Has anyone else noticed weather conditions displayed on the nav screen? There was pretty thick fog here in Seattle all day Thursday, 12/23. I was heading north on I-405 and noticed that the background on my nav screen looked strange -- light gray squiggly lines that were almost solid but you could still see patches of yellow (the normal background color). I thought the screen was malfunctioning but as I neared the junction to I-5, I noticed a big yellow patch coming up which coincided with a sunny patch of sky. As the grey on the nav screen returned, I drove back into the fog. At one point, the gray on the hav screen actually overlaid the roads on the screen and every thirty seconds or so the road would reappear and the screen would sort of refresh and overlay the gray again. As I got north of Everett, which is the end of the XM Traffic coverage area, the screen reverted to yellow for the rest of the trip.

I looked in the navigation manual and couldn't find any mention of this feature. Very cool stuff. I hope we get snow this year so I can see if that's displayed on the screen.

 

If this is not some sort of techno-glitch, this could be a great (hidden) feature. I use the word hidden lightly. Maybe this is an option that XM added to the NAVTraffic service after the RL went into production? Keep us posted, please.

 

The NavTraffic page on the XM Radio site shows a weather icon (http://www.xmradio.com/xmnavtraffic/index.jsp), but doesn't show what Gitch described. His description sounds like it looks more interesting though

 

wow, if the car shows weather conditions too, that is just amazing!

 

Since the RL uses traffic info provided through XM Radio, and XM radio broadcasts traffic AND weather in select cities around the country, it makes sense.

 

Now, if XM only broadcasted updated Football scores onto the screen...

 

 

Sweet!

 

Is it possible that XM signal got interfere by the thick fog?

 

Sorry Gitch but I have just not seen any weather info attached to the RL nav screen in anything I have seen or read. Is it possible that you were driving through areas adjacent to bodies of water or in rural countryside where you interpreted the color changes as weather demonstrated on the nav screen? Or possibly the bright daylight coming in through the back window cast light and dark areas on the screen?

I do not mean to be a doubter, just this is news to me and I (think) I have been keeping up on the RL (could be wrong). Would you be able to post a picture of the nav screen showing this weather condition info demonstrated? Sure would help to clear this up.

Thanks

 

It definately was not related to the XM signal being weak, etc. The traffic flow & incidents were appearing on the screen.

It also wasn't shadows, bodies of water, etc on the screen. The gray overlay was clearly meant to be on the screen because I could zoom out on the screen and see the gray shapes displayed in scale.

My first thought was that there was a system problem but it is too much of a coincidence that the first time I've seen this was on the first foggy day here. Actually, we've had light fog here in the mornings but this was the only day that the fog didn't burn off and we were socked in all day. This was around 1pm when I noticed this. It also wasn't random blobs of gray on the screen because it corresponded to the thick areas of fog.

If it wasn't displaying weather then it's a remarkable phenomenon that I can't otherwise explain. If it happens again, I'll try and get a picture of it with my camera phone. I would be interested to hear if anyone else in the Seattle area saw this. Perhaps it's a feature that's being tested in this area.

So while I'm telling you about things that can't theoretically happen, I'll let you know that I locked my keybob in the trunk of the car today. The trunk did NOT open after 30 seconds or whatever the interval is supposed to be. I had to call OnStar to have the car unlocked. At least I know that works now...

 

Gitch- interesting, I believe you but this is strange indeed. Please keep us posted and post pics as soon as you can. The trunk is strange too; I tried the system and it was working as promised ... wouldn't allow trunk to close and lock. I wonder if your remote is sending out its proper signal. Perhaps try locking the fob in the car also.

 

I've been in all kinds of weather in my RL (over 5k miles already) and I haven't seen my Nav screen show any weather type conditions. It does show the traffic, but that has even gone the fritz 3 or 4 times for no unexplained reason. Just doesn't show the traffic bar on the zoom screen. However, I love the nav system and the traffic when it's there. However, no weather systems reported, from my vantage point.