How do I update my navigation?

No, but at least the Great OsmAnd Blowup was not the final straw, just a curious waypoint along the way....

-Chap

 

I use an app called HERE WE GO, which is also free, and has maps for every state, and just about every country.

In fact, the company HERE is part of Navteq, the same company that supplies maps to Toyota (and many other car companies). I'm not sure if Toyota uses them for all its cars.

I use it as my backup in case I need GPS and am out of cell-phone range. Just don't forget to download your maps (I won't tell you how I know to tell you this).

 

The phone ecosystem is crawling with "free" apps, via all kinds of shenanigans. The thing that appealed to me specifically about OsmAnd~ is that it was open-source (I obtained it via f-droid). Is HERE WE GO open-source?

-Chap

 

Navigations with cd / dvd drive update via boards is a memory card so i update by replacing the card.

 

Go to the App store and get maps.me. Then download all the maps you want. Works great for me when I go to Africa. I imagine it's in the Google Play Store as well. No need for a signal, it's free, and it's constantly updated.

 

Well the 2018 release DVD is available from Toyota for $169. But there are a bunch of guys on ebay selling the 2017 version for $11 - $17. Good enough for me.

 

Just called my local (St)dealer. $400 to update my 2013, no thanks.

 

Hmmmm. My Garmin updates are free. As are my Google maps, Maps.me, and Apple maps. And I don't have to take my eyes so far away from the road.

 

I always stay a year behind. The folks who update every year sell their previous year's DVD (which are otherwise useless) for a huge discount.

 

Until you don't have a cell signal. Ever heard of West Virginia?

 

Garmin doesn't use cellular. That the biggest reason I favor it. West Virginia is nuthin' compared to the hundreds of miles in AZ without cellular. Garmin just keeps on scrolling along.

 

GPS (Global Positioning System) units use satellites not cell towers for triangulation.

 

For those of you turning up your nose at the Nav system, don’t be so hasty.
Twice in the past few years the Nav system has been able to guide us out of remote locations where three different iPhones were unable to even find us.
The first time we’re were just coming off a five day backpack trip in the mountains of Wyoming; it was pitch dark and we could barely see the road. iPhones for whatever reason couldn’t figure out where the road was so we switched on the Prius system and it got us to our hotel with no wrong turns. The second time was very similar but in the mountains of Colorado.

 

I will be editing the overview of what the dealership do to update your Nav map soon.

 

TL;DR
Google Maps.
Download areas and navigate offline - Android - Google Maps Help

OK.
Maneuvering answers: ALL STOP.

Now that we've pulled the thread over, let's explore the possibility that cell phones might just have a GPS receiver in them.
I'm pretty sure that I read that somewhere when I bought my last phone.
As a matter of fact....if you have a phone that's been manufactured in the last few years it probably also has a GLONASS receiver as well, and fairly soon will probably also incorporate Galileo and BeiDou systems.
I'll leave the BeiDou/virus joke there on the sidewalk if somebody wants to pick it up and run with it.

So....
This isn't a HARDWARE issue, but rather a SOFTWARE/GREED issue....AND as it turns out SOME mapping software lets you store maps on your preferred digital device for off-line use which is handy whether you're in a concrete canyon in Manhattan or someplace in Tennessee where they have to pipe in sunlight.
If you want to pay for the convenience of being able to use mapping data off-line - there's nothing at all wrong with that.
Where it starts to be SOMETHING wrong with that is when your satellite nav system has nagware built into it prompting you to buy new maps every time you power up your car, and when they shank you for several hundred dollars every few years.
I'm not sure if Toyota still does this does this, because I'm fairly sure that my beloved company will probably never buy another Toyota product again, and if they did it wouldn't be up-optioned enough to have a NAV unit.
My company car is 10 years old.

One of the things I love about my PERSONAL car is that it's future-resistant.
I can use Android or IOS (I have both) and thus far using Apple Car play seems to work well for me since my beloved company digs the Apples.

My current turf covers a third of a state, and I have maps stored for all of it - and I've had to USE those maps because as it turns out....SOMETIMES when you work in telecommunications you have to fix broken cell towers.

 

Well, one bit of it that is hardware is that the car's system has the wheel speed, steering angle, and gyro inputs, allowing it to dead-reckon to some degree during dropouts of GPS reception.

Another bit that's hardware is that it's just right there in the dash where I want to see it without fussing with my phone or a phone mount. Granted, the Android Auto sorts of integrations can help with that.

I wonder if they can make the car's sensor info available to the phone for dead reckoning?

I think phones do typically contain gyros, but I'm not sure how useful they are for nav, unless the phone is going to be in a fixed mount and there's a calibration step.

 

I never updated my nav system but little by little it has caused havoc for the whole system. My battery died and when I replaced it the whole system is locked…no radio even! What would be the best way to get things going again. I don’t care about the actual nav maps but I do need to reconnect my phone etc. Thanks

 

Isn't there a code you need to type in? Which is somewhere in the
stuff you got with the car....
If not, and you need a code, you can take it to a toyota dealer and prove you own
the car, registration, drivers license, vin number, and they can get the code.

 

This is not correct. Many apps including Google maps have offline maps. What I do is download regions for offline before I go driving out in an area with poor or no signal. This works great and is more current than the DVD system. There are also offline maps for hiking or bicycling and such but you can run out of battery or simply fall and break the phone if you are not managing it correctly. Waze last I knew did not have an offline capability so it is true not all apps do this. One also has to be proactive and download regions in advance.