Continued issues with 2017 Navigation
 

Earlier this year (in a thread I tried to find but can't seem to locate) there was a discussion about issues with the 2017 Navigation system and the car losing track of where it was. Earlier this year, Acura acknowledged that this was an issue, and was trying to find a fix. Then, early in the summer, a TSB came out that updated the software, that theoretically fixed the issue with the navigation. I had this done, and while it seemed to help for a while, the problems have now returned. It seems like every morning when I start off driving, the car starts on the road, then I begin to appear as though I'm roaming through the woods and other non-road route. Eventually it figures out where it is, and it seems to be OK for the rest of that part of the day. But if I park for the day and drive back home, the same thing seems to happen all over again.

So the last few days I've been paying closer attention to what the nav unit is doing when this scenario is happening. I wanted to post my observations to see if anyone else is noticing this, and whether this may be pointing to something in the SW or head unit, or related to maybe the location of the GPS antenna...

In the top left corner of the NAV screen there are three displayed items. The first is the compass/direction icon. The second is the map scale designation (such as 1/20, 1/4, etc, showing distance in map). The third is the "GPS" icon. The top two icons are always there, and seem to be properly displayed. The GPS icon is another story.

Most of the time when starting out after the car has been sitting, the GPS icon just isn't there at all. It's in this situation where the car starts running into the woods or river or whatever randomly is on the map. The general direction of the car is being shown, but it's location is really wacked out.

After a few miles, the GPS logo then appears. But it's "GPS" letters are not highlighted (meaning they're white in color). The car still shows itself dashing thru the weeds.

After a few more miles, the GPS letters in the logo then turn GREEN. It's at this point that the car wakes up on the nav screen, and things are pretty good.

While driving after that, the GPS letters go from white to green, seeming to match when you the satellite signal is seen by the car vs when it's not (many times the satellite radio has signal drop matching the green/non-green display.

It's obvious to me the GPS logo, when visible, means the system is in the proper mode, and will see the signal when it can, and keep going generally on the road when it can't be seen. This makes sense to me.

But the time BEFORE the GPS logo is shown at all - means somehow the car just isn't in navigation mode. Is this a startup problem with the SW? Something with the head unit? You'd think the antenna lacking a signal would show the GPS logo as white, then green when it can. But for the GPS logo to be gone completely - no idea what causes that.

Anyone have any insights? I try to diagnose the situation as best I can before I go to the dealer, but in this case I think the dealer would "shrug" and talk to Acura about why it's happening. This is perhaps the only thing I dislike about this vehicle. I bought the Tech package to get things other than the nav - but if it has nav it should work.

Thanks - andy

This is my #1 complaint with my MDX. My navigation is essentially useless. It loses my location at some point on approximately 80% of my trips. I will have a "green" GPS indicator and it will still lose my location.

I have had numerous lengthy conversations with several Acura employees (both dealership and corporate level). They admit the problem is known within their engineering department, but they have no ETA on a fix -- and they won't even commit that a fix will ever be made available. I strongly suspect this is a software glitch in the subroutine that reconciles the GPS coordinates with where the vehicle "believes" it is, based on steering-angle, compass, and speed sensor readings.

Who is the OEM for the Navi? You'd think Acura would be all over them for a fix if it is a known problem.
I've only seen the issues a couple times (maybe 3) in a year of driving.

I believe the navigation data is provided by HERE. The hardware is Alpine, I believe.

As for seeing it "only a couple times (maybe 3)" then I welcome you to come drive my MDX. I can get it to go off-course at least 3 times on a single drive -- and for minutes at a time (or longer). I've started compiling videos and posting them on YouTube so I could send them to Acura. It's ridiculous. Last Friday, my GPS lost my location the entire way from my home to the dealer (18 miles, 37 minutes)

Acura won't even promise that they'll release a fix. I have lost almost all respect for Acura, as a company, as a result of this issue -- not because the problem existed, but because I've been complaining about it for 15 months, and they STILL won't do anything about it.

I wonder if it is somewhat location dependent. I'm on West Coast, you guys are both on the East coast

Our '17 Sport Hybrid don't have this issue. I'm on West Coast too, so maybe that helps. rarely use the factory navigation it sucks... Google Maps is a million times better. Wish navigation was a stand-alone option, so we don't have to pay extra for it. Useless piece of technology in the MDX.

What about anyone with a 2018 or 2019 MDX? Do you also experience this issue? Wonder if its limited to the 2017 or if it's a problem with all 2017+ MDX.

2017 is the first year the MDX switched to using HD radio for traffic data for navigation rather than AcuraLink, so if it's present on any 2017+ MDX then it must have something to do with this switch (especially if it's not a problem on 2016 MDX)

navigation system problems
 

We have a 2015 MDX and while we have not seen this problem of losing where we are we have had numerous other issues with the navigation system. One thing that is irritating is it will sometimes take you off a major road such as a freeway when going from one main highway to another. I have started keeping the magnification such that I can see where I am headed so I don't just blindly follow what it tells me. It also has very little input on road closures. Sometimes the road has been closed for a month for construction but it still tries to go there.
I did do an upgrade of the maps, since mine was 3 years old, and it apparently upgraded the algorithms also because it now does a much better job of giving you alternate routes to choose from. The choices it used to give had very little difference between them, now it will give much wider options from which to choose.
Overall it is very disappointing.

Are you an Acuralink subscriber? Some of things you mention require Acuralink for traffic data to give you feedback on things like construction. However, even with Acuralink, I argue it's pretty slow to update and useless still. And your accuracy issue is interesting.. haven't experienced that yet in the MDX, but I have experienced that with phone based navigation (Waze, GMaps).

Interestingly, it seems most of this "lost in space" issue seems to affect the 2017. It wasn't reported [that I know of] 2014-2016, and have yet to see 2018+ owners report it either. 2017 was the first year that traffic moved to HD Radio as well. Kind of a half baked update once again from Acura and its OEMs.

Can anyone with a 2018 or 2019 with navi report whether or not they experience this issue? When you first start the vehicle does it find your current position and allow you to input a destination and start to use navigation?

Or do you have to drive around for awhile first?

Nav System Failures
 

Thank You, Thank You for stepping up and voicing the problems with the NAV System. I have 20+k on our 2018 MDX (A) and have had Pixel Problems and system failures on all our long trips since purchasing in January.
I would like to hear how many others have had the same or similar problems with their NAV Systems.

Wake Up Acura!!!, Some of purchasers don't like paying the price and not being happy campers...

So far no problem with our 18. Our 16 sometimes would have a brain fart and "forget" a turn or two, then "wake up" a few seconds later and reroute.

navigation system problems
 

Yes, I do have an Acuralink subscription but it still doesn't seem to know about construction on the roads. My guess is whatever service they are buying their information from is just not doing it's job.

Just received a call from Acura Tech. and Acura (Acura Engr) stated they have 5 other similar problems they are investigating, the root cause. They are going to replace the complete Audio and screen system which is coming from California. in about a week.
Thankfully I had 7 Digitals of the failure progression, and we will go from there...
Bottom line, take digitals of any occurrence so the Tech's can see the failure in real time.

Now If someone will send me the instrs to download pix to this file I can share my experience...

Thanks for reporting this to Acura, to your point the more instances of problems they have a record of they're more likely to work on a fix. Otherwise if no one reports it they may not know there is a problem.

I've made a mental note if I experience pretty much any issue to take a photo and/or record a video of it to prove it happened.

At least Acura stepped up to replace your head unit. Regardless of the issue, for the most part it seems Acura is very good about stepping up to the plate and taking care of their customers when a problem is proven to be present (also proven out by all the proactively transmission replacements for people who experience the "chirp" even if they weren't impacted by the transmission warmer defect). Reading on Audi forums in general the consensus is much less positive about Audi of America really stepping up to address many issues.

andysinnh,
Please let Acura know that your not happy with the performance of your NAV unit. Take some digitals and send them to your local Acura service advisor when you present the problem, if he is worth his salt he'll
notify Hqs Acura Tech Support and they will respond.
Acura on occasion reads the problems here but won't respond.
The last thing you want is to have a "meltdown".

I tested this out on the 2019 Advance with Entertainment I'm buying and there was no problem, as soon as I started the vehicle I entered an address using voice control (pretty easily might I add) and it pulled up the address and started route guidance and allowed me to select my desired route. Didn't get a chance to try the traffic rerouting yet however

Thought I'd provide an update. Navigation is still sketchy. Some days it works fine, other days it can't find it's location and the direction is opposite of what I'm really traveling. Per an earlier suggestion, I took a couple quick videos and also some pictures of the NAV screen when it was flying thru the woods or over a lake, and also tried to note when it fixed itself. Went to the dealer today for an oil change, and gave them all the info. They just called me and said they got authorization from Acura to replace the main NAV/HDD unit. It'll take a week or so because it's gotta be "built" (not sure what that means, but OK...) and they they'll replace it. Hopefully this addresses the problem. They did say that they've seen this issue in a few TLX models and replacing the NAV/HDD unit fixed it. So fingers crossed.

andy

at least you got their attention now

Hope they don't have to rip your entire dash apart for this fix.... that always concerns me.....