DKraky

Tell the truth I need a bigger vehicle and I'm starting to research. One of the things I really love about my RDX is the way you can zoom out on the screen and see a lot of things around you but still have your roads showing on the screen. I really like being able to explore areas with lakes and rivers and see how the roads follow them from quite a ways away I've never been able to do that on any Garmin I've had or other vehicle GPS systems. Is there any kind of app version or name for this that I might associate with another Vehicles navigation system to see if it's that good?

Madd Dog

I like to have a rolling map, so I keep the Acura nav up. But for getting someplace, it is not good.

When I actually have to get somewhere, I use Carplay, and have moved to Apple Maps for most things, for the following reasons:

I drive slower and much closer to the speed limit, so I don’t usually need Waze’s cop watch except on long trips.
I use Google Maps when going to an airport or through a big city since there are always many ways to get there, and I think Google does better in traffic rerouting.
I use Apple Maps for everything else, since their traffic and routing is OK, and I like how they highlight traffic lights. I just ask Siri, and her voice recognition has gotten much better.

Acura’s nav traffic stinks, and it’s routing is often poor.

NooYawkuh

There's something fundamentally wrong with the traffic reporting. I get on the highway and every road around has a color, except the road I'm on. It's gray for a very long time, sometimes 5-10 minutes. But if I hit traffic, it immediately turns yellow or red. As if it's using my own speed to mark the road.

I turn on Google maps on my phone or laptop and immediately, every major road has a color. My 10 year old Garmin Nuvi has better traffic reporting than Acura (or HERE, which is a monumentally stupid name).

DKraky

I guess I'm lucky I live in the middle of Northern Wisconsin and not near the big cities where I need fancy traffic reporting and colored roads! The main thing we got a navigate around here is deer flying across our roads...lol. and for 98% of our travels we really don't need a whole lot of help navigating anyhow! Although I was pretty impressed when I went up near our deer hunting land and it showed a dead end single track dirt road going all the way up into where we do our hunting.

Madd Dog

There is nothing fancy about traffic info. Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze all do it easily. Acura is just terrible. Most roads don’t show anything for a while, and when it does show, it is haphazard and often wrong.

rdevillers

I agree that CarPlay (either Apple Maps or Google Maps) is better for navigation routing but you need to be sure you have a cellular data signal. We were up near Yosemite last weekend and neither Apple Maps nor Google Maps would do routing because we had no cell signal where we were. This Is is despite having pre-downloaded the area in Google Maps. I had to resort to using the built In nav and it worked great. I was very glad to have it as a backup.

CanTex

Is there a setting to permanently change the zoom-in level? I know, I need to look for myself. When I start the car, it’s zoomed right in and I end up trying to aim the touch pad to the minus sign on the right side, it seems to default to the plus sign. This is definitely unsafe to do when driving. 1/2 mile is the best for me. I just use the Acura map for around the town/city and CarPlay if I need to go to an exact address. (As mentioned in another thread, we have purchased our last car with a touchpad.)

JB in AZ

No there isn't...and I agree with this 100% that there should be! Let us retain what ever degree of zoom we choose! Also, as others have said, I like to have a live rolling map. I like the way the Acura map is easier to see the roads vs Google Maps via Android Auto, but the routing on Acura's maps is often so bad that I have stopped using it.

Edit to add: Does anyone know if this zoom level can be changed via voice commands?

CanTex

Off-topic: How does your CR-V compare to the RDX? Down market, I know, but if the Acura went away we’d look at the CR-V which is far far less complex to deal with. We would miss the HUD, though. The Passport is too big, BTW.

(My list of previous vehicles totals 30, none exotic.)

JB in AZ

We really liked the CR-V. Having driven an '18 CR-V Touring for a year, and liking it so much, and yet desiring an "Premium" brand, Ibought the RDX, and really like the extras (like HUD for example) A year later, my wife was ready to replace her older car, and we bought a 2020 CRV for her commute. It is very nice, but I would find it hard to give up some of the extras, but it would not be impossible. We find having both is a great way to do it, RDX for trips, and CRV for around town. (I think I do prefer the touch screen on the CR-V but don't find the TrueTouchpad too bad to use.)

DriverOne

The way those apps -- Google, Apple, and Waze -- obtain their traffic info is by getting data from users. That is to say, your phones are feeding them information all the time. So, yes, there's technically nothing "fancy" about it, but it's also not really possible for a car company to match that. I think this is also the same-old same-old forum issue, where everyone has their own "area of interest" and then they hold Acura (or any car, actually) to that weird high standard. For example, I've said this before, some people get really animated about the back-up or 360 camera and the way they talk has no connection to most people, I don't think. They'll say that you can't see anything or that the system is useless. And the vast majority of people have no idea what they're talking about. I don't even know what their expectations are of a 360 camera. Like I said once "are you using it to film wildlife in 4K UHD?" That's the only thing I can think of with the way they go on about it.

The same is true of the navigation system. I 100% agree that it leaves a lot to be desired. The route planning is pretty terrible, especially in larger cities. I've written about how it will take you all sorts of bizarre turns and double your drive time. But that being said, I still view it in the perspective of it being a built-in nav system. I'm not aware that any car has frequent updates to those. It's just not economical, frankly, with all the alternatives. A dedicated GPS system is probably your best bet, although even those companies are basically gone with the era of "free" navigation apps in phones. The problem, as someone mentioned, is that you need a phone signal for that (and possibly decent data) and you also have to not care about sharing information with the apps. The OP is in a rural area and it's pretty safe to say he knows everything around him. Like if you live in a major city, I've know people who can live there for 10 years and know nothing beyond a five block radius of their home. But if you live in the middle of nowhere, you probably know everything relevant for 30 or more miles. He doesn't care about real-time traffic, Google Maps probably hasn't been to his area for 10 years, and he's fine with that. So there's nothing wrong with him liking that the Acura nav system showed a dirt road.

DKraky

You nailed my situation 100% on the head driver one. I know most all the blacktop roads around me... but I don't necessarily know where all the rivers and pothole lakes are. My summer fun time car is a Camaro convertible but the GPS on there doesn't show me anywhere near the amount of fun things that the Acura shows me. In the wintertime I love getting out on the ice packed and snow packed little roads and traveling around the pothole lakes and checking out the woods... and I love seeing where the roads go and how they connect in a much better manner. I used to be a pretty avid snowmobiler but now that I am 64 years old riding around with a nice stereo and a good GPS through the winter wonderland is kind of my new version of snowmobiling.... and then winding up at some little Podunk Bar for a hamburger is just icing on the cake!

Madd Dog

HERE is in lots of cars. Acura, BMW, Mercedes Benz, and Audi all use HERE.

Their TI is too spotty and often wrong. I see BMWs, MBs, and Audis all over the place, yet TI would be missing or wrong.

NooYawkuh

Google is in every car. Even a 1952 Studebaker, if anyone in the car has a cell phone.

JB in AZ

I corrected that for you.

DriverOne

That's not very many cars, given that you need to acquire mass data from every area in America. First of all, even with all of those cars, you would need ones that had a nav system. Second of all, you can't go off of one or two cars in any area. They could just be driving slowly. Google/Apple/Waze operates by checking essentially everyone in the area and if everyone is driving slowly, then it flags the area as "yellow" or "red." The next time you're driving, look around yourself and see how many BMWs, MBs, Audis, and Acuras are around you. Even with all of those brands, it's probably like two. Additionally, your car is not transmitting data at all hours. Whereas, your phone does and you actually pay to support that data transmission. That's why I put "free" in quotes. Obviously, you're providing the data, but you also provide the data connection to Google and Apple and Waze.

Also, I forgot to mention: if HERE is in all of those car brands, then it can't just be an Acura problem. It has to be everyone in those car brands who is getting poor nav function.

Madd Dog

Unless Acura’s implementation sucks.

It takes quite a while for anything to show up.

NooYawkuh

"Hello? What's the traffic doing?"

dblwishbone

From what I can tell, the TTI system's maps are licensed from Garmin.