The girlfriend and I went to the AMC Theater on Illinois Street, downtown Chicago last night. We saw Wedding Crashers - very funny, go see it. We parked in the underground garage for about 4 hours (had dinner before the movie).

Upon leaving the garage, heading DUE NORTH, and then DUE WEST, the navigation arrow shows us as going South-Southwest, not on any streets, just heading diagonal, faster than we were actually moving, cutting through the middle of city blocks and eventually into the Chicago River, and across I-94, across I-290, and on and on. Changing the scale of the map and turning off the car at a stop light and re-starting it did NOT change anything.

I then inputted the "Go Home" feature, and it calculated a route, but the route was all over the place, like someone drew the route on a transparancy above the map itself and then someone moved the map on accident. It was like we were in some other dimension!

Anyone else experience this?
This morning I fired it up to go to work, and it worked just fine, no hiccups.

Randy

 

I've experienced similar difficulties downtown, but not as bad as you described. Once while circling down a tall parking garage the Navi snapped to the wrong street. The Navi of course always snaps to the nearest digitized road and can be wrong when parallel streets run very close together (e.g. service roads along an interstate). Once its "locked" on to a digitized road it doesn't want to give it up and can become even more confused in a crowded "chaotic" downtown environment. In my case however the arrow was at least trying to track in the direction I was going, although locked onto the wrong street. It too several miles to eventually get it right.

 

Never have had such a problem in the D.C. area. However, I also never turn on the nav system (by punching the on-screen OK) until well clear of indoor or underground parking.

 

Man Randy...you sure drive fast. Who knew the RL could handle that kind of terrain.
Seriously...never had that problem. If it reoccurs, see the Acura Dr.

 

I no longer regard turning the key as "starting" the RL, but a"rebooting" of the car's systems. Yesterday on my daily commute, XM Satellite would not load names, etc...it played fine, but without the info..."loading" is all I got. After about 80 miles, I decided to stop for a coke, and when I returned to the car and "rebooted", XM worked OK. That was "yesterday's" experience, stay tuned, video at 11:00...<g>

 

I was traveling today to a destination, but the Nav showed a totally different route through side streets and alley ways today compared to what it showed before. Both times it was using the "direct route" method, which is what I usually use. It has also shown routes that are very different than what my other car's Nav system shows. Has anyone find the RL's Nav erratic in this way?

 

Full Moon

 

Again, last night, the girlfriend and I went to the AMC Theater on Illinois Street, downtown Chicago. Saw Batman Begins (most of which is filmed in Chicago). Anyway, return to "my Batmobile" after 2 hours, and the same thing happened! I stopped the car twice at stoplights, turned it off for 10-20 seconds, and re-started it. Still showing the wrong heading, showing us driving through the Chicago River... It finally re-located us, suddenly, after driving on Lake Shore Drive northbound for about two miles...

Randy

 

Randy,

Can you confirm that the GPS indicator showed that your nav system had successfully sync'ed up with the satellites? If not, I could understand how your system could have got confused.
Next time it happens, you may want to try looking at the diagnostic screen by pressing the Map/Guide, Cancel and Menu buttons together for about 5 seconds. Then you will se an option to display the satellites in the sky, which will tell you how many have locked in.
Not sure what to do if you don't get any GPS lock, but it might help explain what's happening.

Pete

 

hmmmm, both times this has happened, your girlfriend was in the car,....

are you sure she is from planet Earth ?

 

I was thinking the same thing, the navi has problem with your gf (jealous maybe). Just try go to AMC without her.

j/k

 

I have the same exact problem as you. Ive noticed that it happens to me whenever I plot a destination from our back parking lot (not a digitized road). As I loop around the parking lot towards the nearest digitalized street, the navi puts me on the street next to our building and not the one that I'm actually on (not a digitalized street).

It'll keep showing me that I'm on the wrong road and it'll even show that I'm cutting through blocks and at one point through the Hudson River!

I'll try the nav diag tip posted above the next time this happens (usually on sundays and when I go golfing). But it usually corrects itself after a few miles. I wonder if the fact that I can barely receive XM stations near my house has any correlation to my navi going bonkers.

 

I was heading north on I-95. The blue line was the intended path which was correct. All of the sudden, the split screen came on telling me to get off at the next exit into the bronx. Didn't make any sense. No problems before or since...

 

This happened to me too on a trip to Westchester county NY from NJ on I-95. I think the Nav system calculated that getting off I-95 and switching to the adjacent parallel parkway, then returning to I-95 at the next entry back onto I-95 was a shorter path than staying on I-95. I think it is a minor glitch in the software.

 

Sometimes the system will instruct a turn on a straight ahead 2-lane road, and when you keep going straight, the system will continue as if you took that turn. This is most likely to happen where roadways have been changed slightly by construction. The quality of the data available for the DVD might also cause this when it occasionally happens.

 

I've figured out the problem with our navi since this post last year. When the car cannot get a clear signal from the satellites, it'll 'guess' where you are, thus the mysterious tracking issues.

We moved early this year and I guess the line of sight to the satellites sucks in Westchester. But by the time we reach a major road or populated location, the GPS goes green and we're magically back on track!

 

My 06 TL had identical problem downtown Chicago as you described. I got to the city without any glithes, but after I got back to my car in a parking garage (dearborn, north wacker area) my Navi was going nuts when I did “go home” function. It was basically behiaving the same way yours did – I was barely doing 20-30 mph, but my actuall location was couple blocks in a wrong direction and at one point I also ended up in the river lol.
Another glitch I noticed when I jumped on 290 going wb, I was driving on it for good mile or two and the navi would still show that I am driving on the road adjacent to the highway.

I am glad this is something normal for Acuras and probably Hondas too - at least saves me a trip to a dealer.

 

The navi on my parents' MDX had us "off highway" and charted a path showing us driving on Lake Tahoe or across the center of a forest, several times. It was funny, but took place at one of the few times we wanted the darn thing to work so we could zero in on a destination.