I got the navi in my 08 and hated the thing. I find the Honda navi's one of the best out there (imo). The user interface is easier and searching is better than the Toyota. When I order my 2009 I am going to go with a package 4 or touring package 3. I really like the leather wrapped steering wheel and one of the main reasons why I went with a package 6.
I will stand up for the Toyota Nav. I like it better than my 2006 Honda Nav because IMO the display is sharper and the POIs are much more accurate. My Honda nav had quite a few missing local streets. Streets that have been here for 100 years! It also could never find my house! It would tell me I reached my destination when I was still 3 blocks away. The search mode is slightly different than Honda but I would not say it's bad...I seem to be able to find everything I've looked for.
Does it seem odd to any of you that each company has to get its own database of streets? This seems incredibly wasteful to me. In the marine world NOAA does all of the charting, then individual NAV companies convert the NOAA data to proprietary formats. Even that seems a bit wasteful, but at least all of the data comes from an official source. I'd like a NAV database that works like Wunderground's weather stations. Wunderground shows all of the official weather stations, but in addition, a user can elect to display personal weather stations. The personal stations are not official and may contain errors, but they cover a much wider area. With a NAV system, you could have base maps from the official mapping agency, then optionally elect to include or exclude local data. When mobile Internet becomes common, the local data could be updated on the fly. Tom
The only thing that bothers me about the Prius Nav system is the cost and delay of updates. It typically takes over 3 years for new roads to appear on the system (My new 08 still shows an exit ramp on the wrong side of the road 3 years after the interchange was rebuilt. Plus, over $200 to update the disk? How about downloadable updates. Oh, and of course the stupid nanny screen lockout. (Fixed that with at wire cutter and a switch)
I personally find the Nav in my '08 Prius pretty intuitive. Yeah, it doesn't have nearly as many POI's as my Nav in my Jeep Grand Cherokee but then again, the stock MyGig in my Jeep has a hard drive built into it so they probably offer a bit more detail. Unlike other Nav units I've used I find the Toyota Nav to be very quick to add addresses (if you have the address). Other units have a lot more lag time as it's searching. I guess the feature of finding POI's doesn't matter too much to me because I just quickly pull up the google maps application on my Blackberry and use that to search what I want (it's continually updated since it's an online application). I find what I want, then quickly type the address in at a stoplight and I'm on my way. Mike
there is limitations to ALL NAV system afaic... many will argue that they have the best... but whats best for one will be a dog to others... the cost is prohibitive imho... upgrades are ridiculous....that is on the Pri (what was it?? $300 for last Nav update??) anyway i used Route 66 thru my MAC but using a 17" widescreen is too inconvenient... to big, no turn by turn, traffic reports, etc... p.us it was showing its age released in 2004... and no updates to purchase... last checked last year before giving up completely on them so i use verizon wireless on my cellphone. with bluetooth headset, it gives turn by turn, traffic updates, estimated traffic slowdowns, detour suggestions, etc and updates are relatively free (there is charges for downloading updates but that is for data transfers. my plan i get unlimited transfers free) and the cost is reasonable, 9.99 a month as standalone or somewhat less with a bundle plan. dont know how often they update the maps. (im sure they go thru some standard GPS mapping company) since they dont specify what most updates do... last update added the traffic monitoring enhancements plus 3D mapping which i find to be somewhat useless... looking at the map then determining by the building shapes if you are in right place i found to be foolish and very reckless especially when moving (plus most buildings are simply not all that distinctive in shape) they also added the ability to click on POI's and call them...something i really liked. (before i had to google for telephone #'s) plus not having it carmounted makes it available anywhere...something i really liked... *edit* dont know how true this is but recently talked with someone i met at the Alternative Fuel Fair who worked for a company that provided software for GPS mapping and he says that streets that come up missing or misplaced is a software glitch... not missing data... just misinterpreted data...
Well, actually.... There is the Tiger dataset, maintained by the US Census Bureau. Many (probably all) of the mapping and GPS products use the Tiger dataset as their starting place. Whether the Prius NAV system uses it is a question I don't know the answer to, but I'm betting that Google Maps, Garmin and probably all the other GPS manufacturers and software mapping producers like DeLorme, etc all use it. They all add their own spin to it, obviously. I would not be surprised if the Prius Nav also uses it; it's (more or less) free to all, and maintaining a dataset like that (or starting one from scratch) is probably too costly to contemplate. Bear in mind that there is a time factor in the accuracy: If you download and process the (HUGE!) Tiger database and put it into a product that sells for a few years, it's almost certainly out of date the minute it starts being distributed, let alone when it's discontinued. And I would not be surprised if there is a certain number of errors in the Tiger dataset itself: there is going to be some latency in updates to the primary source, let alone secondary ones.
