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Nav System Guidance Flaw?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by howard0944, Jul 18, 2011.

  1. howard0944

    howard0944 New Member

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    For the past 3 times I visited Summit NJ, the Nav guidance system seems to be a bit broken. Instead of prioritizing highways, it seems to have sent me through every small town in the area. The only way to circumvent this behavior seems to be to add a specific route to a nearby highway as an additional destination. My $200 Magellan puts it to shame. I did mess around with the route preferences, and it made it a little better, but, all it really needs to do is prefer highway travel. Am I missing something here?

    Thanks in advance.

    -Howard
     
    #1 howard0944, Jul 18, 2011
  2. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    There is a setting in the navigaton menu that says "Avoid Highways". Also, check your speed settings for each road. (Residential, Main and Freeway).

    Lastly, it could be a mapping error (i.e. it thinks a single lane highway is a main road so it uses the slower speed preset)
     
    #2 Tideland Prius, Jul 18, 2011
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  3. Ajvdub

    Ajvdub New Member

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    There are many flaws to this nav system. Even my cell phone uses my current speed to calculate my arrival, this nav uses pre-set speeds??? This system stinks compared to my Infiniti setup or even worse, the setup on my Droid X2.
     
    #3 Ajvdub, Jul 18, 2011
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  4. xs650

    xs650 Senior Member

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    On the route selections screen there are 3 options, Quick, Short and Alternate.

    It sounds like you have Short selected which will pick the shortest route which means instead of bypassing a town on the freeway, you will go right through town if that route is shorter.

    "Short" is rarely useful unless you just want to see places you normally would bypass.

    Some of the other suggestions you have received are good too, but my money is on Short.
     
    #4 xs650, Jul 18, 2011
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  5. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    For those in NJ, you should also check the allow/avoid toll roads setting.
     
    #5 cwerdna, Jul 18, 2011
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  6. howard0944

    howard0944 New Member

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    Thanks everyone!

    I will try a few if these and report back, and see if it can match the route supplied by Google; which my Magellan almost always uses :)
     
    #6 howard0944, Jul 18, 2011
  7. xs650

    xs650 Senior Member

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    Once you get it to behave and give you reasonable routes, don't keep looking for perfection. You won;t get it.

    The factory GPS in my Corvette is a Denso, When I saw that Prius used a Denso GPS with different icons, that eliminated any possibility of me buying the factory GPS. Denso isn't a total loss, but it's about as bad as you get in a factory GPS these days.
     
    #7 xs650, Jul 18, 2011
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  8. howard0944

    howard0944 New Member

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    Unfortunately, I have to agree. After checking a 'Alternate' route, It told me to use (295N when 95N is much better) to eventually connect to 95N, then it used the more correct route to Summit NJ -- Its a bit brain-dead! I'll be diddling a bit more with the settings, to see if I can optimize it. The good features that take away the bad feeling is the rearview camera, the iPod & Bluetooth phone interfaces; they rock, but the nav is mostly useless right now.
     
    #8 howard0944, Jul 19, 2011
  9. Gary in NY

    Gary in NY Member

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    I made more than my share of blunders with the Nav when I first started using it. I do better now, but I still think the free Google Nav on my phone is a better Nav system (though the phone and data are not free, the Nav app is). I do mainly use the car's built-in Nav just because it's more convenient to work with while driving (I haven't bought a mount for my phone, though in a pinch I can set it in the notch behind the cup holder).

    My Nav apparently came set from the factory to avoid toll roads (I don't recall turning this on but discovered it was on after it repeatedly tried to route me on back roads - not what I wanted). I also made some mistakes the first time I tried to use the multiple destination feature (not getting the destinations in the right order), and other things (I've found the most obvious way of entering destinations may not be the easiest). I've now become more proficient with it, and it usually works well enough, but except for being conveniently located on the dash within easy reach, and otherwise integrated into the car, the user interface is still not as convenient as my phone.
     
    #9 Gary in NY, Jul 19, 2011
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