Questions RE: HDD Navigation and NavTraffic

Not sure what you mean by DVD-based vs HDD-based. As far as I know none of the navigation-enabled head units make use of either a DVD or a hard drive for navigation?!

 

Perhaps you mean it was loaded from a DVD? I've never heard of a system that requires a DVD to be in place for navigation to work.

All of these systems have some kind of "static" memory that holds the maps and software. It would be much too slow to pull maps on the fly from a DVD.

The biggest difference would be that a DVD-based system is updated physically by shipping you a new disk... while other systems typically involve a download from the Internet that's then transferred to the nav unity. The latter costs less to the manufacturer, and can easily be updated more frequently, sometimes even through a live link from the head unit.

So as you can see, DVD or not impacts frequency of update from the mfg but has no impact on navigation performance.

Hope that helps!
Pete

 

Uh... considering your car has no factory nav system at all...

I'm pretty sure my nav system will refuse to do anything (navigation-wise) if the disk is ejected.

I'd imagine that the the memory you speak of would hold a small subset of what's on the DVD and presumably data for stuff near your current location.

I can hear the DVD drive seeking on my Prius when I power up the car (it's faint). I've heard the (louder) DVD drive seeking on my friend's 04 RX-8 after powering up as well. I believe I've also heard seeking in my Prius when doing some searches. I'll have to double check both of the above when I get a chance.

edit: I've confirmed my factory nav system has NO map functionality and tells me to insert the map DVD if the DVD is removed.

If I remove the cover that covers up the slot and start entering destinations, esp. in other cities, I can faintly hear the drive seeking when I press on each destination.