TSXy Luster

So, my navigation works normally when I input addresses and such, but whenever I just hit the "Points of Interest" option, it ALWAYS thinks I'm in Canada...... and starts giving me options for places near Alberta, etc...

It's really annoying when I'm in an unknown town and looking for say.....food. I end up wasting petrol driving around looking for it instead

Anyone else have this problem and/or have a solution?

Thanks!

ceb

Are you sure you're not in Canada? You do say "petrol" instead of "gas," eh?

So what you're saying is if you select "petrol stations in my vicinity" you get stations in Toronto?

I've never heard of that issue. Does it happen with all POIs or just with petrol stations?

TSXy Luster

LOL yes I am not living in Canada, but in USA. I was brought up with British education hence my usage of petrol :p

And sadly, yes it happens with all POIs I think during my next dealership checkup, I'm going to see what they can do about it.


I wonder if there is a way to see what my default location is in the car... I thought programming my "home" location in the address book would solve it, but it did not.

ceb

Odd. Your location should be fixed by the GPS coordinates. I'll try it on my car tonight and let you know if what the GPS does as far as default position when it loses signal.

Maybe that is a subtle way of telling you to move?

PyroDave

maybe the GPS got messed up by something? if your not intending a trip to the dealer soon, i'd try disconnecting the battery and then plugging it back in. make sure you have your navi code

TSXy Luster

Well, when I turn on the car, the navigation gps is correct, but whenever I go to POIs and try to search for something like even a McDonalds, it gives me addresses in Canada

The one time it showed a location in the USA, it was Oregon which is not even close to where I am lol.

p.s. ceb, I would love to move to Canada.......if I had free income

ceb

I actually think it might be user error. My BMW used to do that all the time and it was because of the way I was doing the input.

Try this to see if it works using the knob instead of voice prompts

Input address by place category
Select Auto Service
Select Gas Stations
Select Sort by Distance to Travel

If that doesn't bring up the closest gas stations then you have a nav problem.

TSXy Luster

I've never used voice prompts with POIs. Always used the knob.

And I've tried all of those steps before and still I get the crazy results.

The odd thing is that whenever I actually put in a real address I'm travelling to, and hit search nearby, it gives me proper results. But even when in that route navigation, whenever I look for a POI, I get Canada....

Think I'll go mess around with it, manuals in hand, and try to figure it out this weekend. If not, I'll prob have the dealership take a look at it next month when I go in for service.

K100Fran

[quote=TSXy Luster;13575398]So, my navigation works normally when I input addresses and such, but whenever I just hit the "Points of Interest" option, it ALWAYS thinks I'm in Canada...... and starts giving me options for places near Alberta, etc...





Ditto...No problems with addresses, but using Place Name, spell "Costco" (which I know is only a few miles away) and it tells me the nearest is 659 miles away. Drives me crazy. I end up using my iPhone, search for the address and then use that...
I try sort by distance etc...never comes out right. I assume I am doing something wrong, just don't know what...uh maybe I look in the manual when I get a chance...

TSXy Luster

THANK YOU for making me not feel like I'm the only one going insane here!!!

ceb

I reviewed the manual and I can't see anything that you might be doing wrong. If your current location is correct then you have a corrupt database. That is mentioned in the navigation manual. Good luck and please keep us posted.

Try looking for a Tim Hortons - maybe that will point you in the direction of California.

TSXy Luster

LOL.

Too bad Tim Hortons is now actually American owned

TSXy Luster

OKAY!

I figured it out today after sitting in my car's passenger seat, for more time than it ever has had in it's life since I got my hands on it, and fiddling around with the knobs, dials, and buttons.

*Disclaimer: I did this all after I updated my Gracenote software to the latest version. No idea if this somehow magically made things work somewhat properly, even though Gracenote has nothing to with Navi.

So, there are two ways to enter POIs: "Place Name" and "Place Category".
"Place Category" works a whole lot more accurate for finding places nearby, especially with "Sort by Distance".
However, for those times where you don't know what category your place is, or just want to look for it up by name, the "Place Name" option it is.
Sadly, the "Place Name" is all kinds of confusing mainly due to Acura's way of categorizing.

Using K100Fran's example, I tried out "Costco". Knowing full well the 2 nearest Costcos to me, I thought this would be the best way to test. Well, if you just select "Place Name", input "Costco", you are presented with a TON of options, but of course the first one is "Costco". You select it and .......... I'm given an address in Virginia. Consequent attempts gave me the same address (at least it's consistent). Then I noticed there are was another "Costco" option. THIS is the one you should pick because then it dumps you into about 8 subcategories.

So, you think Costco has a subcategory of Groceries? WRONG.
subcategory of mall/department stores shopping? WRONG.
Turns out, the most accurate "sort by distance" Costco results are listed under the subcategory of "gas stations".

Do that, and the results are accurate. For my case, the first 2 addresses listed were the 2 nearest Costcos to me that I know exist and frequent to.


Ergo, I admit there was some user error on my part for the confusion, but you'd think Acura would know how to program more accurate categories and subcategories for simple locations such as Costco because "sorting by distance" obviously didn't work in my scenario unless I had selected the correct subcategory (according to Acura logic).

Sigh. Sorry for the super long post, but at least this self journey/process helped me and maybe help other people like K100Fran in the future.

K100Fran

Thanks for taking the time to check it out. I guess it's much safer in the p- seat instead of driving around cursing at it!

I've got three hour road trip tomorrow, maybe I'll have sometime to play.
thanks
agian
Fran

ceb

Unfortunately it isn't just acura but BMW has the same problems. The people who designed this are morons and obviously never used the system to find something close by.

I've always wondered why none of the systems allow you to find something along the way. When I'm driving down a highway and want a cherry limeade, I don't want the Sonic that's 3 miles off my course but I'd rather find the Sonic that is 10 miles straight ahead on my route.

MrOtocinclus

This has happened to me so much that I just gave up using it. I search for 7-Eleven and it gives me one in Indiana.

Believe it or not, other than the screen resolution the GPS/audio system in the '09 was better than the current one.

ed_423

makes me sorta happy that i got the base instead lol

ceb

Naww, that's just a glitch in most OE navigation systems as they generally use NAVTEQ mapping.

The rest of the system works just fine and the navigation portion works much better than most other OE navs. The ELS and backup camera just seal the deal.

Teck or no tech is a personal decision and there is no right answer. The non tech will have fewer issues down the road and may age a bit more gracefully but the tech has a few cool systems.

TSXy Luster

Yup, I'm glad I got the tech because I was leaning towards non tech, but with the amount of times I've already used the navi, backup cam, and blasting elegant sounds through the ELS....a small glitch here and there is livable.

MrOtocinclus

Agreed... tech was and is the way to go for me!!!

00derek

OK, this thread is a tad old, so I hope my contribution will still get read. Thank you to the OP for accurately stating a fundamental flaw in the navigation system on the Acura TSX. Mine is a 2012 Wagon + tech, and this issue annoys me so much, I want to get it off my chest.

If you have ever used a Garmin Nuvi, you will know that when you enter a place name e.g. "Costco" it will INSTANTLY show you a list, sorted by distance from your position, of ANY POI with the word Costco in the name. Thus, your nearest Costco store will be at the top of the list, and maybe the gas station at that Costco store will get a seperate listing. In a Garmin, you have the choice to choose a category BEFORE you enter the name, which might help shorten the list. I would typically only choose a category if I DIDN'T know the name. If I know the name, I don't really care what what category it's in.

In the Acura (and it sounds like anything else that uses Navteq), it's not that simple. Sure, you can show the list of POIs that match your place name but 9 times out of 10, the location at the top of that list is 100s of miles away! (aaagghhh!!! - I'm in metro Phoenix, how can you think I would want to drive to a Costco in NY?!).

You pretty much have to choose a category after entering a name (dumb), and so you have to GUESS which category the database compilers decided to put your place name in; and then some of those categories have sub-categories.

Another case in point; I'm heading to a Staples at an intersection 5 miles away that I know how to get to, but I want my Navtraffic to do what I paid for and tell me the quickest route considering it's 5pm on the second Friday before Christmas, and most Phoenicians don't know how to drive in the rain. So the database recognizes STAPLES, but top of the list is Parsippany, NY. Fucking reallY?

So I select the category with biggest number of hits, but top of that list is in Glendale about 35 miles away in the wrong direction.

So I go back to categories and then I discover a new twist; the database geniuses decided to put all of the Staples within the same city in their own category called "STAPLES-city" where "city" is the city name, e.g. STAPLES-Gilbert. Finally, when I'm almost there, I see the Staples I'm heading to.

Why does it need to be so complicated? Maybe Garmin has a patent on simplicity? That's the only logical explanation I can think of. Anyone who was involved in writing that software clearly didn't test it to find out it that what should be a simple task (like in a Garmin) is now a difficult one.


<<dep breath>>, I have exorcised the demons.

musty hustla

Searching by POI is a waste of time...You would think it would be like the ipod search. "Find nearest Costco" or "Find nearest White Castle" and it would search the database that way.

I usually get the address on my phone and then enter into nav.

The acura navigation is very good at "find the nearest X" commands. Too bad you can't use the name as described above.

bmctex

It might be 'cause you're cute and we'd like to have you come up to visit us in Alberta

carteach

I have a 2012 TSX wagon with the tech package. Now that I've read your post I feel slightly less crazy. I live in CT, only a few miles from the NY border. When I type in Costco, I'm give one in Phoenix!

That being said, it's really disappointing not to be able to use that aspect of the nav system. I guess there's not going to be a software fix for it?