satish_nama

Hello Acura owners,

Everybody likes the Acura's with Navi. I like too. Since it looks so beautiful on dashboard and all voice commands etc. Have you guys ever wondered whether your Acura is showing the shortest distance? Recently I drove to Niagara Falls from Harrisburg, PA, on my 05 TL and found out that Acura Navi is showing longer routes with all possible route options (Direct, Easy and Maximize Highways). I thought Navi software was out of date and verified in my frd's new Acura but did not find any difference. All routes shown by Acura Navi are more than 400 miles. Google Maps has shown 340 miles. My TomTom has brought me there just for 307 miles by calculating the shortest distance.

I think Acura is calculating the distance just based on the shortest time. Distance really matters with high gas prices what we have nowadays.

Let me know your experiences with your Acura Navi.

Chyeaaaa

I love the Navi in my 05 Tl...

I went on a delivery for work today(1 hour away) and i had google directions with yet my navi sent me a different, more direct route..

As far as im concerned, i havent had any issues whatsover.. Good luck though!

csmeance

when you type in the address press the button display routes, in green, yellow, red, blue and orange, it will display 5 different routes to your destination, that way you can pick the best one. My nav has been guilty of doing the same thing too, but I guess it is basing it off of time rather than mileage.

01tl4tl

The software comes from Alpine Electronics, not actually acura.
They update the maps and sometimes the software- check on acura.com to see if you have a recent or old version of the dvd
the 2008 version is due out in oct iirc.

The process of making the mapping- by literally driving down the streets in vans all over the country, with special cameras...and then looking up all the stores and info for POIs

Want some real fun?- print out mapquest, take a handheld gps and your car nav-- and see how the route varies

I have found that if I ask for direct- and know a shortcut the mapping doesn't, I take the exit and it recalculates and finds my shortcut, too bad I cant make it remember that route

SpecialFX

You can also set the navi to avoid certain roads, such as toll roads or specific roads.

1995hoo

If the trip is over 100 miles it won't show all five routes. "Minimize Freeways" and "Minimize Toll Roads" will not be available. I'm not really sure why that is, as it seems to me that if you want to take a scenic route instead of the boring Interstate, the Navi ought to be able to plot one, but that's how it is.

Note what it says in the manual about how it calculates routes:

"Direct Route" is the default and "[c]alculates a route that is the most direct and will take the least time." As a general matter, this is likely to involve Interstate-grade roads whenever possible since they typically have higher speed limits.

"Easy Route" uses the route that involves the fewest turns. Thus, it may be considerably longer.

"Minimize Freeways" avoids or minimizes freeway travel. This might, in principle, be the shortest route, but as noted before, it's not available if your trip will exceed 100 miles, which is also when you're more likely to want to use the Navi.

"Minimize Toll Roads" is self-explanatory.

"Maximize Freeways" is self-explanatory and may result in a longer route if the freeways go a longer way around than non-freeways (as is quite common in mountainous areas, for example, due to Interstate design standards involving limitations on how steep a road can be).

Dahero

Mine goes on shortest time for some routes.

I mapped a route I already knew directions for just to see, and the Navi gave me the fastest (since it stuck to the highways for the most part), but not the shortest route.