Navigation doesn't fine the quickest route

There's a setting, I believe (I'm pretty certain), where you can set the avg speeds for it to calculate based upon the road type (interstate, etc). It then uses that to calculate the "quickest" route. It does not know the speed limits on each road. I also don't think it is able to take into account any traffic lights, which can greatly alter the length of a trip.

 

I've seen the setting as well. It'd be interesting to know if it actually uses that for computing the fastest route, or just (as I suspect) for computing the time to your destination. I believe the latter partly because of some wording I recall seeing in the manual, though I don't have it in front of me at the moment. It allows you to adjust the speeds so that if you regularly average 70 mph on the freeway, or if your local roads are faster or slower than they expect, you can get an accurate time-to-destination from the GPS.

 

It uses your estimated speed settings for calculating Quick1 and Quick2. Obviously it ignores speed settings for Shortest, since distance is not a function of speed.

Tom

 

I have no clue how the NAV system calculates time/distances. I just returned from a 4500 mile trip. The NAV was used the entire trip. I discovered that time to destination estimates were WAY off ..... hours in a 500 mile day.

I also discovered we could be on the Interstate,(use Interstate enabled) and our destination was also on the same Interstate .... . it would indicate for us to exit the Interstate and take a secondary road????

It worked great for finding local addresses, and was fantastic driving through conjested city interchanges on the Interstate .... it's mostly the long distant mapping that I find fault with.

Would I buy it again knowning what I now know? I think so, but it is not as good as I had hoped. I really believe it is a software issue ... and that can be changed easily with upgrades. But will it be changed is my question?

 

Set you speed estimates. The default settings differ from your actual driving.

This happens if you select the shortest route. Often it is shorter to cut through towns and secondary roads. It certainly isn't faster, which is why most people select Quick1 or Quick2 instead of Shortest.

This depends on where you are. In many rural locations it can't find destinations or give directions. This is a limitation of the database.

Don't hold your breath. The operation has stayed pretty much the same for many years. I like it, but it could be better.

You can expect the database to improve, as Toyota uses one of the main mapping companies.

Tom

 

Another quirk of the nav system is that it can be confused in areas like Long Island that have many different towns in close proximity. I don't know if this is truly a fault of the system or just reflects confusing postal addresses. For example, I tried to find an address on Carol Court. I was assured by a friend that it was in Dix Hills, Long Island. The system could not find any Carol Ct. in Dix Hills. I tried other towns with no luck. Finally, when I actually got to the address using an iphone (which found Carol Ct. Dix Hills with no problem) the system told me I was on Carol Ct. in the town of "Huntington Station". Maybe that it the correct town, but everyone on the street seems to think they are in Dix Hills. So be prepared to try many possible town names in areas that are complex.

 

I took a short trip this past Friday and the Nav chose the shortest route and not the quickest route. I checked the Nav manual and then checked my settings and I had it set for the Short route, so it did what I had it set for.

Once you select your destination, a Route button appears at the bottom of the screen. Select Route -> Preferences and the choices of Quick, Short and Alternate will appear. Select the one that you want.

I also saw in the Nav manual where you can select a 3 Route List and it will show the three different route traces on the screen and you can select the one that you prefer. I have not tried this myself.

The Nav is by far not perfect but it does a very good job for me once I have the preferences set correctly.

 

Also, check and make sure you don't have any avoidances set up. I did that when I was avoiding a construction area and forgot to turn it off the next time I went through. Couldn't figure out why it was taking me through podunk junction...