So, who's using NavTraffic in your RL and do you like it?

I've just managed a trial offer for 90 days with it, in the SoCal metro area.

 

I use it all the time.

 

I use it every day I drive the RL in rush hour traffic.

 

I've posted many times on the subject. I still subscribe to it, but its true usefulness is doubtful because of time delays. My experience is that data is usually 15 minutes to 1 hour behind and therefore not reliable enough to make a good decision on whether to reroute when enroute. It looks cool and impresses passengers. I keep subscribing mainly to see if/when it gets better.

 

Thanks, getakey. What do you other fellas think of its efficacy?

 

I agree there is a delay, but here in SE Michigan, I would say it's anywhere from a 10 to 15 minute delay.

 

I actually never subscribed to it for my RL because when I got it back in 05 my local area did not have coverage. My new G37 came with a 3 month subscription but we have limited coverage still with some traffic flow but mostly traffic incidents and construction. I also find that there are some delays. I took one of the interstates to go across town, checked the flow, which was good to my destination but I noted it red much further than I was going. I came into 'red' traffic miles before it was shown on the map but luckily I saw it red through my windshield just as I was about to pass an exit and took it, thankfully. I typically drive a lot of country roads, so far it hasn't been that helpful for me, so I don't know if I will continue subscription or not. It's more of a novelty for me. I suppose if I drove freeway everyday and there was more up to the minute notification I think I would use it more. I would probably program my work route into the navigation and then use the routing system everyday so that it would automatically re-route me without even looking at the alerts, otherwise if you zoom out too far to adequately 'see'what's coming you lose your traffic info. I would bet though larger metro areas have much better traffic reporting than mine.

 

Same experience here in Boston. Too much delay in accidents showing up and the traffic flows just aren't accurate. I'll probably renew since I'll be driving more come starting next month but the system is better in concept than in reality.

 

My wife purchased an '06 RL, and I was thinking of activating NavTraffic. Does anyone have info on its performance in the D.C./Baltimore area?

 

I am wondering if the delay has to do partly with XMs satellites? I remember when I originally activated XM they said it could take up to 15 minutes for the activation signal to go through the system. I guess I am curious what type of technical delay we are dealing with here and whether they really are keeping it as up to date as they can be and we're just dealing with transmission delay.

Regardless, I agree, 15 minutes is a huge deal when driving in rush hour.

Chris

 

This is my understanding of the system:
XM refreshes to the Navi every 5 minutes - you can see the update as it refreshes. (Also, traffic info can sometimes go away for 5 minutes. Probably a transmission error.)
"Upstream" from XM is NavTeq. They aggregate the traffic data from multiple sources. So each srouce could have its own timing issues. I suspect some are real-time, some are not.
Also, the flow data is dependent on the number of sensors. Some areas are more dense than others. I confirmed this with engineer from NavTeq at a conference. For example, on the San Mateo bridge in SF bay area, there are only a few sensors on the bridge. Thus, one sensor's data shows flow for a long stretch (the bridge is almost 10 miles long).
I have compared NavTraffic to multiple sources (Google, Radio station, etc.), and NavTraffic is consistently delayed - also validated by my own observations of flow versus passing traffic in opposite direction. I passed an accident and stopped traffic and did not see it show up on NavTraffic for 45 minutes. Other times, I'll see the flow show up in 10 minutes after an "event".

 

I live in Northern VA. See getakey comments on how it all works. I observe the same things that getakey does. Sometimes good info, sometimes not. More often, the data is delayed, but it gives you an idea of what is going on.

I still pay for it in the hopes that gets better.

 

Question and comment:

--I don't see my onscreen map looking any different than it did before Nav Traffic was activated, and I am in the zoom range for traffic info. I have all red highways, just as before. What do you guys used to using it think?

--On an airport shuttle, I saw our driver using Google's gps-linked traffic and navi through his laptop. It was very good.

 

what year is your RL?
You navi should show color codes for traffic flow on both sides of red highways, i.e., for flow in both directions. Someone will know the exact spped ranges, but the following is the intent (I think the colors changed after 07)
Blue = up to speed
Yellow = slow
Red = very slow
There is a set-up to show traffic, but I thought it was only to turn on/off incidents. Look in Setup and More menu.

 

Go through your manual on Nav Traffic.

Basic check is use the voice command or the cursor command for Traffic Incidents and see what you get. If you get local construction and traffic incidents, then service is working. Even if you get stuff a hundred miles away, the service is working.

Make sure your traffic icons are turned on. If they are turned off, you will not get flow data (assuming the website says you get flow data) or incident data on your map.

Search on the topic. There are other threads that go through all this.

 

Thanks fellas, and if it makes some of you feel better, I searched on this to my little heart's content prior to posting. I'd also read my manual. But hey, I thought I'd ask.

Now to the conclusion on that: the activation hadn't taken hold. I took a drive x-town for lunch, called XM and had them re-send the activation for my unit and, about 15 minutes later, the legend codes I'd expected showed up. All green overlays in SoCal today, btw, but there was a stalled vehicle out there. All good: it's working and I can spend the next few months deciding whether it's worth keeping.

 

Will NavTraffic automatically alert you, or re-route you if there is an incident, construction, or other delay in your path during GPS guidance?

 

It will in the '09 cars, but not in my decrepit old, pre-'09 jalopy.

 

NeuronBob,
Other than accident or construction info are there other features available in our market?

 

But the 09 still uses the same source for determining if a detour is necessary. If an incident has been cleared, it could be over half an hour for the incident to not show up on our screen. Therefore the 09 will send you all over God's great earth to avoid something that does not exist. Great for time wasting and Exxon probably love it too but in the real world the Navtraffic display is a great idea implemented so badly that it is frequently counter productive. As I have said on previous threads: it makes the screen more colorful it it wows the passenger seat occupant but don't expect it to be useful until the real time aspect is implemented.

 

Totally Agree! I would never trust NavTraffic to reroute.

 

I live in SF Bay Area and I use it everyday. Yeah it takes like 3 minutes to get the traffice updated when you first start, so you have to wait before you determine what route to take, but if I see RED on the 101 or the San Mateo Bridge I will take the Dumbarton and 880.. When I am stuck in traffic without it, and just sitting there stopped, I wonder what is going on.. Nowadays you can get traffic (free) on your phone too. I have nav/traffic on my Instinct, and iphone has it too...

 

Well, mine just stopped working. The bar graph at the bottom of the screen showing the "traffic range" on it, no longer shows the "traffic range" and reboots by XM do nothing.

And I actually ran into some heavy traffic that would have been nice to check the system against. Frustrating.

 

As always, try the time honored command "Traffic Incidents"

If you get a listing of traffic incidents in your area, traffic is working.

If yes to traffic is working, then look at your icons, or say "Display traffic", and see if that works. Sometimes the traffic icons are turned off, so even if you reset with XM, you still won't see any traffic. I went through this a couple of days until I found out it was user error, and I turned off all icons to declutter the display only to find out that traffic flow and incidents are also icons.

 

Chas, that turns out to be "it", although I hadn't turned anything off. This morning, I noticed my entire Nav/System interface is working very slowly. At my first stop, I sat through long waits and tried to verify all my settings, etc... lo, in the nav itself, all icons were off. Quick click and it's "working" (probably was, all along).

Those voice commands you referenced work, eh? I gotta learn up on these. I still have the machine misunderstanding me/refusing to obey my awesomenicity.

 

Yea, it is great when I tell people how great the car is and give it a voice command it does something totally different, like "Air Conditioner off" on 98 degree day, when I asked it to do something totally different...

 

Been there, done that.

 

Sorry I missed this post.

No. Until ODOT gets its act together and modernizes the Cleveland freeway system to add flow information, we won't have that info.