I need to know if Toyota is lying to me. (NAV system question w/ pictures!)

If it displays an exit name, then it will display all that it knows. You can not cherry pick licensing like that. It is an all or nothing thing. Sort of like saying you want to buy a Prius, but you dont need two of the airbags, a hubcap, and the stick that props the engine up so give me a deal. It doesn't work that way. Because it shows some, it shows all it knows. What it knows is dependent on NavTEQ not on Toyota. Remember that civilians using GPS was never intended to happen. It is a military system, still controlled by the military, that gave civilians access to some channels only very recently. Now we are merging another new technology (digital cartography) with it to provide guidance, so it is going to take some time. Google I think is the closest. Last I heard they were using their satellite images to parse where the roads were, then using the google cars (i.e. the streetview cars but before there was streetview as well as normal people reporting) updating the street names. Still a very manual process.

Also I doubt it sometimes displays and sometimes doesnt for the same exit going the same direction, on the same road. Is this what you are reporting?

A -------> X ---------> B
A <------- X ---------- B

A to B with exit X is different then B to A with exit X. If A->B shows X one time, it should always. However, there is no reason for it to show X when doing B->A, that is different. Yes it looks the same, but it isnt. Exits can have different names going different directions, therefore they all must support this.

 

this is my first time blogging at all so I'm sorry if i'm interrupting something. what i want to know is this: i'm looking at a brand new 2010 Honda Fit and a 2008 Prius with 43K miles. the prices are about the same. which do i pick?

 

If that happens going the same way then I would consider that an issue.

I would try and find a pattern. "Random" in computer software is generally caused by com errors built on timeout requirements not being met. Hardware is different, but since it is the same in multiple systems I would hope it was designed that way. Programming is usually where the problem could be.

Next time you see a name, please write down exactly where (like by the big traffic light with the graffiti in the second left lane etc...) and how fast you were going.

Then next time you drive past that spot, write down the same info and whether or not you get a name or number. Then try and recreate it by going the same speed in the same spot.

There has to be a pattern, we just dont know what it is. If we can find it, we can understand it.

 

This is a forum, not a blog. Welcome. :welcome:

But you should go here and make a new post: http://priuschat.com/forums/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=72

 

Another "random" unexplained action I have witnessed with our Gen II Nav is having it select a different set of roads for exactly the same route. No changes in preferences, exactly the same endpoints, and it comes up with a different set of roads. Both were equally good, but you don't expect a coin toss with a computer.

Tom

 

That is perfectly acceptable. It is part of an A* algorithm. To correctly calculate a route you need to route all possibilities which is takes N! time. This is unfeasible so they "guess". Unless you are starting at the exact GPS coordinate and going to the same desitination, there is no reason for it to be the same. And even routing twice without moving doesnt guarentee the same coordinate because the civilian signal is not accurate enough for that.

 

Street navigation with GPS is node based, which assumes all travel is on roads and all turns are only at intersections. Even with civilian accuracy, the same start and stop points should produce the same routing given the same algorithm, unless, of course, the start point is nearly equidistant between two equally good nodes. In my case this wasn't possible, as the routes diverged at an intersection a few miles down the road.

Tom

 

Can anyone who does not have LIVE traffic enable confirm this issue (displaying numbers instead of names)? I am thinking this could be because of the LIVE traffic data, lot of GPS data can be overwritten by live traffic data!!

infact I was thinking not to renew live traffic just for this reason, I wanted to see exit names not exit numbers!!!

 

Can anyone who does not have LIVE traffic enable confirm this issue (displaying numbers instead of names)? I am thinking this could be because of the LIVE traffic data, lot of GPS data can be overwritten by live traffic data!!

infact I was thinking not to renew live traffic just for this reason, I wanted to see exit names not exit numbers!!!

 

I'm back... it appears that this whole thing depends on your location. I posted a pic several posts above showing the issue that the OP indicated. Last weekend while driving along the 101 near Central CA, the nav was displaying exit NAMES for some exits only. See pic... weird... the only thing that I no longer have is NavTraffic but I doubt that's associated with it.

This screenshot shows both exit # only and exit name only.