I really like the idea of NavTraffic, but I'm wondering how well it works in practice.

Where I'm from, you can get live traffic from the web. It's a map with highways colored with green/yellow/red/black depending on the traffic speed as reported by road sensors. It looks like this:

http://traffic.511.org/traffic_map.asp

Can you get a color-coded map like that on the TL's NavTraffic system? Or does it just show you a list of incidents along your route like some aftermarket nav/traffic units?

 

I live in the DC metro area and I use the NavTraffic everyday. I find it very useful and accurate, it pinpoints most accidents/incidents within a quarter of a mile. The map is color coded for traffic conditions. It is the same as the prior TL navi, just with a few additions.

 

havent used it yet, but i hear its great

 

I live in the L.A. area and think the NavTraffic is okay. It only updates freeways, which I am never really on. On top of that, this past weekend I was driving at 2 AM and the I-10 freeway was still marked in red. (It was definitely not congested at this time) Maybe XM is slow to update on weekends?

When I zoom out on the map I do see accident icons, everywhere, not only the route you're taking.

 

I'm also a bit confused on this/ I have an 07 TL-S. WOndering if the Nav system is supposed to reroute you around highly congested (red) traffic? I drive in and out of Chicago everyday so I see the whole rainbow of colors.

 

It works well in LA. You can view the different routes to an address or a place you choose thru the NAV. But it doesn't route you around traffic. I had to drive to family about 40 mintues away and the map showed five incidents on the freeway on the way but it don't route me around unless I hit the reroute button.

 

Same here - almost all of my daily commute is covered by Navtraffic, so I'm a fan.

YMMV, it's only in some areas, and only covers major roads. If you're lucky enough to live in one of those areas and use the covered roads you'll be a fan. If not, it's just another useless gadget.