Chas2

This is really for those that live in the DC area, although others may know from the described behavior.

My wife wanted to go to Reagan National Airport today, and was driving with my son. I was not in the car.

The most direct route for her is along the Dulles Toll Road (VA 267) to I-66 to the SR 110 South. Of course, depending on the day and time, the entire I-66 can turn into a carpool only freeway inside the Beltway. Mapquest and the RL wanted her to take the Dulles Toll Road Extension to 123 North to the GW Parkway South.

My wife ignored the RL routing and the constant recalculation over a bunch of major surface streets to get back to the 123. She continued to drive the most direct route along I-66, the nav system gave up and displayed some error message about the roads not being in the area, and the routing cancelled. My son tried to recalculate, and the 4.62 DVD kept insisting on taking us to the GW Parkway.

The route she took is the most direct route, and maximizes the use of freeways, as she directed the car to do. So why won't the car cooperate. I think it has something to do with the I-66 carpool rules, so the Navteq database ignores I-66 within the beltway altogether.

Anyone have any clues?

JPSMAN

That is correct; Navteq database ignores I-66 within the beltway altogether.

I have complained a few times to both Acura and Alpine over the past few years. They really don't seem to care much.

The only thing I can think of is that I66 is restricted to trucks and I'm sure a major customer of the NAVTEQ database is truckers. just an idea.....

This is a slight improvement; on my 04 TL (orange disk NAV) the actual road wasn't even mapped in the database, which meant that when driving on I66, the system was throwing itself on the parallel roads because the road coordinates were never included.

Its amateur hour in my opinion....

Chas2

I think you hit the nail on the head. You are right, no trucks inside the beltway.

I agree, amateur hour....

///M Roadster

i don't have the latest 4.62.
whenever i have to get on 66 (towards dc), once i get past 495 junction, nav recalculates the route using 66 for me? i've not gone to DCA using nav, but two instances when i had to go into DC, it worked fine. hmmm...

actually, problem with 66 seemed to be the case for Audi nav and BMW nav as well, with BMW nav being the worst.

one thing that bothers me is whenever i get out of my office parking garage, RL gets confused and puts me in on a road that is next to the road I am on. this was not the case with both Audi nav and BMW nav. but on all other aspects, RL nav is better.

kenny5

Last summer I was driving from Virginia through DC back to New York. I followed the road signs and ended up on a new highway that is not on the navi's database. For about 30 minutes, the navi showed that my car was traveling over water and slicing through street blocks.

Chas2

I have had that experience also. With 4.3x, the version supplied with my car, there was a new section of US 29 that was opened and not on the map. The GPS dropped cookies along that route, which included crossing the James River near Lynchburg. I probably travelled that route 10 times or more, and there were so many cookies it looked like a road. There was enough resolution at the smaller scales so that the cookies clearly defined the northbound and southbound lanes.

With 4.62, that new section of highway was added, superimposed over the cookies. Only once in awhile along the route can you see an old cookie off to the side or in between the north and southbound lanes which shows that the GPS recording and the digital map are pretty accurate.

But yes, it was pretty cool to be flying along open fields and over the river.

PortlandRL

The Acura NAV is the best I've seen.

Having worked for an Audi dealer I can say the RNS-E nav in the new A4 (05 to 08 models) sucks outright. For those who know Portland, it tried to get me across the Ross Island Bridge by continuing under Naito on Arthur, left towards MacAdam, then under and back around on 2nd...WTF?

Chas2

So trying this again, into DC and out of DC, both times the nav system gave up once you crossed a certain threshold. Inbound, once you pass 123 North, outbound, once you pass the GW Parkway, the nav system gives you an error message. Reprogram for the same destination, and it will take you on the I-66.

Interesting.