Alright, I'm admitting from the start that I don't really know what I'm talking about. (I don't yet have my car, remember) I've seen advertisements no tv showing cars with Navigation systems and they say something like "3-D navigation system" and it honestly looks as though the nav screen display is projected from above the car with buildings protruding and everything. I've seen snapshots of the Prius nav and know that the display is not of that perspective. But my question is whether you can purchase Nav DVDs for localized areas with greater detail and perhaps the 3-D perspective. I guess that's 2 questions. It's just that while I drive alot, it's only in the Chicagoland area. Honestly, being able to navigate my way through San Francisco doesn't appeal to me right now.
I've never seen any commercials like that...what cars are they for? EDIT: Upon some thought, I'd have to think that even with such nav CDs, the Prius wouldn't be able to offer the 3d perspective, because it doesn't have controls for moving the perspective.
During a test drive, I noticed that when on the motorway and approaching an exit, the screen splits in half and shows a 3D view of the exit. Also I saw a picture of a 3D view of the city streets of Tokyo (or other Japanese city). This was on the Toyota Japan Prius website. Lost the link though... So I think the NAV can display a bit of 3D and perhaps Toyota will make some sort of update available for the NAV system.
i saw the same advertising, though when i saw it, it was talking about relatively new technology that is getting it's start in japan. in japan, i guess because they are relatively small geographically, you actually get the look of all the buildings around where you are. it occurs to me that the united states is a much bigger place and that it will probably come to this country gradually starting with the big cities, and of course as storage technology continues to increase in speed and capacity (anybody remember the clear crystal bars in the superman movies that held the entire history of planet krypton?) i'm sure we will have lots more info on the nav systems.
That might be what I'm talking about. I am really good at remembering snippits of information but really bad at remembering where it came from. Take an encyclopedia, rip all the pages out and shuffle them. That's me! Pushing the idea of 3-D Navigation screens aside, what does anyone know about localized Navigation DVDs? Can I get one that only covers Chicagoland or perhaps Illinois or maybe the Gary/Chicago/Milwaukee corridor, but does it in much greater detail and accuracy than a national DVD would? Again, I don't know much about Navigational systems, so when writing your response, please use small words and type slowly.
the only thing i know from discussion on here on upgrading the prius DVD is that it was expensive, a figure of $250 was thrown around. nothing was said about local ones or completely different DVD's. some systems, the garmin street pilot, for instance, are divided up mainly because they don't have enough built-in memory to hold the whole country. that much i do know. beyond that, i'm sure there are folks on here who can add much more... this is my first nav system.
FYI, my Jag X-Type's NAV system allowed you to "tilt" the display forward using a slider. At full tilt, the screen looked like a video game with the roads in the distance appearing smaller than the roads immediately in front of you. I found this pespective to be a closer match to your actual view out the windshield, especially at high zoom.
For Japanses Navi Well its very limited location has 3D views mainly for populated downtown area. Also I quit not sure but other future called birds Eye view for high way exit or intersection. Other future is high way navi which show all exit name miles
here some Navi pics from Japan opps #2 for high way driving actually right side of screen show exits and miles
