Hi, I'm wondering if an updated navigation DVD updates the routing software as well as the database.

The reason I ask is that I just bought an 05 TL with the original navi DVD and the routing isn't up to the same standard as the $100 Garman unit I was using before.

I am on a trip from Toronto Canada to Hanover Pensylvania and the TL's navi keeps giving me round about routing that adds an hour to the trip (Garman = 7 hours, TL navi = 8 hours).

I've tried every combination of easy route, direct route, maximize / minimise expressways, etc. and The TL navi just doesn't cut it.


Does anyone know if the routing is built into the system or should it improve with a new DVD?

 

I feel your pain. I just purchased an 04 with an 06 DVD. The routing is awful. Any trip over 100 miles and only highway routing is available. If you wish to just use the GPS maps And wind your way back country, you are out of luck. When you zoom out on the screen to see where you want to go, all the non-highway roads disappear and you end up with a big screen full of nothing.
Wish I could just hook up my Garmin to that screen.

 

i think its bc of the old cd

 

OK, Will your navi route over 100 miles on non-highways?
At what zoom level do your non-highways disappear from view?

 

Apparently there are some options here. I found some people using torrents and burning a double layer DVD. Otherwise it can be ordered, apparently. Please see below.

/forums/f47/fall-2008-navi-dvd-updates-here-85715/

 

I am torn with this one, the updated DVD obviously had new(er) roads on it so that helped with the routing but I cannot say with confidence that its any "smarter" with the routes it chooses.

 

Does anyone have costs for the new DVD?

 

http://www.navigation.com/is-bin/INT.../Default-Start

 

04-06 TL's cannot use a burned disk. Orignal only, its 185 from acuranavi.com

Do not trust the hours the navi gives you, its based on a very low speed, like 50. check how miles to go there are on the navi route and compare that to the garmin one.

 

It is bad routing. I had both the acura map and the garmin one up at the same time and I could see where the differences were. The acura one would often take a side trip and meet up with the garmin route after a bit. Basically taking the 2 long sides of a triangle when the garmin would take the one short one.

In fact it was amusing to watch how long the acura navi would keep telling me to make a u-turn back to its longer route until it would finally lock on to the garmin route. Only to diverge onto a longer route further up the road.

I think that the way these things work is that the database of streets contains hints about routing that the routing algorithm will use to work out its route. In this case a new dvd would help somewhat, but if the routing algorithm itself is built in it couldn't change. Thats why I was wondering if the algorithm was software that came on the dvd and could have been updated in the past few years.

I suspect that if you are just going on interstates it would be fine, but the trip I took was through the mountains heading south from buffalo and the navi just didn't like that. (and yes, I did try all of the direct/easy/min max freeway/ etc. options)

Is there anyone out there with a garmin or tomtom plus the new navi dvd who is going on a long trip and who is interested in doing a comparison test for all of us?

 

I think we could test the routing efficiency simply by supplying a start & stop location and then comparing the distances. Since a known errant route has already been documented, we just need to have someone with an 08 navi input those points and report the results.
I sure hope the software has been upgraded because I'm not too happy with my 06 version.

 

I ordered the DVD update through the Acura website a couple of days ago - they were out of stock (est ship 7.27), but they were on sale for 149...