I have had my 06 Acura for 5 months now. I have only seen one incident appear for Boston traffic, and that was when they closed the Ted Williams tunnel. Otherwise, there has never been any traffic data in all of New England. My dealer told me it's been active in Boston for 3 years or more.

Does this work for anyone else? Or is this a false advertising gimmick? I know it works in LA and San Fran, but anywhere else?

 

I see traffic incidents in the DC area all of the time. It appears that the speed sensors are only linked up to NavTraffic in DC and NoVA but not Maryland. When I first got the car, I wasn't seeing anything and called XM. They had me reinitialize my system by leaving it on channel 001 for 15 minutes and then checking to see that I was receiving two other channels (can't remember which). After that, the traffic information started coming in loud and clear. Best wishes for getting things working in Boston.

 

I drive into Boston every day from the western suburbs and the traffic flow and incident data is definitely there. The traffic flow data seems to be limited to the major highways inside and including 128 (128, 93, Mass Pike). It shows up as a solid bar on each side of the highway (in my case red, yellow, or blue). The incident data is definitely there.

Make sure you do the following:

- Press the voice command button on the wheel and say "display traffic"
- Make sure the Nav isn't zoomed too far out or in - then you won't get the traffic data. Turning the selector dial left or right zooms the Nav display. There is a little black bar bar underneath the zoom settings that says "Traffic". The map scale adjustment must be within that bar (1/2 mile scale to 5 miles scale) to see traffic flow.
- With the Nav map on the screen press the selector knob in, then select "Show icons on map" or whatever menu item includes icons. Then make sure the traffic icons are enabled. It should be the first item in the list of icons.

If you still don't get any traffic or incidents, make sure XM has NavTraffic enabled on your account (and that you did get the 1 free year that you get with the car). If it's enabled and still doesn't work, then take it into the dealer.

 

I live in LA and the traffic feature is only to add colors to your screen and to make it pretty. Actual traffic conditions are only updated after you exit the car.

 

Works in NJ just fine........i did have to get my Navi resetted by XM and suggest to perform this voice commands every couple of weeks if you don't see any traffic icons:

Press the voice command button on the wheel and say "display traffic", as dwboston posts above.

 

I live in RI, but I was in Boston on Tuesday and everything to do with NavTraffic seemed to work fine. I had construction information and flow data in and around Boston. When I'm up in the Andover area (which is more often than in Boston proper), the flow data is fine.

I didn't have any accident info for an incident that was southbound on 128 near the 95 interchange, but the traffic flow showed red, and that was correct for the 2-or-so mile backup I saw going that way.

 

Try a refresh at www.refresh.xmradio.com. I had a similar problem in Orlando - No traffic data was showing at all. I called XM and they recommended a refresh. I was skeptical and thought I was getting the textbook problem solving line, but it actually worked. Have had traffic data consistently since I did the refresh over a month ago. Can't hurt to try.

 

Right- the website gives me an error saying they are unable to refresh the radio signal. I have called support 5 times, they say nothing is wrong and they manually re-activate the radio. I leave the car on outside for hours, but no change. Customer support is remarkably incompetent though-- I have to repeat myself many times. They even misspelled "yahoo" when creating my account, so I couldn't login.

The funny thing is my radio shows the navtraffic bracket when I'm zooming in/out-- I wouldn't think that would show up if traffic wasn't activated and subscribed. But I have never received any traffic information on the major highways.

 

My 7 month old RL just stopped showing traffic in New York yesterday. I have traffic icons selected but as of yesterday I no longer show either flow info or incident info. Do you think it's me or XM?
Anybody else with a similar problem?

 

See my post above about refreshing the rodio. I had a similar problem, did the refesh and all has worked perfectly since. Just go to refresh.xmradio.com and enter the radio ID number found on channel I and leave the car outside running with a clear-view of the sky.

This worked for me, hopefully, it will for you as well. Certainly is easy enough to try. Good luck.

 

I feel better knowing I'm not the only one banging my head against a brick wall trying to get the NavTraffic to work. I went through the whole ordeal with XM Customer Service (a wholly miserable experience), and when that failed dropped the car off at the dealer for them to deal with it (the car was three weeks old at this point). They told me the XM unit had to be replaced (this was 12/26). I called back today to inquire as to the status of the replacement unit and was told they were on "National Backorder" and it would be many more weeks. I am guessing a systemic flaw if that many units need replacement. What irks me the most is that the NavTraffic NEVER worked from day one--you would think the dealer would make sure it was activated and working as part of the delivery-prep, poor customer service in my opinion (especially considering that the RL is barely even advertised, and when it was one of the main selling points was the NavTraffic feature).

 

Well, I've had my car for almost 6 months and 8 hours on the phone with XM and Acura. They repeatedly cancelled and re-activated my radio to no avail. Sounds like there is a big problem...wonder howmany people don't realize they aren't getting traffic!!

I called Acura of Boston about replacing the unit a month ago, they still haven't gotten back to me.

 

I got in my car today and noticed that the NAV Traffic was not working. I also
noticed that when I went to zoom in or out, that the word "Traffic" was not
there as it always is, and that the traffic icon was blacked out so that I could
not access it. XM account was fine, and refreshing did not work.

 

My NavTraffic was out for a few hours last night (with all of the same symptoms you noted), but was back on at around 8:30 p.m. and worked fine this morning.

Did you actually check it this morning? You posted exactly the same thing last night. It seems to be working fine today.

 

Not working yet. I refreshed again, and called both XM and Acura. This sucks. I am just hoping it has nothing to do with the USA Spec unit for my iPod. I doubt it, but that would make it that much worse. I guess I will wait a day or 2, and if it is still not working, take it in for service.

 

Sorry for the late reply to this post, but Acura of Boston sucks. I had and witnessed several bad service experiences there (I bought my 2003 TL-S there). I also had a salesman have an emotional breakdown on me there 2 years before that when I was trying to buy a TL (I decided to buy an Accord V-6 instead elsewhere). That place is the worst - I'll never go back there for anything willingly.

The "national backorder" thing could be misleading. This is at least the 3rd part I've seen related to the RL listed as being on "national backorder." The others were the part related to the A/C malfunction and the rearview mirror assembly. Initially I took it as evidence of numerous failures of these parts accross many cars leading to the scarcity of the part. The more I think about it though it makes me wonder whether the low volume of sales for the RL means that Acura/Honda isn't stocking many replacement parts for warranty replacements (especially expensive ones) and only ordering from the part manufacturers on a "just-in-time" basis. When there are failures in multiple cars (which is bound to happen) it takes time to get enough parts to fix them all.

 

At this point I'll have to take it back to dealer and demand a new head unit. Traffic is a killer in Boston and I've spent a lot of money on this car for this feature.

 

Newsflash. Acura of Boston got my Navtraffic working. How? A smart tech there REMOVED the BACKUP FUSE and rebooted the flash in the system. Now it works! For the first time in 8 months.

Note I had removed the car's battery leads trying to do the same thing months ago. I didn't know the head unit had a backup battery!

Problem solved.

 

Seattle area NavTraffic not working for anyone else? Mine is out today. Just wondering, the car is only seven days old!