Nav with Major Traffic - Epic Fail

[asb]

I have my first very frustrating problem with the Nav system.  Terrible accident on the highway had all lanes blocked and cars were being detoured for a few miles.  My Nav system could show me that there was an accident, but was not able to navigate me around the accident and to work.  I thought it would be able to do that as my Garmin was able to detour without issue.

[Laurel]

We don't have that feature in Canada. i.e. traffic notifications.  Sounds like a great feature.  Asb did it always work before?  Is this related to an update?  Since it is Sirius that provides the travel info., wouldn't it be Sirius broadcasting the alternative route thus it is a Sirius problem?  Just wondering how it all works.

Edited August 25, 2013 by Laurel

[RaPieR]

If you go to the NAV menu you can select a detour or I think use the voice command "Navigation - Detour" then a prompt will come up to asking how many miles do you want to avoid on the current route.  Then it'll route you around the current road you are on.  I've used it several times to avoid traffic on the 401.

Edited August 25, 2013 by RaPieR

[ScubaDadMiami]

Thanks.  I just learned a new voice command!  :)

[Adair]

We used the navigation this weekend on a short trip from Milan, MI to Flint for Asia's race. We drove up Friday night. I had already programmed the hotel address into the NAV, even though I knew where it was. Flint is not that large, the hotel was right off the highway and had been there for some time but the NAV couldn't find it. It told us to take the wrong highway, (we didn't), kept telling us to turn left instead of right (we didn't) and was still giving us instructions when we pulled up in front of the place. The map, however, showed us on the correct street. We left the hotel to go downtown to pick up her race packet and our finish line passes and just for grins I set the NAV for the hotel address again. If we'd had time, I would have just followed the directions to see where it took us, but we needed to get Asia back to rest before her race. The NAV wanted us to go North when we knew we needed to go south and still didn't recognize the final destination when we were there. So it's not just Highway 24 in Ohio that it doesn't like.

[asb]

I double checked all the settings in the Nav and traffic, detour, etc, are all on and set for automatic.  While stuck in traffic, I did ask for a detour of the maximum miles and it just kept rerouting me back onto the highway with the accident.  I finally just used the map to find side streets to get me to where I wanted to go.  It was two hours of being stuck.

 

It might have to do with the Sirius subscription.  I hate Sirius, so I will not renew it.  And I have never used this feature before, so I don't know if it worked prior to this.

[Tdefny]

The problem with traffic re-routing is that you have to trust the NAV in the first place. It is OK, but can send you on some crazy detours. That can be a problem in heavy traffic or in a place where you don't know the roads. I had about 50% success with the re-routing feature - about the same as my Garmin, but I already knew that I wasn't going to renew the Sirius traffic plan. I now consult Google on my phone for traffic updates when it matters to me.

[Tdefny]

Adair,

 

There may have been several things going on. The most common one is that the map may simply be wrong. I work on a very large 60 acre campus. It is very easy to get to but the maps on Google and all GPS systems show it as about 1.5 miles west of where it actually is. I know of at least one other place where the error is that big, but even if you look up your house they will probably be off by 100 feet or so.

 

There also might be more than one entrance to the Hotel. I regularly go to one that is on a divided highway, at the intersection with another big road. The real entrance is on the cross street, but the NAV brings you to the front door, which means overshooting the hotel by about a mile and making a U-turn. Not cool.

 

But I suppose this is just another example of how much do you trust the NAV? It will get you there (or close), but you probably know a better route.

[asb]

The problem with traffic re-routing is that you have to trust the NAV in the first place. It is OK, but can send you on some crazy detours. That can be a problem in heavy traffic or in a place where you don't know the roads. I had about 50% success with the re-routing feature - about the same as my Garmin, but I already knew that I wasn't going to renew the Sirius traffic plan. I now consult Google on my phone for traffic updates when it matters to me.

But how did you get the nav to re-route in the first place?  I was not able to avoid the accident at all.

[ScubaDadMiami]

I have tried, more than once, to send directions from MapQuest to MFT.  I see it trying to send, but it never gets to my C-MAX.  Now, I am obviously at home, not in my car, when I try this.  Could that be why it isn't working?  Any hints?