Featured That's Progress: How the 2024 Toyota Prius Prime Compares to the Original 2001 Prius

There are several areas on I5 in calif / oregon that have very little cell signal. I'll check to see what it does in those situations the next time I head north.

 

The logical thing for the app to have done is d/l the entire route info based on the destination address at the beginning of the trip when there is a signal. That way. although you won't be getting traffic alerts, you at least have the map as it was maybe 4 hours ago. When cell signal restores, do it again and get the latest info. A true first world challenge.

 

I don't understand what this means. They are still using the GPS satellites to obtain your lat & long. This is 1/2 of what I'd consider "navigation" -- the "where am I part."
And there never was a satellite download for doing maps (street names & places came on a disc initially) that I know of...and this is the other half of how you navigate -- how to get there.
As for real-time traffic I've seen both satellite (over XM radio I think) as well as cellular data...is that what you mean?

Mike

 

So *if you d/l the entire route" when you start what happens if you stop for the night outside of cell range? Does it preserve the route the next day?
Will it still work if you want to drive from Seattle to Portland, but you have waypoints in Portland Maine, Miami, Chicago and San Diego will it run out of memory.

Mike

 

I’m a navigation novice. What I’m thinking, correct me if I’m wrong: if you’ve got a Garmin-like device, you’re always connected, due to it interacting directly with satellites. Previous gens of Prius were thus? But Gen 5 relies on cell towers, and if none are within range nav fails ? And a month-to-month subscription is required?

 

The gen5 could be using GPS satellites, many cell phones do, but like the cell phone, the map data isn't stored onboard. It is downloaded as needed. Thus the need for a data plan and rent seeking from Toyota.

 

I'm pretty sure that every Navigation system uses the GPS satellites to determine your location. GPS can do this within about 16 ft if you are out in the open. If you are indoors it may fail unless you are near a window. If you are among tall buildings it may fail or be a bit less accurate. This is only the determination of where you are.
To Navigate you need to have a database of street maps, some routing software an a continually updating of your GPS coordinates.

Poorly (IMO) designed systems rely on a cellular connection to constantly update the street map database.
Databases can have different levels of detail, the basic layer is just all the streets, next includes each lane and exit lanes on freeways, etc. Next is business addresses with contact info, hours of operation, etc.

Mike

 

Always connected...what does that mean? No device is always connected to the GPS satellites. The GPS satellites broadcast signals and any device can listen to them, do some math and compute their location. No one communicates with the GPS satellites except secret US military equipment that control the satellites. GPS devices (phones, Garmins, cars, equipment in ships and submarines) can choose to attempt to stay connected constantly or not based on their needs. All this has nothing to do with any cell towers, map databases, etc.
(I don't know how the Gen 5 software works, but all navigation systems have to allow for intermittently losing the GPS signals such as when near lots of tall buildings or driving into a parking garage)

Mike

 

Two weeks ago my wife and I went through the LA basin during rush hour. Half way across the valley we hit an area where the "network" 'sort of failed' while we were sitting at the bottom of a 4 layer stack of interlaced overpasses and tunnels. The result was odd, in that the map on the screen sort of dissolved into a fog as we traveled down the road. Suddenly it appeared to "pick up a signal" and it refreshed the screen.

My wife's phone was displaying Google Maps and did not have that problem. The car war displaying the TOYOTA map data. It was split that way to allow us to evaluate the navigating features of both packages. They were close to the same when it came to finding and routing to way-points.

So far, I kind of prefer the Google Maps via Android Auto to the Toyota version.

The question was posed (not accurately paraphrased) "what if the map is cached on Monday and used on Friday?" It does not do much. I have a 4 year old DVD for the Nav system in wife's Camry. It's usually close enough for Cal Trans work. It still picks up the broadcast traffic data transmitted on the sideband of the broadcast. Nothing quite like hearing the message "Bad traffic conditions in 21 miles on the route" while you are already sitting in bumper to bumper traffic.

 

I'm not entirely sure what the problem is, but most mapping software I use, whether Hiking Project, AllTrails, Apple Maps, Google Maps allow downloading maps that are only affected by loss of GPS for a long time, like 1/2 hour. Of course you'd better download the maps while you have a good Internet connection but they've never let me down whether I'm hiking, slack packing, going on a trip, especially the Adirondacks which has really bad cell coverage. You have to remember the GPS antenna on most cell phones that have GPS, typically the same as the Bluetooth one BTW, goes around just the top half of your cell phone. Make sure that has a good view of the sky.

 

The problem is that in the US, you have to pay Toyota a subscription to get those maps(and TJA on the Prime). This isn't the case in Europe and maybe Canada.

 

I made my trek to Oregon, but failed to test the "GPS MAP without Cell towers" situation. I never noticed a time that I lost the signal. I traveled through the mountain regions for about 4 hours of the trip.

My phone has what we used to call the 'Base Map' GPS information loaded to its memory. The phone is programmed to refresh the maps once a month or so. The car had flipped to using Android Auto for it's maps within minutes of starting the car.

So... No test, other than that it handled whatever situations that it Did encounter with no hesitation. It was nice to have advance notification of "radar traps" popping up a dozen times during the trip. Thanks Waze. I was not knowingly speeding, but there were spots where the road construction called for a lower speed limit and the radar unit was close to the start of the road work.

 

Well to be honest I never used used any subscription for my Tacoma, paid or trial, and still got Google Maps downloaded maps on my iPhone which were displayed on Apple CarPlay. That's what I was trying to explain. You just have to do a little planning ahead and it's not that obvious how to download maps for the destination. Once downloaded, they display just fine on Apple CarPlay, although you might get an occasional error message saying a map couldn't be updated but they still displayed fine. In fact on older cars, like my NX 300h, they still use 3G for their connected services so why would you pay for connected services since most 3G services (except some emergency services) have been taken down? Apple CarPlay still works without subscription with Google Maps, Waze and Apple Maps so I've learned to just use those.

 

For those wanting to use the more advanced ADAS, the Traffic Jam Assist in the Prius Prime, they have to use the map software of the car.

 

And Apple Carplay still requires:

1. An iPhone
2. A data plan with a cellphone carrier with either unlimited data or enough data.

I have neither. Well, I guess if I had an iPhone maybe I could predownload maps. Still, I'd need an expensive iPhone.

 

Cheap Android phone would also work, but I can understand not having a any phone for whatever reason.

 

Yep, except that would be Google Carplay.

I'm really not the one to be commenting on what I'd like Toyota to do with their map system as I'm not going to buy a new car just for the touchscreen interface and apps it may or may not have.

As a used car buyer, I'd say that if anyone wants to maximize their resale value, just keep record of the oil changes and other maintenance and repairs. But I couldn't care less if it has maps or heated seats or whatever else all these silky trim levels are all about.