2010 Prius Navigation System is really horrible

Ditto for me. Wasn't planning on getting it because of the price, but when one was available with all the other things I wanted, we went ahead with the purchase. I am happy with it, but I honestly use the nav screen more for the audio features and backup camera way more that I use it as a nav tool.

 

Well, I too wanted the 'integrated' system with the clean look, and the extra features of the package (specifically the solar roof - which I love).

So far I love just about everything on my Prius.

Perhaps when everything else is so good, it just brings to light the minor annoyances of an 'expensive/not quite perfect' NAV system. The car raised the bar in many areas and I'd just like to see them improve the NAV system.

And I'm not complaining... I hope that Toyota is reading these forums and will improve the NAV feature so that when I buy my next Prius, the NAV system is superior!

And I'm a bit frustrated/annoyed that the package now comes with the USB interface, and I got my Prius before that was a standard feature.

 

Did having the nav make you feel like an extended warranty became a must-have?
I supposed you could just throw it out and replace it with a regular radio if it failed out of warranty and it wasn't worth the cost to fix.
There are now some third party radios that look really close to OEM.

Look at this one for the 2009+ Corolla
Maybe one like it will be eventually made for the Prius

 

When they made the update in the U.S. to add USB support with the navigation package, did they also change the nav from DVD to hard drive?

 

No, mine is still on DVD.

 

Is a switch to the hard drive based navigation system pending for later in the 2010 model year in the U.S.?

 

Ok, now I've had my Prius for a whole week and a half (I know, veteran now eh?) I've got to say I quite like a lot of the features of the Euro spec HDD based Satnav. There are still some features I prefer about my TomTom, such as full voice input for destinations, the Prius system only seems to offer recent destination, POI and a saved destination. I'd also say the TomTom's logic engine is more accurate. I frequently have to take some of the minor roads in Dorset and Hampshire and the Prius system's weighting towards major routes is a little too strong.

The directions in the HUD are good, and the TMC system is spot on, warning me when traffic jams or read closures are ahead and diverting me accordingly. Having fiddled around I have the time to destination, though how they thought black on grey would be easy to read as you glance down at a display I'm not sure. Should be the same as the distance to the next turn icon - nice and clear white on black. I like the concept of the motorway view but in reality it's to busy to read - unless you're stuck in a traffic jam I guess!

Annoyingly, on some menus it cannot detect me saying 'Enter' and thinks I've said 'Cancel' instead - other menus are just fine. Very strange.

Not strictly SatNav but the system has detected and correctly identified most of the CDs I've uploaded onto its HDD - much easier to navigate when you can actually see the Album and track name!!

 

My want to check your preferences. My default was not set to prefer toll road and avg speed was off. Not saying I *love* the Nav system, but it works better now. My house was off by a few hundred feet, but I have a new house.

 

One thing I have noticed that it is very reluctant to reroute around traffic even after checking the option to avoid traffic.
There was heavy freeway traffic and it was seen by the XM NavTraffic "Slow traffic ahead," yet it insisted on using a route that went through the traffic rather than rerouting on parallel surface streets that were moving faster. I decided to turn off on my own and take the faster surface streets and it tried to redirect me back to the freeway before it finally calculated a different route.
Seems like it won't automatically reroute around the problem traffic unless the traffic is at a complete standstill or the road is closed.
In general most routes are not as good as the routes given by my portable Garmin and will often calculate routes that don't make any sense as either fastest time or shortest mileage. It still gets you there eventually, but not always with an intelligent route. They need more work on their routing engine. Maybe with the next generation system with hard disk drive, they will be able to set it to calculate a bit longer on an optimized route. I think they have it set rush to choose a route without enough "thought" to make up for the extra time spent searching on the slow DVD. I would rather wait an extra 5 or 10 seconds and have it optimize the route a bit better.

 

It is very quick - much quicker than any other SatNav I've had. It's calculation of the 2 quick routes and 1 short one I'd say is done almost instantaneously - a revelation, though I sometimes question the routes it chooses. I've never had any delay with it picking up a satellite signal either. To answer the question from web1b, it does tend to be more persistent than my TomTom in trying tio return me to it's planned route before finally re-routing. On the other hand, so far TMC (a free system in much of Europe)- had been spot on in warning me of traffic etc which the system then routes me around. You can also scroll through all the traffic warnings on the display.

 

This "Nav" Package would take me miles out of my way if I let it.

 

I have to agree that the 2010 Nav system is not worth it's price tag. In my case, I had no choice but to purchase it because it came bundled with the Solar Roof package. My husband's $200 Tom Tom does a much better job of pinpointing our house. We live in a well established suburb and it baffles me that how badly the 2010 Prius NAV misses the location of our house. In addition, for some reason it ignores the main street in my neighborhood as a possible route home and tries to calculate around it every time.

One enhancement that I would ask for is a voice "mute" button directly on the screen that requires a single touch. That way I can choose at what point I no longer need voice guidance, but continue to show the map and movement along the route.

On the positive side, the NAV is relatively quick in calculating multiple routes. In addition, although the NAV misses on pinpointing exact destination locations, it perfectly indicates where I am supposed to turn. It double-beeps ~30 feet before the turn, every time. Go figure...

 

The poor-performing Nav was the reason why I bought a Prius II, which I am slowly upgrading into a Prius IV. My first step was the installation of a Kenwood DNX6960, which is a pretty easy do-it-yourself project.

The Kenwood has the full-sized touchscreen, radio, iPod interface, DVD player (with rear seat screen option), USB audio playback, handsfree Bluetooth, a rear camera, and Garmin GPS. I'm going to add an HD Radio module.

I knew the Toyota Nav was antiquated when I saw that it stores maps on DVD. Flash memory has been a much cheaper solution for several years now.

If you haven't bought a Prius yet, you can get much better electronics at a lower cost by going third party. And installation was much easier than I thought.

 

Congratulations on following a great plan. If you haven't done so already I'd suggest you use Amazon to purchase the Garmin lifetime upgrade (4/yr) to keep your nav as current as possible. It's a slow download process but well worth the investment and for about $95
it becomes a cheap investment very quickly compared to Toyota's upgrade.:rockon:

 

I guess part of the problem lies with the mapping system that is used. We are pretty well off in the UK with a good national Ordnance Survey system if mappers choose to use (and pay for) it. I hated the nav system in my 2006 Lexus because it used only partial postal codes, but the updated system in the latest Prius has full postal codes and works pretty well for me. It is better at motorway routes than at the local byways, but I have no major complaint with it other than the slowness and expense of updates. Third party systems like TomTom are now offering virtually instantaneous updates to the latest Ordnance Survey version, but the Toyota system still has me driving through fields because it doesn't know about two-year-old roads.

 

I have no problems with the NAV. I find it to be accurate, and have had no issues navigating to places I want to go. I do agree, however, it would be nice to have a mute button.

 

I have the nav in my 2010 and had it in my 2006 Prius. The 2010 nav works better for me than the 2006. House locations are computed by the nav system based on the computer (not the one you see on the screen) map provided by Toyota's map vendor. The calculation is inherently inaccurate. The map has a starting address at each node (intersection) and also whether odd or even houses are on the left or right. It's up to the nav software to calculate where any particular address lands on the map. It seems to assume equal spacing between house numbers (makes sense, I guess). Of course in real life that isn't the case all the time.

You can tune speed calculations in the setup.

I know it is exciting to get your new car and finally have something to write about. But don't you think you need more than one day to determine how bad or good the nav system realll is? It's hard to give much credibility to a report based on the drive home from the dealer.

 

I have a Garmin, the Maps app in the iPhone, the Magellan app in the iPhone and the NAV in my Prius. Which have I used (only had the car for 2 weeks now)? The one with the large screen, sitting right/front of me unencumbered by power cables, suction cups, beanbags, clamps, etc. Maybe it isn't perfect, but it sure is convenient and I don't have to hide all evidence of it when parking in a sketchy area. Oh, and both times I've used it, it got me exactly where I was going on the exact route I would have taken had I known the location of my destination.

 

The more I use my Nav the better I like it. Is it perfect ? No. Does it get me where I am going without issues? Yes.

Once I took the time to read the manual and understand how the different settings affect the calculations, I have had no issues with mine. I have even been surprised a couple of times with the route that it chose, using what I would consider as local knowledge routes.

I really like the built-in convenience and do not have to bother with cables, mounting brackets, etc.

My audio system sounds great and I have had no reception issues with FM, AM or SAT.

I have read a lot of rants about the Nav and audio system here but I am glad to report that I have no issues with mine. So those reading these posts for the first time, take it with a grain of salt and realize that there are a small minority that have issues with any of the systems on the Prius.