[idc]

Just had a long drive between Seattle and California central coast and back, and I noticed a few quirks with navigation you should be aware of.

Just before entering Portland there was heavy snow which would have caused a 4 hours delayed (people in Oregon have no clue about winter driving ). Navi re-routed me through some long winding road through the mountains, with no cell coverage. I drove a few miles on it and returned and spent the night in Portland, as the snow was getting heavy. It could have easily turned into a dangerous situation for someone without winter tires and snow driving experience.

On the way back, there was a small traffic incident in California and the car suggested a route that meant an +1 hour delay. From time to time, the car would also suggest I exit the highway just to re-enter again right away, despite no traffic.

On the positive side, the traffic info was quite accurate and timely, and the calculated delays quite good.

Bottom line, don't trust the navigation blindly in areas you're not familiar with. Be aware of the conditions and what's suggesting to avoid dangerous situations.

[Viffermike]

Originally Posted by idc

Just had a long drive between Seattle and California central cost and back, and I noticed a few quirks with navigation you should be aware of.

Just before entering Portland there was heavy snow which would have caused a 4 hours delayed (people in Oregon have no clue about winter driving ). Navi re-routed me through some long winding road through the mountains, with no cell coverage. I drove a few miles on it and returned and spent the night in Portland, as the snow was getting heavy. It could have easily turned into a dangerous situation for someone without winter tires and snow driving experience.

On the way back, there was a small traffic incident in California and the car suggested a route that meant an +1 hour delay. From time to time, the car would also suggest I exit the highway just to re-enter again right away, despite no traffic.

On the positive side, the traffic info was quite accurate and timely, and the calculated delays quite good.

Bottom line, don't trust the navigation blindly in areas you're not familiar with. Be aware of the conditions and what's suggesting to avoid dangerous situations.

Great point re: the weather issue. I personally don't know of any Nav systems that consider weather conditions as part of the re-routing equation, but they might exist -- and as noted, it's not like the Nav knows whether or not you've got summers, A/Ss or winters on your car at any given time ...

... though I gotta say: this might be a great idea for a future feature in OEM Nav systems, Google Maps, Apple Map, etc...

[Beartato]

Totally, trusting your nav blind is careless. There's a certain user responsibility to still plan your route for weather and traffic, nav is suppose to be an aid.

[mburg]

I also find the system to be slow on the uptake in terms of traffic. I can't tell you how many times I've been in traffic and the Nav is showing green highways.

[ChrisFulton]

Originally Posted by Beartato

Totally, trusting your nav blind is careless. There's a certain user responsibility to still plan your route for weather and traffic, nav is suppose to be an aid.

I have a vacation home an hour outside of Death Valley. The park is very popular with foreign tourists who have now often enough followed their GPS units to their demise that it's known around here as, "death by GPS."

[Viffermike]

Originally Posted by ChrisFulton

I have a vacation home an hour outside of Death Valley. The park is very popular with foreign tourists who have now often enough followed their GPS units to their demise that it's known around here as, "death by GPS."

As someone who drove through that area this time of year two years ago, this makes TOTAL sense. The ratio of Asian tourists vs. others at Badwater Basin on Dec. 26 was ... well ... kind of insane. (Thankfully, nearly all got there via bus, hehe).

Texas has some areas like that, too: Basically in Big Bend NP and north and east of it for a couple of hundred miles. There's a road (Texas 349) from I-10 to U.S. 90 that I drove last March that not only had little GPS service along its 85 miles, but had no cell service of any kind except for about 2 miles at the start and the end of it. A little scary ... and a reason why printed maps are still a necessary travel tool.

[adema24]

I downloaded on iOS app called "Here We Go" maps, and you can download the maps (either by state, region, country) onto your phone. If you do that, the app will still give you turn by turn directions even when there's no cell service. Very handy in the mountains and overseas.

But I agree above, having printed maps is a safe backup.

[TigerTrump]

I found a different type of quirk with the navigation. I usually have the voice turned off, but when turning the voice on I found that the navigation cannot say to use the 'First exit' when coming up to a round about. Instead the navigation adds one to the number of exits, so for a four exit round about, it says to use the fifth exit instead. I think it gives the car character :-)

[GizmoRN72]

Besides the Navigation, Entertainment, Communication Manual that came with my 228i Xdrive, is there anything available to give better in-depth explanation on understanding the traffic alert / detour screen? Thanks in advance.

[selmeralto]

I often drive with both the car's NAV system and Waze running on my phone. I find the Waze system updates traffic condition more frequently and - so it seems to me - more reliably. When there's a conflict I rely on Waze.