in the Prime a serious long distance test as I really "want" to be able to rely on it like the Garmin, but the Garmin is not going away.

PS, I'm not a Google Maps hater by any means. I love it. I'm an NDA bound Google Maps Preview beta tester. Don't ask . . .

I just like to use the best tool that fits what I need at the time.

 

Yes, Garmin is good, but I think traffic prediction is better in Google Maps (+Waze)... also as an FYI, some 2017 and 2018 Hondas have the Garmin as built-in NAV incl 3D graphics for the buildings, etc ... it would be great if Toyota moved to it from 2018 or 2019.

 

You need to read about Entune 3.0 on the higher trim levels of the new 2018 Camry. It's long but well worth the read. Pretty interesting stuff coming.

Excerpt . . . . For higher grade Camrys with premium embedded navigation systems, we’re excited to introduce a feature we call Dynamic Navigation.

We think this is a game-changer for how vehicles deliver on-board maps and navigation going forward.
Here’s how it works…

Currently, all map and navigation information is stored in the vehicle on either a hard drive, DVD or SD card.

However, roads are always under construction, with new on-ramps, off-ramps, thoroughfares and intersections being added. Not to mention all the new businesses popping up in developing areas.
To update the embedded map, today customers rely on replacement data, provided at a dealership. The problem is, few customers know these updates are available, and less than 10% ever update their embedded map.

Entune 3.0 has changed that. The 2018 Camry models that have DCMs are ALWAYS connected to the Toyota Smart Center. Dynamic NAV communicates with the TSC to ensure the most up-to-date map and route is available.

 

+100

 

I still get it for my 2010 Prius and I never subscribed -- and now I get even more with my Prime. It seems I don't go 2 days without something from them in email. Sirius -- get with it, I don't want to subscribe!