I recently called XM to make sure that my NavTraffic account worked. I was guarenteed that it worked and that I could use the funtion in a "few" minutes. It still does not work

Has anyone else experianced a problem with their NavTraffic working in the D.C./Baltimore area?

Thanks!

C.J.

 

Hi C.J. -

It looks like my traffic system was not working consistently this evening in the DC/MD area. I also noticed that my navi rebooted a couple of times when I tried to use traffic related commands (i.e. "display traffic" and "display traffic list"). I don't know if the reboots are related to the traffic issues. I'll let you know if I notice anything else over the next couple of days.

- Lawrence

 

Have you had your dealership checking your XM feed box/unit in the trunk?

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93

 

Thanks, I forgot about that thread. No functioning on all cylinders tonight!

C.J.

 

Just an update that the traffic icons were working well today in the DC/MD area. However, I saw another reboot while scrolling through the list that is shown as a result of the "display traffic list" command.

 

As of today, I still have not gotten the traffic icons to work. Went to the dealer to be sure everything is set up properly & called XM. I was assured by XM that it's working but so far no icons, etc.

 

Assuming that you have used the selector's dial to place your navigation display in the "TRAFFIC" range (it appears the bottom of the screen when the dial is turned left or right), you should at least see a couple of orange construction icons around the DC area. (I do and I am in the center of the city.) This afternoon, several of the yellow icons popped up too.

Generally, I have the selector dial turned far to the right, leaving the scale of my nav screen well below the threshold where the traffic icons are displayed. But today, after reading your post, I used the selector dial to turn the navigation scale up and check if the system was working. Every time I checked it this afternoon and early evening, the NavTraffic was working properly.

If you cannot ever get these warning icons to display when your navigation screen confirms you are viewing the map at the right scale (within the range of the black "TRAFFIC" bar at the bottom of the screen), then you should see your dealer.

Though I only travel out to the suburbs once or twice a week, I'm never delayed by accidents or road construction thanks to this great system. (Yet another reason I love driving my RL!)

 

DCRL is correct, the map zoom setting has to be in the "traffic" range for the icons to show up. You guys might also want to try speaking the "display traffic list" voice command a couple of times during a trip just to see if the system knows about any incidents within a 30 mile radius. I usually see at least 3-4 entries from around 495 and 695. If that command never shows a list, then you're probably not receiving the data.

Also, my system rebooted again last night without me scrolling through the traffic list, I was just changing lanes on 495 without touching the system. It's starting to get annoying. I guess I'll be paying my first visit to the dealer, although I still think it's software related, so I don't know how much they'll be able to do.

- Lawrence

 

I am calling my dealer right now. I haven't any icons (within the given area) on the display. I hope I get another 05' RL as a loaner

C.J.

 

I'm curious to hear if the "display traffic list" voice command gives you a text based list of any incidents, or if it says something similar to "no incidents within 30 miles"...

 

Still don't have any traffic info in the Balto area. However, yesterday I was in the DC area without any icons/info either. Did a voice command to "display traffic list" only to get the message that there were no reports within 30 miles. Also called XM to verify that the signal is being sent. So I called the dealer; they want the car for a day. Then called Acura Customer Services and now I'm waiting for "the" tech support person to call me back. I don't think I missed any settings as the dealer & I went through the entire setup procedure. Any other thoughts?

 

Sounds like it will be a hands on repair. I hope it's a quick one. BTW, have you received any AcuraLink messages yet?

- Lawrence

 

I think there were a couple of messages the first day I drove the car. Nothing since then .... a little over a month now. Also, wonder if you have to be in a certain area to receive the traffic signal. Don't know if anyone here in the Balto area has received any icons yet. Also, the other day I was in Upper Marlboro (about 5 miles from 495); still nothing even when asking for the "display traffic list".

 

Just spoke to Acura Customer Service - they claim that the XM Traffic situation is irriegular at best & they're currently working on a fix for it. The techs are on vacay this week so we won't know anything until after the New Year. Also, I asked about the messages. They're aware that most of us are NOT receiving anything. They have plenty of cases on both matters and are working on it. rmw

 

^^Thanks for looking out for all of us! I still do not have any NAVTraffic

 

FWIW, here's some diagnostic/work around information from Acura on the XM issue:

XM traffic

If the complaint is cannot view traffic and the symptom can be duplicated, check the following:

1. Is the vehicle is receiving XM stations? If the vehicle is not receiving XM stations, follow the system links test in the Navigation section of the service manual and XM antenna troubleshooting in the Audio section of the service manual.

2. Check to see if the letters GPS, upper right corner of the map screen, are green. If they are not green, follow the Service Manual troubleshooting in the Navigation section.

3. Confirm that the navi map screen is in the proper scale (1/2 to 5 miles).

4. If the navigation map screen is not within the selected traffic scale, traffic will not be displayed.

5. Confirm that the traffic Icon settings (3) are set to ON using the following procedure:

· From the map screen, press the interface dial in to access the “Map menu”

· From the Map menu, select “Show Icon” on the map.

· From the Show Icon menu confirm that the “Traffic” icon is highlighted in blue. If not, select it to highlight it. If the icon will not turn blue when selected, proceed to step 6 and then try again.

· Once the Traffic icon has been selected, push the interface dial to the right to access the “Icon Options” menu.

· From the Icon Options menu select “Traffic.”

· Once in the Traffic menu, confirm that “Traffic Speeds” and “Traffic Icons” are both highlighted in blue.

6. Compare to another vehicle to verify traffic is being broadcasted (wait about 5 minutes for XM NavTraffic to refresh).

7. Reset the XM unit by removing the #5 fuse from the driver’s under-dash fuse box for 20 seconds, then retest. (This is a hardware issue that is under investigation.)

Customer states Intermittently traffic information cannot be viewed.


NOTE: It is normal for traffic to take several minutes to be displayed after the ignition is cycled on. This is due to the refresh rate of XM’s NavTraffic system.

1. Inform the customer that the traffic only works in certain navi map screen scales (1/2 to 5 mile scale).

2. Inform the customer to move the interface dial up/down/right and left to refresh the map the next time it doesn’t display properly. (This is a Navi software issue that is under investigation.)

3. Have the customer cycle the ignition off for 20 seconds and then restart the vehicle. (This is a software issue that is under investigation).

 

After talking to some folks at CES, it appears that NAvTraffic works as follows. NAVTEQ contracts with several suppliers of traffic info in major metro areas. (for the SF Bay area there is at least two suppliers). They consolidate this info into a feed to XM. XM broadcasts the info to the ALPINE OEM nav unit in the RL. ALPINE still has some software glitches which were mentioning in the previous post. NAVTEQ suppliers of info are also not always performing at the desired service levels causing some feed data to disappear. Perhaps the Navteq data suppliers in the DC/Baltimore area are having problems. This seems to be the case in parts of SF/Bay area. Not clear that XM would know if a feed was bad from Navteq or not.

Navtraffic now also works on MS smartphones. If you happen to have one, you could easily see if the problem was with the feed or the software.

 

Looking at the DC Smartphone feed, there does not seem to be much feed data for DC compared to other areas.

http://65.161.28.166/view_traffic/de...?market=DC_WDC

http://www.pharosgps.com/smartphone/

 

I am in the Los Angeles County area and have had occasions where the NavTeq did not work also. Went through all the steps as outlined by LarryKa above..just to make sure I didn't push the icon button by accident, etc. I was at the dealer's yesterday for my wife's MDX and happened to ask the lead mechanic about this problem..he did confirm that they are experiencing problems, but undetermined as to whether its software or hardware.

 

I don't think Balto area has the nav/traffic coverage yet. I see the icons as I go toward DC but not in Balto area. I do hear that the Balto area will be covered very soon.

 

Just had my RL in for the NAV system check because I was not getting traffic updates. It appears to be working now. The dealer informs me that there is a new control unit with updated software due out sometime between now and CHRISTMAS! Hooray for the update.