I've been using the NAV guidance on my way home from work both to have an estimate of my time till arrival and to just play around. For one week, it has been consistently suggesting that I exit the highway one exit before I usually like to. Two consecutive exits can get me home, but on the first one I tend to hit more traffic lights (even if it is slightly shorter). Up until tonight I just stayed on the highway and the computer automatically rerouted to give me directions from the second exit.

Today for some reason it didn't bother suggesting the first exit and drew out my initial route using the exit I usually take. I did not add any preferred highway or region to avoid, so I don't see why it would change the suggested route between two points. Has anyone else noticed any change in guidance for repeated route?

2004 White BC

 

The only time I thought this happened, I realized I had disabled freeways. In your case, I'm guessing the computer just calculated a different way. I do not believe it learns at all.

Probably just the luck of the draw. See what happens next time on the same route!

 

I have not noticed that it learns at all - in fact, it seems relatively obstinate about things.

I have also noticed that it's data seems to be better than 5 years out of date - at least for my area of NY. It consistently puts me down dead-end streets and has me avoid a perfectly fine street - because the street isn't on the map at all! (I have been driving it for over 3 years and it doesn't appear new at all.)

My house is incorrectly located on my street - and the numbering is even backwards.

I would really like to hear if anyone has any clue about how to either get this kind of input to Denso or - even better - find out if we just got old data in our systems and there is an updated version available!

The Toyota dealer was unhelpful - but I anticipated that.

Jack

 

When I did my test drive, I put my address into the NAV and sure enough, it put my house about a block away from where I live, and on the wrong side of the street. I figured if I couldn't start out correctly every day, the NAV was only going to frustrate me and possibly mis-direct me.

My suggestion is to report these inaccuracies as you see them and perhaps they'll be corrected in the updates. Then the next step is to demand a free updated DVD ... after all, you'll have documented all those inaccuracies and done them and other users a great service!

 

When I did my test drive, I put my address into the NAV and sure enough, it put my house about a block away from where I live, and on the wrong side of the street. I figured if I couldn't start out correctly every day, the NAV was only going to frustrate me and possibly mis-direct me.

My suggestion is to report these inaccuracies as you see them and perhaps they'll be corrected in the updates. Then the next step is to demand a free updated DVD ... after all, you'll have documented all those inaccuracies and done them and other users a great service! [/b][/quote]
cybele -

Report discrepencies to whom? The dealer seemed uninterested. Their response was "Sometimes, the systems have to be calibrated..." - I told them that "calibration" does not lable streets backward (though 911 systems might!) and with numbers that they haven't had for at least 8 years, nor does "calibration" put streets back that are missing from the map altogether.

I have checked the Denso site, but don't (with a rather fast look) find anything obvious about how to report "discrepencies".

I am betting the system is populated with very old data. I have a friend that markets GIS mapping data and it can be quite expensive. My bet is they used (or have been using) some rather old info with possibly only updates for largely populated - and generally unchanging - metro areas.

As for "misguiding" you - that probalby won't happen. I have put my "wrong" address in as my home and it gets me everywhere pretty well - though I am generally a better navigator than it will ever be! If the current position is at least right, guidance will be reasonable - in general.

Interestingly enough though, I didn't have a direct ability to look up the dealer where I bought the car - they weren't listed in the system - until I entered their phone number. It had two locations for them listed. I chose the "Toyota" one over the alternate, it located the spot and I took an interesting back-road to the dealership - which turned out to be a RiteAide pharmacy about 2 miles from the actual dealership!

There WAS a Dodge dealer on the other side of the street, but I am not sure that counts.

I was able to locate the correct general area while stopped and went ahead and drove to it - but that was really odd. You would really think Toyota would at LEAST have their own dealers marked correctly!

My first thought was - maybe they had moved? Well - I asked - they had been in their current location for "as long as anyone can remember" - at least 7 years. They had NEVER been down where the Rite-Aide was!

Obviously, important additions to the car should probably include large grains of salt.

Jack

 

Yes, the Nav is definitely quite inaccurate. Especially, especially for larger houses where properties span a few acres or more. You'll find a house has 10 addresses!

 

Yes, I though maybe the software manufacturer would allow you to submit alerts when information was incorrect. Sometimes I get these silly ideas into my head that the dealer service people really care about the products they service.

But I think you've hit it on the nose, I don't think it's a calibration issue, it's a database problem. The GPS can tell you were you are on the planet - but not what street you're on!

Quote:

Originally posted by JackC@Jan 14th 2004 @ 12:42 PM
I have checked the Denso site, but don't (with a rather fast look) find anything obvious about how to report "discrepencies".

I looked there too. Denso probably doesn't manage their own map database, I'm guessing they purchase it from someone else. I don't have the NAV, so I can't read the manual to find out if it states who manages the database.

I have an 'analog nav' in my car (a Thomas Guide for Los Angeles and Orange Counties) and have found errors in that as well. There is a way to let them know that there are errors and when I find them, I used to do that (but my map is now 11 years old). I have also seen errors on MapQuest and Yahoo!Maps and there are ways to submit corrections to them. I just figured there'd be some way to do that with the onboard NAV, you know, an email address or something.

Quote:

Originally posted by JackC@Jan 14th 2004 @ 12:42 PM
As for "misguiding" you - that probalby won't happen. I have put my "wrong" address in as my home and it gets me everywhere pretty well - though I am generally a better navigator than it will ever be! If the current position is at least right, guidance will be reasonable - in general.

See, I'm one of those people who usually adapts to the technology presented to me (like using a right-handed mouse left-handed because I can't get the company I work for to give me a left-handed or neutral mouse), but I couldn't wrap my brain around either inputting the wrong info for my home or letting it stew on the fact that I said I was starting from one place when I was actually a little ways down the street.

But mostly, if I ordered the package with the NAV, I would have ended up with gobs of other stuff that was truly useless to me (homelink, bluetooth, etc.).

On the whole, the system is pretty **** cool and there are plenty of people I still recommend it to.

<!--QuoteBegin-JackC@Jan 14th 2004 @ 12:42 PM
Obviously, important additions to the car should probably include large grains of salt. [/quote]
Too true.

 

There was a number somewhere on Yahoo that we were told to call if we have a fix, but I don't know where it is. Perhaps a good, thorough search will spit it up.

 

I've tried for a few days now, and have not reproduced that one route that I agreed with.

I've seen some major highway data on the map that is more recent than 5 years. I've also seen some roads older than that which were not listed. The street I live on is mysteriously shown one block longer than it currently is. There is no break in a clump of trees at that end of the road that looks older than me, so I think that info is just plain wrong, not just out of date. As you drive down my street, the house numbers on each side of the street increase steadily, but the odd and even sides of the street are out of sync to the point where 191 is across from 160 and 166. This confuses any mapping software I've tried so far.

On the maps from my Garmin GPS, my gut feel is that the data was off in some way about one time in ten when I looked up some local business or landmark. Almost always, the landmark was missing in there data (agravating, but not greatly missleading) or shown within a short distance of where it really was (which got me close enough to find it).

If the map just contained relatively stable geographic data it might have been initially produced with some number of errors, and each revision would correct a fraction of those errors. In that ideal case, the number of remaining errors would decrease exponentially over time and tend towards zero.

With a constant flow of new data into the database for new roads and buildings, new errors are also flowing in to the database at a constant rate. A more carefully prepared map contains fewer errors, but all maps contain errors.

BTW: Based on the copyright notices, the DENSO NAV hardware appears to get its database for the US from a company called GDT (Geographic Data Technology)
http://www.geographic.com/home/index.cfm

 

Prius Nav doesn't learn, but GreenBot does. Right, GreenBot?