Navigation stinks?

My navigation doesn't stink.

I keep one of those little "Febreeze" air fresheners stuck in the vent.

 

The beauty of google maps is that's it's online. It's constantly being improved and learning new destinations as users enter them. same as Google search engine does. The worst issue of google maps is that's it's online. You can't relie on it as you loose data service. They have made some improvements to that issue, where it buffers maps, but I don't know how well it works yet. When I'm out exploring on the motorcycle I use the GPS only navigation.

 

You can use Google Maps offline...

Download areas and navigate offline - iPhone & iPad - Google Maps Help

There are also Here Maps which can also be used offline...

HERE WeGo - City navigation & Offline maps on the App Store

HERE WeGo - Offline Maps & GPS - Android Apps on Google Play

 

For many it might be more accurate to say the voice controls to the Toyota Nav stinks.

 

Re the Aromaticity of the Toyota SatNav:

I have the 2016 Oz base-model Prius c, with the Toyota SatNav as an add-on option installed by the dealer.
The +$3000 i-tech model Prius c with the already included SatNav was too expensive to justify with its other unwanted extras.

My disappointment with the added-on Toyota SatNav in my Prius c is mostly its inability to quickly find the local GPS signal (well, log onto enough satellites for a good 'fix'). The SatNav can take several minutes to log on (e.g. sitting in my driveway and then driving in my local streets) and often will lose the signal quite quickly/randomly in the city area. My local suburb (Chatswood) is somewhat hilly, with quite a few high rise buildings, and there are two TV transmission towers nearby (within 5km).

Before buying the Prius, for many years, I had a Toyota Echo and I had put an Aldi-bought $60 GPS navigation unit on the windscreen (held by a suction device). This unit quickly found where it was once turned on and rarely lost the signal.
Likewise I have an android phone and a tablet with built-in GPS receivers that, inside the Prius, can log on much faster and more reliably that the Toyota SatNav.

At my 1000km 'complimentary' (free) first service, I spoke to the Service-counter person at my Toyota dealer about the poor SatNav performance. After the service, he said they had looked at the SatNav aerial positioning (reported to be OK but not something that can be easily adjusted by them in any way) and had reset the unit to see if that would help. He also said in passing the SatNav was not a Toyota-made unit ('Fujitsu-made'? Or some other company?), as though this would share the blame in some way. However, the slow GPS startup has continued.

"Google" knows of an external-aerial GPS device that could relay the GPS signals to inside the car if the car's internal GPS device had reception problems because of the car design. The test of whether this device would assist was to compare the outside-car and inside-car GPS signals on a portable device such as a phone or tablet. If signal strength dropped significantly outside-to-inside then the external aerial device should be useful. My phone and tablet showed no signal difference between being inside and outside the Prius on my single home-driveway test.

I don't recall the start-up delay and stability was as bad in the countryside and during country driving.

So I'm feeling that my local suburban area does aggravate the GPS reception problem, but that this SatNav (whoever makes it) is still a poor unit compared to the rest of the car and to other GPS devices.

Are there several varieties of Toyota SatNav - if so, how do I identify mine, and is any one Toyota SatNav in particular better or worse?

Fortunately, mostly I'm a local driver so rarely need the SatNav to find my way around Sydney. May be a different story when visiting the grandchildren in Melbourne - which (going off-topic) is just over 800km away that, annoyingly, looks to be just over a tankful if I take the 110km/h highway.

David S.

 

I concur the voice reconnection is horrible. Just unusable for me. I haven't used it for the nav but it never understood a simple phone book