Wife just called on a trip to PA from VA. Navigation wanted her to take the high speed freeway route which was further and she wanted to avoid rush hour traffic. Know there was a local route. I gave her the turn but the Navigation did not recalculate and put her back on the original route. Just checked the Nav Manual. There is no "Detour" selection and the recalculation did not occur. The manual states that if an alternate route is not available it will not recalculate. In this case I know there is a local route that's just minutes longer with no rush hour traffic. Overall still like the car, especially the new safety features, but OMG how hard is it to design a Navigation system. They can't even beat a $150 Garmin. I'm guessing they hired some third party to do the Navigation system. It was obviously not bench marked against just a basic Garmin. The voice input is hit or miss. Typing on the touch pad even with practice is still slower than a Garmin. No option to Name a Favorite. This goes along with no digital speedo display if you don't have Heads Up. Loosing there recommended status by CR for reliability just adds to this purchase being a questionable choice.

 

Ya. I think they focus so much on the truetouch interface that the basics are forgotten. I didn't even bother testing the in car navi since Google maps or Waze are so much better and I will be using them almost always. The only other in car navi that's up to par is probably Tesla's.

check out Edmunds list, don't see Acura RDX in there, for good reasons I guess

WTOP: Edmunds: 5 of today’s best car infotainment systems.
https://wtop.com/consumer-news/2019/02/edmunds-5-of-todays-best-car-infotainment-systems/

 

 

Here's what you can try. (page# 33 in Navigation Manual)

The following options are available:
* Faster Time (factory default): Calculates routes that are faster to drive but can be longer distance.
* Shorter Distance: Calculates routes that are shorter in distance but can take more time to drive.
* Balanced: Calculates routes that are optimized by time and distance.

in your case try options 3 (Balanced), in navigation setting.

 

The Balanced choice will still give you only one route without a Detour button to quickly find an alternative. One of my Garmin's automatically gives multiple route choices. Hopefully Auto Android solves the issue, but I haven't heard the last lie on when that will be available.

 

Strange - I just did the maiden voyage home yesterday and I definitely (purposefully) skip turns/exits that the navi told me to take.
It recalculated really quickly even on small local roads.


Maybe the routing is better in dense metro areas?

 

This is why I have been complaining for months about this system to Acura. Most of time it states "Towards" something and at the last moment it will change the route with no warning. It left me 10 blocks from Wrigley Field when I visited Chicago and couldn't even find the Aquarium, Soldier Field or Navy Pier. In Kansas City, I-70 west has been closed from downtown for almost 2 years and it will still try to route you that direction.

 

On a Thanksgiving trip to New York from Atlanta, I couldn't believe the system wanted me to exit I-85 at Greenville. Only a few miles later, I discovered the road was basically jammed for the net 20 miles and not moving. It got me off and routed me around the stoppage and I was pleased. With the new option of zooming out, I would have been able to see the problem ahead. Then, I managed to get stuck in another traffic jam in Wilmington, Delaware. I got off the freeway but could not get back on due to road work on all the exits. The navigation just wanted me to keep trying the same thing over and over. I was frustrated. The net few days in New Jersey where we stayed, I finally learned the secret to missing an exit or a road closure. If a route has been planned into the gps, while en-route, you can touch the bottom of the screen(pad) and it will bring up a detour option. Click on that and it re-routes you. It may not be the best option you know if you are local, but it sure worked for us when we had no idea where we were. I do have the map update that appeared and then disappeared but I don't know if that is why the detour option can appear or not. I have never entered an address using the nav (other than voice for a known business) because it is so much easier to type on my phone and send it to the car. I also like the fact that now we can see the entire route the nav has planned by clicking on the lower right of the Screen (pad).

 

 

IF (big IF) the road has some sort of restrictions (for example contraflow during certain hours for example), then the built in nav will always try to get you off that road.

An example is Canal Road that runs along the Potomac river on the other side of the George Washington Parkway. During morning rush, part of the road has all lanes going into DC and in the reverse during the evening rush. Every car nav I've owned (Honda, Acura, GMC, Audi, VW) will avoid that road at all times of day. I suspect the road the OP's wife was on had some sort of similar restriction.

Google maps will sometimes refuse to route you on that road as well with seemingly no rhyme or reason.