I know this has been discussed before, but had a chance this morning to determine how long after a reported traffic jam showed up on Navtraffic - 40 minutes!

Heard on the radio about a major accident and traffic blocked just before 8am. All lanes were blocked for a while so traffic backed up quickly resulting in a 5 mile backup. Navtraffic showed "green" trafic flow until 8:40am when it finally changed to "red"

The delay has to be with XM or Navtraffic service provider as Google maps as well as Traffic map on local news show problems in near real time. I believe the data is updated to the car about once every 10 minutes

 

Yes. Navtraffic sucks. With heavy traffic, I use Google Maps on my iPhone for traffic info. I don't think XM Traffic it's worth the $4.99 a month or whatever I pay for it.

 

Agreed. We had XMTraffic in the TL at first and decided its useless. Nice idea but it doesn't update quickly and really not worth the money.

 

Disco'ed all the XM services as it was just not worth it...even at the AZ price.

 

 

Can we set up an auto reply when someone posts "NavTraffic" thats goes "NOOOOOO Dont do it!!!"

 

I know there's a delay in the system, from the data gathering to the referral to NavTraffic and then to us, but I regularly get good data in a manner that's timely enough when driving in SoCal. I have seen and avoided traffic jams before the freeway slows, many times.

 

It's been pretty accurate in the Philadelphia are for me. Not sure about delays in posting "new" traffic but the indicators have been spot on.

LL

 

NavTraffic should be relabelled TrafficHistory. I do not need to know what was, I need to know what is.
I too agree with OP that 40 minutes delay is frequent because while I'm sitting in the backup I can then watch it show up on the screen. I paid (past tense) for this abomination to save me from getting into the backup not to explain to me why I'm there.

 

Well, I feel better about not buying it now.

Now I just need to get my iPhone map on the nav screen.

 

I think it is also market dependent. We have fairly extensive traffic monitoring here in Tampa Bay. I find the service quite good and use it to scan my route before most every drive.

That said, I'd glady trade NavTraffic for more attentive drivers with self control. But that means they would have to have a soul.

 

Buy a new RLX I'm sure it will have Google maps with traffic built in?

 

Yup. And a brain.

 

RL's real time traffic was hit or miss in Houston for me. There were more than a few times when I was stuck in "green" roads and then after I came upon the traffic jam, it would turn red.


However I have to say the 370Z's traffic has been very accurate so far. It is still XM. I can't think of how it would make a difference but the 370Z's navigation system is hard drive based. So maybe it isn't XM's service but the implementation. Acura's DVD based system might not refresh often enough.

 

I have the DVD based RL and a HDD based MDX, although the MDX is better with more information, both systems suffer from the slow updates from XM.
The Honda Odessey has an FM based traffic update system but it is slow to update the traffic flow colors on the map and is worse than the XM based systems.
In my opinion, both XM systems are too slow to be of any use and the FM system is even slower. The good news about the Honda system is that there is no subscription but the bad news is that you get what you pay for.

 

This has been my experience as well. It's not ever going to be quick enough to warn you on situations that just happen, but i can't tell you how many times, especially in the winter where I will see that the expressway that I take to work is jammed at a certain section and I then take an alternate route.

If it saves me a gallon or two of gas a month and keeps me from sitting in a jam, it's worth it. I also like the auto re-route feature that exists in my Caddy (that is also available in the newer Acura models).

 

But do you know it is jammed? At least half of the time the information displayed is so old that it is a legacy problem. I have avoided incidents only to find out that the incident had already been cleared.
Old information is as useless as no information. If they put the time in the text then maybe that would help? Also it should give more text info so that the same icon or text is not used for a broken down car on the hard shoulder or a complete freeway closure.

 

This was touted in one of the first 2G RL TV commercials (yes they did exist at one point in time) as a feature. Is it not available on the RL?

 

Yes because I would confirm with the local traffic report.

 

It was not available in my '06 RL. I do know it was available on later model TLs because I used it in loaners I got. It may also be available in the refreshed models 09+, but it was not in the '05-'08 models.

The version in my Cadillac also shows you the current and long range weather forecasts and also will pop an alert on the nav screen when weather alerts are issued in my area (i.e. Tornado warnings, etc.)

 

^^^
Yup. Same in my Cadi as well, but the traffic info in Cleveland is still worse than useless.

 

With more vehicles introducing direct internet access via cellular, I expect XM NavTraffic to disappear. They just do not have the base to justify advancing the service.

And speaking of a the Cadillac system, I was just reading up on the CUE of the new XTS. I hope Acura's next generation RL(X) can offer as much. The XTS has some impressive telematics and full ONSTAR support. The XTS Platinum AWD package is impressive.

 

Hey Tampa,

Early commentary by people who have seen the car is that the interior of that car is something to behold. It's supposed to be pretty impressive.

Criticisms are that it is a FWD based platform (shares the same platform as the Buick LaCrosse) and the version of the 3.6L engine in the XTS is only rated at 304 hp as opposed to 318hp in the CTS and 324 in the Camaro. The reason being that in the XTS the engine is mounted transversely as opposed to longitudinally and as a result the exhaust setup is a bit more restrictive. AWD is available, but it's geared mostly to weather than performance.

What I'm excited about is the ATS which is on a brand new platform that was designed to take on the BME 3 series. It too will get the CUE. The next generation CTS will be based an an extended version of the ATS platform and is supposed to be aimed at the 5 series.

As for the CUE, it looks very cool, but I would wait a year until they work out the bugs.

 

The best thing about CUE is that you can take a USB stick to your computer, download an update, and then upload that to the car. Unless there is a major hardware flaw, the first system will be fine. Even most hardware issues can be fixed with software work arounds, and I'm sure they have been testing the system pretty thoroughly.

It's a sweet setup, but going into a questionable vehicle. Maybe they wanted to boost that model's sales for a while.

 

It's going into all the new Cadillacs. The ATS and the SRX are being introduced with it too. The CTS is slated to be redesigned in 2014 (there have already been test mules spotted on the roads) and when it is introduced it will get Cue as well. It's just a matter of time as it makes it's way across the lineup.

 

I realize that, but the promo video that was linked in Car Talk a while back was very exciting until they said what models would get it first. Kind of the same way we learn of the SH-SH-AWD and are then told we get FWD first.

 

Ah, I get you, but I don't think it had anything to do with making the XTS more attractive. I think it's just a matter of timing. THe XTS has recently become available. THe ATS is coming out this fall and as I mentioned, the CTS will be redesigned and debut for the 2014 MY.

I've been pretty pleased with my CTS so far. I had one minor issue with a seatbelt warning light that would flash (even when buckled). The experience should have been a minor issue, but the dealer experience was maddening. That's a topic for another thread.

 

You can rant here. This thread is done.

 

At 3,800 miles I noticed that my driver's seatbelt warning light would flash intermittently. Made an appointment for the Tuesday after Memorial day. A few days before I was driving home and it started flashing more consistently. Trying to avoid the "could not recreate scenario", I call the dealer and asked if I could swing by so that they could actually witness the light flashing while I was still belted.

Got to the dealer, pulled into the service bay and showed the service manager.

The Tuesday after Memorial day I'm on my way to drop off the car and it's acting up again. I pulled into the service bay and the porter comes up and asks if he could help. I told him what I was there for, I showed him (so I had another witness), and then I show the same service manager again. He acknowledges that he sees it, gives me a loaner and I'm on my way.

Later in the day I get a call from the SM. He tells me that they can't recreate the problem, that they connected it to the diagnostics machine and there are no codes.

Then he insults my intelligence.

He says, "you know sir, the seatbelt warning light will flash if you aren't wearing your seatbelt".

I told him that there wouldn't be any codes. The car thinks I don't have my seatbelt on, it's not giving me a malfunction warning. I ask him if he recalled me showing him that the seatbelt light was flashing.

Nothing.

I then ask to speak to the tech. I'm told the tech is gone for the day.

I tell him that this is my first domestic car after almost 20 years of owning foreign makes and we are not off to a good start.

He then offers to keep the car overnight and they will look at it again in the morning.

After sleeping on it I had no faith in this guy. I leave a message with the general manager, who is a friend of a friend and who I first spoke to when I was thinking of making the purchase.

The GM calls me right back. I explain it all to him and mention how the SM insulted my intelligence telling me that I need to have my seatbelt on. I'm especially upset because I made a concerted effort to make trips out there to point it out. He tells me that they will fix it, even if he has to authorize replacing parts.

Later in the day the SM calls me and tells me that they've been looking at it all day and can't recreate it. Again he tells me that the car isn't throwing any codes so there must not be a problem. Again when I mention the trips I made to show him the flashing light he insults me again.

He says he never really paid attention if I was wearing my seatbelt.

I lost it. I told him that I was going to pick up the effing car and as soon as Cadillac sent me a survey on my experience I was going to effing ravage them.

Again I got silence.

I hung up and then called the GM. As soon as he knew it was me he told me that they didn't have anything yet, but he had a bunch of techs working on it.

I informed him that the SM just called me to pick up the car. I went on to explain the incompetence of the SM and there was dead silence on the phone.

He then said, please don't pick up the car. He was going to authorize replacing the buckle if all else failed.

A few minutes later the GM calls me back with the tech asking me to explain to him when and how often it would occur.

At the end of the call the tech says, well this was helpful. I wish I would have known this from the start.

They ended up replacing the buckle and the problem was resolved.

 

I hate the Dealer cannot reproduce issue. There are some problems that are intermittent. I had similar situation with Dealer on my RL for the headlight flicker. They would not do anything unless they could reproduce. I said go ahead and have Tech stare at it all day long, but it is a safety issue and it needs to be taken care of. After a fairly heated dicsussion, they finally agreed to replace.

 

I do understand it to some extent. Tey get people in there of varying ability to explain problems and such. I also understand that it gets expensive to replace stuff if you don't actually know the cause, but in my case I made a point, TWICE, to show them while it was happening.

It's obvious the SM wasn't even paying attention.

 

There's a Service Advisor at my dealer that has on his business card:
"Not my fault"

I had discussed a couple of issues with him that were written up as TSBs. He told me flat out that he does not read these. WTF is a "Service Advisor" for?

I refuse to talk to him and insist on another Advisor when I drop my car off

 

How do people like that keep their jobs?

 

Sorry to hear Hawks, I would have disemboweled the SA. My concern with the faulty seatbelt sensor would be the airbag being disabled by 'thinking' the seatbelt is not engaged. I believe most cars have logic to not deploy the airbag is the seatbelt is not engaged.

Ummm...NAVTRAFFIC. I just picked up my RL from a 2 day visit at the detailer for OPTIGUARD application. Returning home, while sitting at a traffic light I witnessed a wreck (in Florida, most drivers consider red lights as 'optional'). The accident appeared on my NAVI in just over 3 minutes. I will say, however, this intersection is one with camera monitoring (likely due to the number of red light runners).

 

Re Navtraffic - the incidents do tend to show up fairly quickly, but not consistently. My beef is with the traffic flow

Hawks - now that I think about it, I have not seen that Advisor the last couple of drop offs.