PRNole47

I don't live in one of the metro areas for which XM has a traffic/weather channel, so I don't ever tune in to any of those, save for the curiosity right after Houston was evacuated and I wanted to "listen" in on local traffic bulletins.

Now...what is it exactly that has gotten fouled up in some of the new post-TSB AcuraLink units that have been installed? I don't follow the different ways of describing the problem, since I don't even know how to find out of mine is working or not.

A little info will be greatly appreciated

ASP

http://www.acura.com/models/model_co....asp?module=rl
Be sure to click on the little construction sign dude.

Once you experience North America's first real-time traffic feature, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. Utilizing the AcuraLink™ satellite communication system and XM® NavTraffic™ service from XM's satellites, the network gathers the latest traffic, navigation and car-related information and beams it to the RL in 22 metropolitan areas. This includes 24-hour traffic flow, where available, as well as updates on accidents, construction, weather issues and anything else that might impact your journey. Information appears on the guidance map on the large, 8-inch navigation system display and is continuously refreshed, enabling drivers to take the least congested routes to their destinations. Standard on the 2005 RL, real-time traffic information offers convenient shortcuts for your big-city travels. The first year of this real-time traffic service is included in the vehicle purchase. Subsequent service requires a fee.

ASP

Oh, and the foul up some are seeing post-TSB fix, is this feature is simply not working . . .

PRNole47

Well, the live traffic areas included in the Navi system seem to coincide with the XM channels devoted to the weather/traffic updates, reason why I thought these 2 items were related.

Since I don't live in any of the 22 metro areas in which the live navi traffc update operates, does this mean I cannot simply pull up one of these areas on my screen to see how the "live" portion operates UNLESS my car is physically located within any of these areas? IOW, do Ihave to be driving within one of these 22 metro areas for me to see the system operate, at least in theory?

vp911

I believe you can just use the cursor and move over to a city with the traffic and zoom in (to the traffic viewing range) and see it in action. I wonder - try this... hit the voice activation button (on the lower left steering wheel spoke...NOT the handsfreelink button) and say "display traffic list" see if a list comes up.

headersplus

I live in SoCal. I use it every day! It is indispensible now! Got my XM unit replaced about 2 weeks ago. Works great.

PRNole47

Well, I voice commanded "display traffic list" as suggested by vp911 and got a message telling me there was no traffic list for 30 miles. I then moved the cursor over the nearest metro area on the list (Tampa-St. Pete) and found the color coded traffic slogs for the area -- mostly blue and orange. The screen seemed to refresh every 4 or 5 min from what I could tell.

It seems my "live" navi traffic does work, even though I have no use for it...

bluemule

Well, I don't know.

I don't live near any of the metro areas that have flowdata. By scrolling over to a metro area that does have it, I get nothing. My icons are enabled. If I say "display traffic list", I get the message that there is no data for 30 miles. I've tried LA, Dallas, Atlanta, St. Pete and Houston.

The navigation manual on page 20 states "You can only view traffic information in the city where you are located."

I called XM and confirmed that my navtraffic is activated. They've sent another signal to the car, but so far, just sitting and idling for 5 minutes or so, I've seen no difference.

Today, the car is parked out in the boonies, not even on a marked road. I'll try traversing over to a covered city when I'm on the road again to see if this makes any difference. Someone also stated in another thread that the information sometimes takes up to 15 minutes to display.

I haven't had any of the TSB work done and don't know if the lack of flowdata would be related to not getting it where I'm located or not.

Fred

ASP

Fred, are you using a "view" within the range that shows traffic data?

Turn the main dial when on the map screen.

PRNole47

As you can see from my last post, I simply moved the cursor over to one of the nearest traffic areas listed (Tampa) and found that my live traffic Navi works, even from my house on an undocumented road, 120 miles south. I also moved the cursor over to the other 2 areas in Fla -- Orlando and Miami-Ft. Lauderdale -- that are also 120 and 140 miles away, respectively. It worked there, too.

Perhaps you might need to play with the zoom feature and find the map scale that will show the traffic conditions

bluemule

Thanks for the replies. Y'all confirmed that navtraffic should work out here in the country. A little later I'm making about a 25 mile round trip and will try again while actually rolling on a marked road. The car is parked on the North side of a timbered hill, and maybe that is somehow affecting the XM signal. However, XM radio works ok...just the usual song title delays.

Sitting in the parked car yesterday, I did everything I could think of to make it work...I zoomed in and out of the navtraffic range, I set up a destination to downtown Houston, I clicked all around on the interstate systems in the cities I scrolled over to, I checked and unchecked my menu options.

I don't know whether the current XM TSB would apply to navtraffic not working at all, but would like to see it in action so that I could make the decision to put off the XM TSB until the current difficulties the dealers are having have been resolved.

I'll post back a little later in the day.

bluemule

PRNole47, if you don't mind, next time you are in the car, would you try scrolling over to a city outside of Florida, such as Houston or Atlanta, to see if you can see the live traffic Navi in an out of state metro area?

I got no traffic flow on my short trip this morning. However, I forgot to ask the system to show the data...but I wouldn't think that would make any difference.

Fred

JSakaBuck

I also attempted to "see" XM Traffic on my nav screen while out here in the middle of nowhere. Couldn't do it. System told me that there were no traffic reports within 30 miles. I concur that the car must be physically in the metropolitan areas with the XM reports to see them on the screen.

bluemule

I'm likely to be totally wrong about the following!!! So, don't quote me! But, it's ok, because I'm used to being wrong...some of the time anyway...(grin)

It might be possible that several of the Florida cities are considered to be *one* metropolitan area by the NavTraffic folks. I have a dim recollection of seeing some discussion somewhere along these lines but cannot for the life of me, remember the details of that discussion. I'm likely to be wrong about this.

Anyway, that's why I asked PRNole47 to verify whether he could view traffic data in a metropolitan area outside of Florida.

Just speculating, it's also possible that if he can see traffic data where he is located, that perhaps he can see it in other cities also.

I just don't know. I only know that I'm not seeing any out here in bluemuleville and am concerned that something is amiss.

I've now had my RL for 4 months and simply have not looked into NavTraffic until now because I assumed from the language in the manual that I would not be able to view the data. I'd sure like to see some if it's feasible without having to take a field trip somewhere before my next service interval. I'd kinda like to clean up on this and that at that next service.

Fred

scottj

I live a good 300 miles from the two nearest cities in the system (Seattle and San Francisco) and I'm not close enough to see if my systems works. I did recently have the car within 60 or so miles of Seattle and flow and icons showed up great so that was nice to know.

Anyone know how "near" you have to be to get the info? Looks like you can be 120 miles away at least in Florida?

PRNole47

Nope. No live traffic from these (or other out of state areas). I still see only the live traffic in Tampa (120 miles north of me) BUT I think I was in error with the other two I had mentioned, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando. I scrolled back over to those 2 areas and noticed no traffic flow data, only some construction site icons. But, when I placed the cursor over the construction icons, the info in them read "long term" projects, leading me to believe what I thought was "live," as a result of seeing these icons in both Miami-Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando, may well have been data from the disc and not due to "live" traffic.

So, it appears the only metro area I can "see live" from my house is Tampa, which I double checked again to ensure I was getting up to date traffic flow data, road hazzards notices, and periodic refreshing of the live data every 3 to 5 min. So, I am able to verify that I am getting this live traffic info, but it seems for the Tampa area only.

vp911

PRNole - The construction items that read "long term" projects are still live downloaded to your navi via the satellite. None of the long term data is stored on the DVD from the factory. So, in reality you are still getting the live data feed - if you watch those areas over time some of those icons will go away and new ones will appear. Perhaps those cities just do not have the traffic flow data - but only the icons for now (I know there are some areas like this - not all areas have full traffic flow data)

acurafox

Since the XM Radio satellite has a multibeam antenna feed array that forms the downlink beam pattern, they could be routing the traffic info to specific downlink feed horns that are correlated with the coverage areas. That may be why one only sees the real time traffic for their local area-if you are in an XM downlink "beam" that is carrying traffic data for only that area, then you would obviously see only that data.

HAGENDAS

I live in the metro DC area and most of the roads stay red and it try the"display traffic list" and it tells me that there is no traffic for 30 miles. On Sunday there was a nasty accident on 495 and it showed nothing but the red. Any thoughts?

bluemule

I had business East of Birmingham today, so after leaving Mississippi and while going through Tuscaloosa, I scrolled over to Atlanta. I was able to see Atlanta's NavTraffic!! I got traffic flow, incidents, accidents and construction. However, Atlanta was the only city I got...I again tried Houston, poked around in Florida some and tried several other cities all over...no NavTraffic.

On the return trip, I was able to view Atlanta's NavTraffic until I stopped over in Mississippi, about 120 miles about due West of Tuscaloosa. NavTraffic was gone when I re-started the car.

This is my first experience with NavTraffic because of my location, and it sure is good to know that it is working on my RL. It seemed to me that while going through Tuscaloosa, still 3 or 4 hours from Atlanta, that the construction came in a bit delayed. But, once in Birmingham, the Atlanta info seemed to pop up fairly quickly.

Gator5000e

PRNole, we do not receive traffic flow info here in Orlando. Only accident/hazard data. Same for Lauderdale/Miami. Tampa is the only Florida city with flow data.

A prior poster said he couldn't get any data over the last few days. It appears there was a system wide problem with the NavTraffic over the last few days. It appears to be back to normal as of today.

Finally, another poster, or maybe it was the same person, who said he is still having the XM delay issue. Go get the module replaced per the TSB. It completely corrects the problem and display information refreshes instantly.

Now, if I could only get rid of that sunroof rattle!