My 2010 Prius includes the factory installed navigation system. One complaint I have is voice clarity when navigating via the Prius GPS. It is anything but clear. Sometimes the words are very difficult to understand. On my portable Garmin GPS, I have the option of choosing from several different voices (male or female) and then choose one that seems clearer to me. As far as I know, this option is not available with the Prius Navigation system. Voice quality with the Garmin is first rate. Another complaint is the wordiness of comments voiced by the Prius Navigation system. For example, a voice message might say : "one half of a mile to the next intersection". Extra words like "of" and "the" are time consuming and amateurish. A clearer message would say "one half mile to next intersection". One more complaint reflects the incompleteness of the mapping software. This is when the NAV voice says something like "turn right to" and omits the street name that should follow. This doesn't happen often, but does happen - even with heavily traveled roads that have remained unchanged for decades. At present the Prius mapping data and the voice software just don't do a very good job. I hope that someone will eventually come up with a way to allow a portable GPS unit to interface with the Prius Display unit and thereby replace the Prius Navigation system - which is pathetic.
I've had several Lexus/Toyota vehicles with NAV, and the voice has always been similar, but in the Prius she has a more gravelly voice like a smoker.
I like the voice of the lady who gives directions -- but the one who pronounces the road names is awful. It's kind of jarring because the nice voice will say "turn right on.." and that nasty voice comes in with "Fullerton Road" which may or may not be very clear. However, I find it pretty clear for the most part and I also find the bluetooth phone connection to be MUCH clearer than the Garmin. My Garmin Nuvi gives a lot more options in terms of voice.
The NAV voice could be worse: Take a left on Lonely Avenue: Bob Dylan may lend his voice to a GPS system | Music | guardian.co.uk
The digitally recorded lady's voice is generally quite clear, but some words are not enunciated well. For example, I have trouble hearing her "next right" ... I hear something more like "ex-right" which my brain thinks sounds more like "left-right". The text-to-speech is quite poorly done, with too-quickly generated sylables run together so that it is difficult to understand the street names unless you already know what the name is. It is not difficult to do the TTS much better than is done here.
I thought she's one of the best, most natural voices from Toyota (not counting the computer voice for street names). The TTS voice tends to speed through the name of the road as garygid said. Gen 6 nav: After the beep, please say a command such as "Go Home", "Destination", "Phone", "Audio", or "Command List" Gen 5 nav <in computerised voice>: Please say a command after beep.
Traded a 2007 Camry and she sounded a little younger back then. Don't have a problem with her other than once in a while the street names aren't that clear. Overall all am used to the system and love it.
It certainly doesn't compare with the Garmin Nuvi voices. They always sound natural and are easy to understand, even if the pronunciations are a bit off at times (Wes Ed Monster Drive instead of West Edmonston or Seventeenth Saint Northwest instead of Seventeenth Street Northwest).
How do you suppose it would do with our Native American names? I live on the corner of Nagonaba and Shabwasung, just a block up from Wakazoo. Tom
