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POI by Category Search question

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by tomd233, May 19, 2008.

  1. tomd233

    tomd233 New Member

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    Hi

    let's say I want to find an Italian restaurant. I think it's called "Sergio's", but it might be "Pasta by Sergio" (just making these up...).

    I choose POI Lookup by Category, then Italian restaurants. And I get 100 or so... Is there any way I can get straight to the "P's and then to the "S's", instead of having to repeatedly touch scroll down?

    I have this address lookup speed-up feature in my Blackberry, in fact most cell phones have it....once in the address book, touching "P" on the keyboard takes you right to your "P" entries. My phone actually let's me enter the first 2 letters...

    I do understand I do can POI by Name, but this is much less convenient than POI by Lookup if this shortcut through the category list does exist.

    ( Apologies in advance if this topic has been addressed, I tried forum searches and didn't get a hit...)

    Thanks!
    Tom
     
    #1 tomd233, May 19, 2008
  2. Bill Merchant

    Bill Merchant absit invidia

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    :welcome: Welcome to PriusChat, tomd233!
    There's no fast scrolling since the Prius "keyboard" is on the screen and you'd have to switch from the POI list to the keyboard and back. It's frustrating. Another thing that bothers me is how the data is clumped. Try searching by name for Burgerville. You'll see several listings, some followed by numbers. What I want is the closest, but that isn't always the first one.

    Check out the local group. :)
     
    #2 Bill Merchant, May 20, 2008
  3. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Bill, I thought you could sort by distance. It's been a while since I did it, by I'm pretty sure I recall doing that. It amused me at the time, because the NAV system has no notion of water, and where we live water is the defining factor in how long it take to go anywhere. I was looking at this list of restaurants and thinking "I didn't know we had one of those around here." Well we didn't. It was on another peninsula, so it was ten miles away as the crow flies, but sixty miles by road.

    I'll try it again next time I'm in the car.

    Tom
     
    #3 qbee42, May 20, 2008
  4. 9G-man

    9G-man Senior Member

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    The advantage of POI by catagory search is that you can get results based on nearest to present position. As it should be. The problem with POI by name is you cannot get results by nearest to present position.
    That is the biggest flaw with the factory nav system IMHO.

    You cannot sort a catagory search by name.
    If a specific place is what you want, then name search is your best choice, but the data results or so poorly sorted and grouped in this nav system, I find it almost useless.

    Catagory searches are often better done done by voice. Push talk and say "nearest Italian Restaraunt."
     
    #4 9G-man, May 20, 2008
  5. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    And Jill says: "Showing sports arenas..."

    Tom
     
    #5 qbee42, May 20, 2008
  6. tomd233

    tomd233 New Member

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    Thanks for the responses.

    I started to make list of things I don't like about this NAV system, for posting to this forum in hopes of workarounds, etc, and all it did was get me depressed.

    I am really, really disappointed. I am a technology geek, by profession, and this is the least intuitive user interface I have ever worked with. It's like the people who wrote the incomprehensible manual then told the design engineers to implement it just as they wrote it.

    And then there are functionality issues...like innaccurate "marks". I marked my kids school sitting in the parking lot, and it set a position 200 yards down the road. I had to take some of their friends home, and didn't know the route, so I key in the address, and have to $%^^@ drive down the road to get to the starting point, then turn around when it it kicked in and told me I was heading in the opposite direction. Oh, and the "proceed to starting point" thing, where you have to guess which direction to head at the beginning of a route that starts in a parking lot. I spent three days traveling through Europe on business last month with a colleague who had a standalone, and his device immediately knew where to head; it was uncanny.

    I had been planning to buy a Prius for 18mos, just on principle and after cursory reading of high level reviews, but when I got around to it, I did it really fast; not my usual level of hyper-research. If I had only found this site, I never, ever would have spent the $'s on this system. I just assumed an integrated system from a global automotive leader would be better than a $300 standalone. How do they get way with this?

    OK, rant over.

    It's a wonderful car, but this has diminished some of the fun...:eek:hwell:
     
    #6 tomd233, May 24, 2008
  7. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    You don't have to go back to a starting point - just drive and Jill will catch up with you. I agree that the user interface is lacking, and I do them for a living as I am also a technology geek. You have to adjust your thinking to work with their interface. I know that is backward, but that's the way it is. Once you stop ranting and start using the NAV system you will find it's very functional. It works well, and isn't all that hard to use, except for the stupid lock-outs when moving. Toyota could have done a lot better, and for the price they should have done better. Even so, if I had to do it over again I would still buy the built-in system. The advantages of having a fully integrated system outweigh the awkward user interface.

    Tom
     
    #7 qbee42, May 24, 2008
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