2010 Prius Navigation System is really horrible

i think it only covers the US and border areas of Canada only. the Nav only loads regions. so if you travel out of your region, you have to go back to settings and select another which makes sense since it uses prediction software to reduce your data input requirements. having a smaller area to select from definitely makes it more responsive. i also think it does it to prevent the need to scroll thru the states. each region seems to have like 5 or 6 states more or less

OK, this thread may have saved me a bunch of money by helping me with my decisions... THANKS !


I have decided to order a Prius III versus Jetta TDI (some of you may know me from other posts...), but pricing has been a potential deal breaker in the past negotiations because the Prius is costing me substantially more than the Jetta I first wanted. So, it looks like I can cut off the navigation option and just go with my Garmin, which would make the Prius deal more attractive financially. I find the back-up camera that comes with the navigation useless anyway; I rarely use it in my current car.

This is going to be my first toyota, but once I rented a Camry with navigation during a conference, but ended up setting up my old Garmin on it because it was hopeless. The rental car told me at that time (last year) that Toyota has a bad reputation with navigation...

The more I use the built-in Nav system in my area, the more navigational limitations I find. Instead of driving me in the best direction, it mostly just drives me crazy – not really, as I know my local area well. It at times feels almost comical.

For anyone that doesn’t know how to find the detailed map coverage in your area, press the info button to the right of your screen, then follow that by pressing “Map Coverage†on the bottom of the next. In my N.W. area, Washington has about 1/3 percent detailed coverage, Oregon a bit less, and Idaho has only about 10% coverage. I am wondering if it lays in the fact that Toyota now uses Denso Maps (page 308 – Navigational System Manual). I think Tele Atlas is the map database supplier.

Tele Atlas Selected by DENSO CORPORATION to Power Advanced Automotive Navigation... | Reuters

When speaking with a Toyota Navigation System representative, I was told that Toyota used to use Navteq maps – I don’t know what year the change was made. Denso Maps is headquartered in Kariya, Japan.

“The whole is very little without its parts, as DENSO CORPORATION knows. A leading Japanese automotive parts manufacturer, DENSO produces OEM and aftermarket components for most of the world's major carmakers. It operates five main product groups that make electric, electronic, information and safety, powertrain control, and thermal systems. Specific products include automotive air conditioning systems, radiators, and spark plugs. DENSO's Intelligent Transport Systems segment makes car navigation systems and electronic toll collection systems. Subsidiary DENSO WAVE makes bar code readers, industrial robots, and programmable logic controllers.â€

DENSO CORPORATION: Information from Answers.com

I think Navteq headquarters are in the UK. The following link is an interesting article on how they make their maps:

How Navteq Maps are made

BTW, I updated my Mac this morning with a major suggested update. I was about 90% into this message when my curser refused to work. It would blink once then immediately disappear, not even allowing me to “copy†what I had up written up to that point! I had to restart Firefox, losing everything:rant:. I’m sure this has never happened to you, but if it has, you know the frustration – it kind of took my original thoughts away. But as you can see, some were still left over:blah:.

I would still get the Nav package - it's got to get better...

My 2010 Prius V w/ATP included the navigation system. It seems to work just fine for me. I use it to go from my home in La Mesa CA to the dealership in Pacific Beach CA. It gave me three routes, I select the fastest route and it got me to the dealership in no time. I like the navigation system that I have in my 2010 Prius V w/ATP, it worked better than the older portable TomTom that I use in my 2007 Prius.

Geez, glad we opted for the III sans the nav system. Our old Garmin works fine, and we saved over $1k!!!!!!!

Got my Prius 2010 about a month ago. I've had to bring it in twice already and am bringing it in again tomorrow to get the navigation system looked at because it keeps getting lost. Specifically, the display the car as being in a different location than where it actually is, and sometimes pointing in the wrong direction. It can be off by several miles at times. I've tried fixing it via the calibration screen, but the dealership told me not to that. So I left it alone, but the nav system still got lost. Does anybody else have this problem?

had that happen once so far but that was on the way home from Leavenworth and we were nestled between two 4000' passes. cant say that i did not expect it since when i programmed the Leavenworth destination, i was advised that part of the route would "have no turn by turn guidence" available. not much of an issue especially since the area in question, the only option besides the road we were on was forrestry and logging roads...none of which i was willing to drive my brand new car on!!

Now that I've had my 2010 for more than two months and have driven it farther than 5,000 miles, I think I can respond to a couple of the objections noted in earlier posts on this thread. (I wouldn't normally choose an older thread, but there have been a couple of new posts today.)

I understand that most of these earlier posts occurred before only but a few of us even had the 2010, but posts like this (sorry XMAN!) just propogate rumor. The real time traffic DOES give an option to re-route. I've used it, and it does change the route if it improves your time. I know it does this if you've chosen a Quick route, but I don't know whether it changes to accomodate distance, too, if you had chosen a Short route. From what I've read on my screen, it adjusts the arrival time, also.

I don't believe I've seen the speed limit posted. I don't know that our Garmin 660 posts that info, but if someone knows that it does, please give me the directions on how to get the info (I don't use the Garmin very much).

And: No, it isn't a complete waste. In fact, I really like the Nav, particularly compared to the Gen2 version. It is hardly perfect, but I think the biggest annoyance is waiting on the DVD (and knowing that the DVD upgrades are ridiculously expensive).

This may have been overstated a bit at the time, but I'd like to hear from XMAN now that he has his Prius V in his hands! I don't know about the "don't need to play with it" line -- what does that mean? Try the re-routing option in the built-in and see if it works for you. The nice thing about it is that the traffic icon lights up yellow or red when there is traffic ahead. If you press the icon, the machine tells you the reason for the delay, how far ahead of you it is, and the side of the road affected.

The Costco price can't be beat, that's for certain. Still, the one in my 2010 tells me what lane to be in when approaching an exit. The real time traffic was addressed above. I thought the voice was "active" on my system, but perhaps I don't understand what this means.

Agreed. It is cleaner and does look better.

Agreed. A reasonable request.

Agreed. And the one in my 2010 Prius does those things.

Agreed!!! This is just plain wrong on Toyota's part, and they should provide a more reasonably-priced update.

I really like the Gen II NAV system and all of it's capabilities and options. Works great for me here in TN!

$250 is good. but my cellphone does a better job than my Pri and its $9.99 a month and updates are free. it does voice recognition so i dont have to punch in addresses, i just hold the "send" key and talk, it figures it out or gives me options to select from (have done this dozens of times, only had options a few times, if anything, it will say "unrecognizable" and i repeat and it always gets it the 2nd time)

only drawback with cellphone is that it needs signal to download route (it can navigate all the time even in no signal areas)

but hey, nothing is perfect. its nice to have the Pri Nav because it shows POI's which is something the cellie does it (it can find POI's but not good if you dont know what to look for... it can do general searches like closest chinese restaurant and such, but nice to know what you are driving by as you pass thru areas)

I am a new Prius III owner (less than 2 weeks) with NAV. The NAV has worked great for me here in northern Virginia thus far...this is in one of the areas with detailed coverage. I like the split screen prompts, the voices and timeliness of the prompts (and the fact that it very quickly adjusts to a new routing if I deviate from the planned route) and overall like it better than my Garmin NUVI 350 (which I like a lot). The traffic alerts are good to know, but not sure if I drive I-66 enough to justify the subscription. I am concerned about the expense of the CD updates, however....the Garmin liftime upgrade cost of $129, or something close to that, seems much more reasonable.

I also like the entire package...the large screen with the XM integrated and also the bluetooth connectivity with my cell phone. I really like being able to call out and receive incoming calls via the NAV. I'm a happy camper with the NAV and cannot really imagine my new Prius without it.

I commute to Tysons from Manassas, and while the traffic alerts are nice, the congestion during rush hour is so predictable that I wonder about its value sometimes.

And nice to see someone else from the neighborhood.

The 660 does not post speed limits but the 760 does.

In the thread celebrating getting his car xman siad he thinks the nav is a lot better than what he expected after reading all the comments from the haters.

I'm in the its not that bad camp myself. I have a Garmin and I don't understand the love affair some here seem to have for it. Can't wait to see tom-tom in action on my iphone.

Thanks for doing my homework for me! I should go check it out.

I think the Nav system is very good. It has worked well for me, and I find it more than acceptable. I wish it had some of the Garmin features, but I'm not going to switch at this point.

The Garmin is colorful and easy to use. The portability also is nice.

As far as the iPhone is concerned, I've been very happy simply using the Map fundtion on the phone.

Overall I like the nav. The voice recognition is great and rarely gets confused (unless I have the fan on very high). Because of that, I never really noticed the complaint people have mentioned that you can't input nav commands using the touchscreen while you're driving. I also like that it seems to be quite up to date for my location (Greater Vancouver Area). I also like how it will continuously recalculate the path to your destination if you miss a turn (or ignore the directions).
I think my main complaint would have to be that things like the Points of Interest feature are not as easy to use as they could be. Sometimes you'll choose an option and get hundreds of results... Having to scroll through them with the touch screen till you find one you want takes ages! Sometimes I just give up because it's so slow. There needs to be a better way to get to the info you want.
The next refresh should implement that Lexus "mouse" control, and add a scroll wheel! And maybe go hdd so data access would be faster.

I just wish the Nav was not locked out when the vehicle was moving, I think that is a huge drawback. I did contact Coastal Lockpick and they do not have products for the 2010 Prius yet.

I would love to know WHY Toyota made this decision and why they don't change it with a software update. Give a warning screen and then let us use it as we wish.

:cheer2: I had a 2005 and used the unit for commute (135m)each way and really depended on it and used it 100% even locally. The 2010 is much better, takes a little getting used to but is much more user friendly than the '05. Study the book, forget about the old. Use it locally,etc play with it. If you have traffic from the sat. You will thrill with the ability to get out of the way of wrecks, etc., on the interstate or bypasses. I go thru del, pa, nj and it is never more than 10 minutes off of point to point. Let it pick the route......

Well, I just picked up my new 2010 Prius today. I am another one who is disappointed with the Navigation system. The Nav screen is certainly great, as is the touch screen feature and other controls, but the maps are inaccurate and misleading. My own street in a large metropolitan area is mapped completely wrong - and it has existed for 45 years.

Yes, after paying $1800 for this option, I am dismayed. My $95 Garmin does a much, much better job.

I hope mapping updates become available. Otherwise the new Prius Nav system is a big waste of money.

Added information: I discovered that I can adjust the location of a destination (my home)by using some arrows to move the location icon slightly. This made my home location much more accurate. However, why do I need to do that? Shouldn't entering a complete address provide all the accuracy that is needed? And how would I even know which way to move the icon for an unfamiliar destination? None of these extra steps are required by portable GPS systems. All that is required is to simply enter a complete address.