Prius Navigation System- It sucks.

I have a 2004 model. I have founds a few flaws but it does not bug me. After all.. if i'm bothered.. i can take my lazy nice person and point my finger on to the map and find the place myself. It's not hard. You can see the entire US with a touch of a finger.. literally. A few times it has set me about a block or so off. I see this as understandable. The systems DVDs are not designed by Toyota. It's a secondary company that maps everything out and puts it at your fingertips. The area i live is either really rural or it's city that's pretty new. I have also found that brand new roads and overpasses do not exist ( I figure the map is around 2 years old in this area )... so.. to people that get about a mile away.. well. that sucks and i can sympathize with you. If you are complaining that you are less than a block off.... common people, look at your maps. As for home address.. guess what? go home.. mark it and label it as home. Then you get to tell your car " go home" and it will set it as the destination. hey.. if you want, after it says " say enter destination to confirm" Press the speak button and say " enter destination " and that way you don't have to touch the screen.

By the say, a class action law suit would not work. First off you would have to find people with that much time on their hands. Second, we know better to bring up a law suit to one of the best car companies in the world that's doing nothing but helping the world out. If you're bored and want to bring up a law suit.. why not help out the world and sue GM or Hummer. After all, the H2 isn't a hummer, it's a Danali SUV.... so is this false advertising?

 

I had the 2002 nav and it was much better in terms of NAV sw.. . the hardware is great... BUT when they changed from NavAtech to GDT for the software... Can you say BUGS. I call Cust. Care... I was told I WOULD get an update... no money was asked for... made it sound like it would be sent out...

Now I had issues with the 2002 nav sw... but nothing like this GDT version... roads that NavAtech has (and have been there for 20 years) are not correct in the 2004 GDT version or even there :cussing: .... is this plan WRONG... wonder what Toyota would do if they got say 200, 500, 1000+ calls in one day demanding a fix.. ?

I wish they would go back to NavAtech for the SW.. Talked to NavAtech and they said Toyota knew about the issues... and was talking about going back to them for the sw. Guess GDT cut a lower price... and we have not made enough noise...

I mean the shortest route to Mom's house is 500 miles out of my way ( yes I have check the route pref's) ... Trip back from CA route was just plan wrong... that is when I knew something was up..

I would go down and order newer version for $50 now... but not 300... most sw have bug fixes/update that the user can get for "free" ... $10 would be s/h and media cost..

Rant over...

 

Version 4.23? I picked up my 04 at the beginning of May and I have version 3.2. I believe "htmlspinnr" (Rick) took delivery of his 04 at the end of December and he has version 3.1.

How often do they update these things? Obviously, it's more than once a year.

 

I wonder if the major number is the year the data was collected (based on US car make year). So the '04 cars would have DVD version 3.x and the '05's would have 4.x.

Might explain why the parts dept said they had version 2003 (or did they say 2002?).

 

Did someone mention a class action? How about this firm? :lol:

[Broken External Image]:http://www.nyclasslaw.com/imgs/hp_header.gif

 

There's one additional complication about the DVD version. If you go to the normal Menu +MAP DVD display, the version number comes out V3.03... but if you go to the diagnostics menu [hold down the info button and turn the lights on/off 3 times], then press Nav Ck, and then "Parts Info", it says

Navigation: Denso 5400

Disc Information Denso V.04.02.10

It looks like there may be two different sorts of version numbers associated with the disk (maybe a software version and a map version). Beats me.

 

bparrish,

Here's a snapshot of the two folders and files on the disk (v 3.2).

 

Note that the file, "VERSION.TXT" is dated 11/25/2003. Opening that file reveals the following:

COMMENT=ver.03.2;

That number is consistent with what's printed on the disk label (3.2).

Note also that the header reads "464210-0460", thus your "Disc Information Denso V.04.02.10".

 

From what I gather, you enter your home address to see if it takes (mine is 5 years old so it probably won't), mark it as "home" (once, right?), put in your destination and then it uses GPS to track your progress after showing you one or 3 possible routes.

My question, besides the steps above, are
1. What are the vocal features?
2. What can't you do while moving?
3. Does it talk back?

Is this the right place to ask these or is there a place that explains it all?

Thanks,

Rich N.

 

I'm sure all of this has been explained many, many times, but this is as good a place as any. Answers to your questions:

1) You can enter destinations, change points-of-interest, zoom, change map orientation, suspend and resume guidance, among many other features. Some work well, others are a bit tricky.

2) Most on-screen push buttons are disabled. Basic map functions still work, as well as suspending and resuming guidance, but you can't manually key in a new destination.

3) Jill talks a lot. She calls out lane changes and turns, and announces destinations. She does not pronounce street names.

Note that the Nav system has been improved for the 2010 model. My comments are for the current system.

Hope this helps,
Tom

 

My 2008 Prius can't find my home that has been here since 1979. It shows my home one block away.

 

The databases do not identify specific addresses. They are based on a range of addresses for a given block or a stretch of road. In more rural areas actual house numbers may not be distributed in the same uniform manor as a mapping program does.

All mapping programs experience this kind of anomaly to one degree or another.

 

Where does Google Earth show your house? If you enter in your address in the search box, I'm willing to bet it's at least a house or two away from where it really is.

 

Sorry, I should have posted in a 2010 Prius thread - it is now there.

 

My 2009 gets me right to the driveway of my house, also built in 1979. How it gets me there is another story

 

I too have a 2004. When I pay premium dollars and supplement that cost with an additional warranty, I harobr a reasonable expectation that this product will function as agreed. I have an issue with the Intersection function on the Nav system. It just does not recognize 95% of the intersections. I use this function in my work and I have to carry around my hand held Garmin. I know it’s a program flaw, but I paid for this product to function with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Before you folks who carry the water for Toyota go off into your tangents, just remember, I simply paid for a product and expect it to work. If my $300 hand held GPS has the intersections, why can’t my $650 GPS give me at least 20%? Is that too much to expect? [email protected]. I welcome emails.

 

Kinda retarded how people depend on their navi 100%. Have you guys read about how some old lady drove off the road because her navi told her to? Navi's are used as references. New streets and so forth will be built etc. You have to use your brain and eyes along with the suggestion of the navi to get home. If you are using just the navi then you have issues. If your address is off, add the gps cordinates into the system so that the system can take you there next time and not the wrong way. I'm pretty sure no gps mappers went to each individual home to map their proper cordinates. So man up and quit bitching.

 

Have you tried updating the Navi info disk? My `04 had the original disk when I got it this summer and it was terrible too. A new Navi disk seems to have solved my issues.

 

Do you think getting an updated NAV disk may help since if it's original there must be an update for your system? I bet that could help a lot in your given situation. Just a thought.

 

In my 09 Prius, the Nav is a piece of crap. Mine has all the problems mentioned plus some special ones of it's very own. But I solved all that by getting my old Garmin Street Pilot out of the closet. Even though it's 3 or 4 years older, it's far more accurate and far more intuitive. No, it's not perfect, but it's not crazy as is the Denso. But, hey, the nav is the only thing about my Prius that I don't like and my old Garmin has solved that problem. I'm not going to waste my time worrying about having been cheated or that I wasted money or that Toyota is incompetent on occasion. They can't be happy about this situation either. I'm happy to let it be their problem.