[arizona charlie]

My navigation system cannot bring me to my own home. To test it I programmed it for my home address. Now this may seem like an exercise in futility since I know where I live and how to get there. Then I ran a test. Could it bring me to my home?

The Nav screen led me to King street just South of my home and directed me go East [so far so good]. When I get one block away from my home it directed me to turn right onto Clay Street, [totally wrong] .

My home is one block further down King street and in order to get to my home I must drive one block further East and then make a left turn onto Elm street.

For grins I followed the directions given to me by the lady in the box. It eventually ran me around in circles. It could not bring me to my destination.

I registered a complaint with Toyota, both the dealer and the Toyota USA, when I noticed this problem in May 2004. At that time I was given a complaint number by Toyota USA and told that a new Nav. CD would be ready in November. Well, it is now November and the local dealer is unaware of any update to the inefficient, inaccurate and confused Nav. system which came installed in the car.

Those of us who purchased Package 9 paid lots of extra money for an accurate Nav. system. I took one of the dealer's employees for a ride and the Nav. system duplicated my original test. The man admitted that the Nav. system is flawed. I will contact Toyota again this week and see what they plan to do to make things right.

The inaccuracies built into the system are intolerable and there is no way I will pay one penny to Toyota to acquire a CD update fix a problem endemic to their Nav. system.

I know that an accurate Nav system is very important to some Pri drivers. Physicians on a house call, delivery persons, people looking for the home of a friend in a city they have not been to before, etc. . They need accuracy.

I will keep everyone posted about the resolution of this problem.

Perhaps the threat of a class action lawsuit will move them to fix this problem pronto.

I am interested in seeing postings from other Pri. owners elaborating on their experiences with the Nav. system. The more ammunition I have when I speak to Toyota USA again , the better.

Arizona Charlie

 

[melgish]

Perhaps your Prius is correct, and your house was built in the wrong place

I've had great luck with the system. I suspect it varies from region to region based on the survey data available. On our trip through the back country of Ga, the nav system often alerted us for turns that were actually just curves in the highway.

Another thought that comes to mind is we may be seeing the result of years of corruption in the highway department. Referring back to the same trip, when there was a road connecting to the highway we were on, it was often nothing more than a dirt path with a street sign. Maybe the federal government paid to have that street paved, and the money got pocketed. So the system thinks there's a road there, when in fact it was never built.

 

[jimb]

Re: Prius Navigation Systen--Perhaps A Class Action Lawsuit?

Yeah, great idea, lawyers make everything better. Sell your Prius.

 

[cahinton]

Thats the spirit... Sue first, ask questions later. :roll:

 

[ElectricTroy]

I use mapquest & aaa atlas. It's led me to thousands of destinations, and only let me down once and costs <$20.

That said, I think I would be just annoyed as you. You paid ~$1000 for a product that does not work: http://consumeraffairs.com/news03/mb_replace.html

 

[Yarok]

Sounds to me like you're just looking for someone to sue. Clearly the system is not perfect, and it's unfortunate that it doesn't get you to your house. It is good, though, at getting you close enough to a destination to see it or at least to be able to quickly look around and see it.

I don't think a new DVD is going to fix your problem, because that will most likely have new roads and POIs, not a new algorithm to get there.

 

[ChasSuitt]

MY..MY.. So soon we forget. We forget the days when all we had was a *free* (those days are long gone!) folded road map (Were you ever successful in re-folding those?) as our only navigation aid. Now we complain when the NAV system is a few hundred feet off.

I find the NAV system mostly accurate and helpful. In addition it is in some ways an "Entertainment Center" when using the voice commands. We laugh out loud at some of the responses which seem radically unrelated to our verbal request. (We call our NAV system "Ernestine" after Lily Tomlin's character on "Laugh In"). At least I'm getting something for my tax dollars used to establish the GPS system.

*I love this remarkable machine!*

-Charles Suitt- Dallas TEXAS

 

[DuncanNixon2004]

maps

My daughter is in northern Alberta working on the oil rigs as a medic. She had to go from one rig to another several hundred kilometers away. There are not a lot of major highways up there.

She picked up her cel, called me, I grabbed my 1991 Rand McNally Road Atlas and within moments had given her the directions she needed.

Canadians couldn't get a NAV system on the '04 and I doubt I would have bought one anyway. I remember reading once about a guy in a new Mercedes who relied on his NAV and disregarded the road signs. Yes the bridge was out!

 

[mrv]

The map data is provided by GDT. They seem to sell their maps to a
lot of places, as I see the same errors on maps.yahoo.com, mapquest.com,
mapsonus.com, etc. Anyhow, try mapping a point on GDT's website, and
see if you get the same error as you get on your car, to see if it's
the map data or something else. If it's really off, you can report
errors on the GDT website.
http://www.geographic.com/home/index.cfm
errors to: http://www.geographic.com/ER/er.cfm

 

[Victor]

If its any consolation, the EU DVD is also a bit strange at times.

I put in a destination and it took me to the wrong town! (actually, the correct town was next to the one it took me to, and they have different names). Ive also noticed that on another occasion I wanted to goto a town with a suffix, like sometown-by-the-sea, and instead it wanted to take me to sometown (not by the sea!).

 

[hcec9]

Latest version

Does anyone know what the latest version DVD for the nav system is??

 

[ym4949]

maybe its urban sprawl that has the NAV confused

ArizonaCharlie, are you living in one of those so-called "exurbs"? Maybe these sprawl areas are sprouting up faster than the federal government can update GPS data and all the downstream products like the Prius NAV?

I have been given less than optimal directions by the NAV, but it seems to eventually get me there to most destinations in the Greater Bay Area. And some of this mis-direction is just as irritating as when a friend who's driving ends up on the longer, scenic route.

I still give thumbs up to the NAV -- it is really helpful when you're lost!!

 

[DanMan32]

Re: Latest version

Does anyone know what the latest version DVD for the nav system is??

The '05 has 4.1 last I heard. I have 3.3 on my '04

 

[rmm20]

I think you are expecting way too much perfection from a Nav system.

The one in the Prius works fine.

Robert

 

[Guest]

My NAV EXp

I wouldn't trade my NAV for a map. I DO keep a map in the car, but I am REALLY used to the NAV lady. There are times where it's off a few hundred feet but overall I would NEVER get a car without a NAV. If you mark a location as a waypoint it will navigate to it EVERY time. Some addresses are off, but to resolve your issue with a lawsuit is just plain ridiculous. Get over it!

 

[hudel]

My NAV Home function does not work either

I live in Calif

Also after 2 1/2 mounths my DEST function no longer allows me to type in addresses...It worked fine for first 8 weeks and now it won't

 

[melgish]

It sounds like the sensor thinks you are going over 5 miles per hour

 

[hbark]

I have the same issue with the nav being off by a bit. Most times it's no big deal, but there have been times when I've been in a big city, and a block off is a pain in the butt with traffic, one way streets, etc.

That being said, I'm not going to sue anybody.

However, I spoke to some folks with other cars with nav systems, and they say they don't have this problem.

(mine also doesn't think my house is where it is -- or, maybe my house really isn't where it is??)

 

[melgish]

There's a calibrate function that will let you correct that... I've not used it, so you'd better check the manual to finger out how

 

[hbark]

I've tried the calibrate function, followed the directions in the manual as closely as possible, but it didn't seem to make any difference for this.