Is anyone else having problems with their real time traffic? Mine has been dead for about a week.

 

Did you renew and pay for the subscription?

 

City? Plan? Date of acquisition?

 

yeah mine too,

 

Thank you for your very unhelpful answer. You either are or you are not having a problem.

 

I can guess that this means you are not having trouble.

 

Actually I'm not sure, as I haven't been in a traffic congested area for a while.

 

Sounds like its not a widespread problem -- unlike the issue that arose about a month ago. I am in the NY Metro area and I lost coverage about 2 weeks ago. I've had them resend the activation signal but no result. Where are you located?

 

I am in Northern Virginia and we have traffic on working hours only, but mine keep on saying no traffice for the next 30 miles.

 

:tonguefaw You needed to offer more information on your problem. As I have had an issue, and have some insight on the problem, but now I'm not going to share a fucking thing with you!

 

I had traffic on my 08 RDX and took it off (live in N.M.). It said the same thing "no traffic incidents for the next 30 miles" with or without the XM subscription. I could not figure out how to test to ensure it was even work correctly? When I was backed up in traffic, I still got the same message. Not worth the extra $3 bucks a month. Put red light and speed cameras on the navi map and that would be worth the extra money.

 

The yellow diamond traffic incidents are displayed everywhere.

When I scan the map down to Philadelphia I get Real Time Traffic displayed. But, if I scan over to NYC, Baltimore, Washington DC and others, there is no RTT displayed. In fact, it appears that Phila is the only city that displays RTT.

I have been on the phone with XM Customer Care for over an hour now. Tried 3 calls. They seem too dense to understand my problem and then transfer me to another line which never answers.

 

Finally got through to Tech Support. He copied my problem and phone number and said I would get a call back in 3 to 5 days!!!

He said they are having "signal issues" with RTT. I'm going to try the on-line refresh, but this is totally unimpressive so far.

 

I know XM uses satellite and ground base transmitters within city limits. Most of the major cities use the stronger ground base signal because of the city buildings, angles to clear skies, and interference from other EM signals. The XM system transitions to the satellite transmitter once you are outside of the ground base transmitter’s signal.

Maybe the ground base transmitters are too weak or not functioning and the satellite transmitters can't cut through the signal noise in the city for the XM traffic? There are times when my XM cuts out every time I go under a bridge. Most of the time it is A-OK.

It is very difficult to talk to a real person and prices have gone up over the years. Streaming internet XM was free back in the day. I get the impression XM is barely hanging in there.

 

Now I am caught in that wonderful space where XM is saying that its a hardware problem and Acura is saying its an XM problem. Its really not worth the effort even though I rely on it every commuting day since my iPhone hasa number of apps that show real time traffic. (Same is true for Android phones as well.)

 

There is some limit on showing RTT for distant cities. Even in those good old days when mine was functioning, if I tried to view traffic in LA while I was in NY, RTT wouldn't display. Kind of makes sense though.

 

Problem was finally diagnosed by dealer as a defective XM unit. List price for replacement unit is about $1,100, plus labor, of course. Looks like my AcuraCare warranty will turn out to have been well worth the cost.

 

Holy crap. Was this just for the XM module (if there is one), or the whole head unit or nav unit?

 

Not the whole head or nav unit. When I get back home, I'll post a link to replacement part.