douglasland

Ok,

So I had my first real chance to see the NAV unit with traffic do their thing and I was a little confused. Does your NAV unit announce that it is recalculating the route while you are driving? I've yet to have it announce a recalculation and I am starting to think that the traffic situations only impact a route prior to starting it.

Also please confirm I am only asking about NAV users. It appears clear to me via the syncmyride.com site) that I am not able to get the 36 months of free traffic updates like the non NAV users.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Douglasland

FastDEW

On my NAV unit I have had the following:

I was in route going down the 605 FWY, which was about the half way point of my 60 miles journey. All of the sudden I hear a bell or ding and it caused me to look at my NAV screen. The NAV screen told me that there was now a reported accident and resulting backup on my current route. It asked if I would like to have it calculate a detour or ignore. I just told it to ignore because there is no good detour in that area.

So yes, it does keep it's electronic eye on the traffic and inform you of any issues after you start your route. This of course only if the NAV system is currently giving directions and also if the accident is reported. I notice sometimes they are not reported or perhaps not reported by the time I get there.

Hope that helps.

douglasland

Thanks DEW. So you only got a audible ding and then the info was presented on the display? I would have hoped for a verbal announcement but it is still good to know your experience.

FastDEW

That is all I remember it doing. I heard some sort of ding and then I looked at the gauges and and the NAV to see what was up and read the message regarding traffic.

If I recall, it is the same ding sound you hear when it tells you to change roads, but with no other instruction other than the screen posting the notice and question.

Lax07

I've had it a couple times and its just a ding and says accident reported on your route with two options. I have to say the XM/Siruis traffic is cool but I'm not going to pay for any of it when I get out of my 6 month trial period. Why have satellite radio when I have a hard drive in the car, an ipod in the USB port, and my blackberry which you can play music through the blue tooth connection, so I just listen to Pandora is I want too... And the traffic is hit or miss. Like Dew said, sometimes it shows up and sometimes it doesn't. A lot of times I will start to hit the slow down then the road turns yellow or red on my map... Or the other way around I will be driving cleanly on a road that is red or yellow.

SirDrums

I have used the NAV a couple of times in my car. I have the radio without the screen. My isntructions display as text on the display.I haven't used it much because:


I am required to call into sync to get instructions. This is process is slow and if I miss a turn it tries to reconnect to sync which means I need to pull over and wait. This can take a few minutes to complete everytime.

The one time I tried to use it to take me to a place I have never been. It dropped me off over 3 miles away from where the place actually was. I ended up going to several gas stations and a waffle house to find out where the business actually was.

I dont know how good the traffic is on it as I don't know if it calculates that into its route or if it updates in real time. If it does, I don't know if it has to "call in" to get traffic updates. I know on the garmin I own, the traffic is useless, the service doesnt cover secondary roads so in the morning it tries to guide you to a road that is just as backed up as the interstate and I have yet to be warned of an accident in time. I have been through three accidents since I have owned it and everytime I get the update after I have actually passed out of the congestion. I think traffice services still have a long way to go.

just to add: I have checked the coverage maps for the service sync uses and it does seem to cover many more roads but again, I dont know if or even how it can update you in real time with out having to call sync.

wingman75

I have a portable GPS unit in the Mustang and if I deviate from the designated route it calls out "recalculate?". The sync system in my 2010 Fusion doesn't announce recalculate but it does reroute me from were I deviated. I came upon an accident in downtown Detroit and it showed up on the route but did not announce it. It may have chimed but I didn't hear it. There are so many beeps and chimes in the Fusion that its confusing.

FordEngineer

DEW is correct. If a new traffic incident is detected on your route after you've started on it, the noise you'll hear is a 'honk honk' (makes me look because to me it sounds like someone is honking at ME), and the incident will show up at the bottom of the NAV map (with button options to route around it or ignore it).

Lax07

Yeah I mean its cool, but not worth like $5 a month or whatever it is for it.... I would rather put that into gas so I can go WOT more often

FordEngineer

You're referring to the SYNC Turn-by-turn directions, as part of SYNC v3 (Traffic, Directions, and Information). This isn't integrated NAV, which is what I think the OP was asking about.

Nevertheless, I'm interested in why it dropped you off over 3 miles away. Did you destination USED to be where it took you (e.g. did it move recently?) What was the name/address of the place you were trying to go to? When did this incident happen? I want to look into this issue more.

And no, to update your route to compensate for traffic, you have to issue the 'update route' command, as the mapping and traffic data live on the SYNC network servers, and not in your car (which is why you don't pay the $2K that integrated NAV owners have to pay). Thus, your car just follows the initial route given to it by the SYNC Services network (which DOES look at traffic when it's calculating a route for you... but you are correct when you assume that you're being routed according to traffic conditions when you downloaded that route).