How good is the voice activated nav system?

1. I have it on everywhere we go. We use it to plan the unexpected destination mostly. It is nice to know the best route home too.

2. It is Excellent! We split the screen. The left side is set for 300 feet and we have icons to show us businesses along route. The right side is set for a half mile so we can see turns ahead and what the road is doing out ahead.

3. Yes, and you can interrupt her questions by pushing the talk button. The GPS gal has a nice pleasant voice. In the little short booklet are all the commands she understands. It would be good to review those so you can know what to ask for.

4. Yes, I would be very upset to lose this feature. I'm a pilot and fly with a Garmin 296 and LOVE it. We also have a Garmin Nuvi and Love it. My wife is forever fiddling with the GPS so I can't use it to navigate. Now we can use the Prius GPS to navigate and she can fiddle all she wants with the Nuvi.

5. We also love the kicked up stereo and especially the backup camera! We love that feature and use it all the time.

 

The voice activation implementation in Toyota/Lexus products sucks. I've had several vehicles with it, and did discover that previous versions responded better to a higher-pitched voice. While the Prius is better in that regard, I don't use it to any great extent.

And I wish that Toyota would dump the NAV provider, and team up with Garmin, who makes a NAV system that's much more intuitive, with a much easier user interface. While my Prius has the NAV system and I use it, I'm not in love with it like CAR4TWO. The Garmin is excellent, the Toyota NAV is mediocre.

 

ZTrekus, I definitely am much more in alignment with CAR4TWO's view. I have a IV with NAV, and I use the NAV feature quite a lot. It's been especially helpful since we just moved to a new neighborhood. We've learned a lot of shortcuts by using the alternative routes that the NAV system suggests.

Here are the specific answers to your questions:

1 We use this feature a lot and love it.
2) I would say it is flawless so far (I've had by IV about a week.). I've never had any issue with the system misunderstanding me with numbers or words.
3) Yes, we speak the address while driving. I've only tried it with the windows up and AC on. I have yet to try it with the windows down (likely will not do that ever due to allergies).
4) Yes, I'd be ticked. I would not have bought the car without the factory NAV system.

We have two other cars with factory nav: a 2009 Mercedes SLK and a 2008 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. The 2010 Prius NAV is better than either one of them. The SLK system does not use a touchscreen, so data entry is hard. The voice recognition system is very finnicky. The Jeep does have a touchscreen, but the system seems to get lost and show us on a completely different road from time to time. One time it showed us in the middle of the Potomac River!

I hope this is helpful.

 

I noticed a few weeks ago that Google Maps FINALLY has my street corrected with the right name. By the time I get my 2014 Prius, I hope the NAV system will actually guide me HOME, so now is NOT the time to dump that data.

Huh. Just looked. The satellite map used to have my house, but now it's back to pre-2004 where my part of the subdivision wasn't started yet. What the heck?...

 

The only command I use on a regular basis is "Pause Guidance" when I want to stop the NAV turn by turn guidance. I wouldn't miss the voice activation all that much if it weren't there.