prius GPS navigation sucks

[Sarge]

Originally Posted by ctbering

...With that being said, I planed the trips ahead of time while we were parked. I haven't mastered the voice command yet. Had I master it I think I could have changed my destinations on the fly...

Learning voice commands is not all that difficult; there are quite a few of them available, but here are the most important ones to remember;

HELP - displays a list of all commands, in case you forget.
ADDRESS - will prompt you through setting a full address (State -> City -> Street -> House Number)
ENTIRE ROUTE MAP - see the whole route
DETOUR - immediate calculate a detour
QUICK1 / QUICK2 / SHORT - recalculate an alternate route
NEXT DESTINATION MAP - display your destination
<any POI category, i.e. RESTAURANTS> - display these POIs on map, simply press on one to set as destination
NEAREST <POI category> - immediately show the closest POI in that category. There is an option to Show List in order of distance if you are stopped.

And those are the most important ones. Once you get the basics down, you can learn how to switch map views, zoom in/out, and other cool stuff.

Hope that helps...

[9G-man]

Not withstanding everything already said, the true and glaring deficiency in the Prius nav, is it's POI database, and it's associated search function.

A POI name search should, without question, be based on 'nearest to present position'. But in the Prius it's based on region, and as a result it presents thousand of possible returns that must be sifted through.
Furthermore, the search is very spelling dependant, and if you don't spell it right, you won't find it. Was that Walmart, Wal-mart, or Wal mart?
In the prius it matters, and you won't find it. In a Garmin it doesn't matter.
Was that Chick fil A, Chick-fil-A, OR CHICKFILA. Don't get it right and you won't be eating a chicken sandwitch for lunch. With A Garmin you could just punch in Chick. And it will find the nearest to your location, which will be a Chick-fil-a. Do that with a prius and you will get 5000 returns over all the states in your region. Total crap.
Want to find a local bike shop?, type in Bicycle. Another 10000 returns and you'll never find the one around the corner. A Garmin will show you the shop right around the corner, with same basic "bicycle" input.

Any GPS can calculate a route to an address. It's the database POI search function that set them apart. I want to put my fist into the Prius MFD everytime I must use it's name search function to locate something.

The funny thing is, it's POI catagory search function is based on 'nearest to present position'. But Im usually looking for something very specific, like a bike shop, and categoy won't help you there. The database is lacking too, showing only 2 of the 5 chain stores around my city. And often it's because one of them is actually mis-spelled in the database, so it didn't fall into the group. Where they get their input info for the database is poor.

The POI name search is seriously flawed. I know you can narrow the search to specific cities, but if I knew what little city boundry I was in at any given moment, I'd probably know where to find what I'm looking for. Present position is the only logical thing, unless I specificy something else. And that's the beauty of a Garmin.