Hi all,

I tried to locate a spot in downtown Lubbock, Texas this weekend with my navigation system and couldn't find it. In downtown Lubbock when I tried to navigate back to my hotel, the navigation system advised that I was "off-road"! When I viewed the map at the highest level of detail, only the major highways appeared. Luckily, I had my Garmin with me and I used it to navigate around.

Once home here in Ft. Worth, I decided to examine the details for other cities, just for the heck of it. Amarillo had virtually no detail, but Oklahoma City seemed to have "full" detail, much like Ft. Worth and Dallas.

Is there something I'm not getting here? Do you only get full street-level detail in a neighborhood of your address? Can you pay extra for additional detail?

I'm really disappointed with the navigation system on my car. I've seen several complaints about relatively minor things, and had a couple myself, but lack of street-level detail really detracts from it's usefulness. Maybe I just don't know how to use it...

Thanks for any help,

Ed

 

Actually you shouldn't blame the nav system for that, IF there is no detail for downtown Lubbock, there is a good chance the good ole folks who manage the planning for that area didn't see any reason to rush getting that information into the national database in the last two years..

Same for Amarillo.... Those are the folks you should be mad at. GPS systems only get latitude, longitude, and altitude ( the three tude's ) info from satellites... This information is then reconciled with an onboard database and converted to the mapping information you see on your screen.

The folks who do the programs for Mercedes aren't getting any awards for precision, believe me.. but, they can't be blamed for all of the GPS issues such as "Where am I, when I am smack in the middle of downtown in Anywhere USA?" Even if Anywhere is in the middle of Nowhere....

In my old neighborhood in Cedar Park Tx, they finally got some of the streets included in the 2007 DVD but guess what? the street where my house is located, is not the street the GPS says. although it takes me to the right place every time, it calls out a street adjacent to mine which ends in a cul-de-sac directly behind my old house. Who do I blame for that? certainly not my GPS.

Even getting into my new neighborhood in Cedar Creek Tx, my car knows exactly where my house is, but on the way there is tells me to turn left when I can only turn right. Then I found out that the left was originally planned in the new development but it was discovered that the street would then cross through a grave site that no one knew was there at the time so they scratched the left turn... Guess what information ended up on the data base complete with an offroad map through a graveyard that makes a right hand circle and comes out exactly at what is now the end of my street? And of course there is a new house sitting right there...LOL

Maybe it's a Texas small town thing I don't know....

Greetings from Austin.....

 

Fair enough, I suppose, but, as I noted, my Garmin unit does have full detail for Lubbock and I just checked my wife's 05 Lexus. It does, too. So I guess whoever is responsible for publishing map data for Lubbock isn't publishing it to whoever Mercedes uses but they do for others. Or perhaps Mercedes' supplier isn't using a good source of map data. Either way, the result is a disappointing product compared to competitors'.

Ed

 

yeah.. but like I said the folks at MB aren't getting any award for their system anytime soon.
Now I'm curious. when i get back I will check my map to see if I can get detail for lubbock. It found a Dairy Queen in Bastrop the other day and i was schocked..LOL

 

I'm looking forward to hearing if you were successful. Surely there's someone who lives in Lubbock who can tell us if they've been able to use their nav system?

Ed

 

I don't live in Lubbock. But I noticed Navteq included it in the latest NAV DVD for E. This is copied from the Navteq website:

 

Have I understood correctly that the Navteq coverage for the US has been a bit like on a build-up phase on recent years, is this true?

The map coverage for Europe is pretty perfect, a map update might help but it really sounds odd if a 2006 car still does not have some US cities covered (even small ones).

 

6.17 million miles of roads are in the latest turn-by-turn navigation database in North America, covering 70% of the population. By the end of 2008 this is expected to rise to 100%. So one can expect more smaller local road details in future updates. See:

http://developer.navteq.com/site/glo...10_coremap.jsp

Western Europe is at 100% but Eastern Europe still a work in progress at 29%.

 

Thanks for finding the info, might have needed a long time to find it myself.

From my country I would say both Tele-Atlas and Navteq cover 200% of the population. I mean we have a lot of roads on unpopulated areas and all are in the data base. Eastern Europe did not have any map data a couple of years ago, from any map provider. Obviously USA has been covered by some map providers for so many years, likely before main European countries had any. A pity if the MB map provider still needs some time to catch up. The positive part is that one can update the map data base and the existing equipment start providing proper service later on.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but could I use this Navteq DVD in '04 E500 instead of purchasing one through the dealer (and save $90)?

Is there a difference between the dvds, because the one I'm using through MB (though it is a 2004.1) does not have my neighborhood in it. The neighborhood began in 2000 though, so I figure it should be in there. Maybe Navteq has it?

 

You can buy the MB DVD NAV for your car from Navteq directly, without having the dealer first get it from Navteq and then sell it to you. Here is a link (pretty long, not sure if it will work, to the online store at www.navteq.com)


http://www.navigation.com/is-bin/INT...llProducts=YES

 

I have to tell you that I am very disappointed with the maps and the navigation as well. I have a 2004 Lexus also, and there are points of interest and streets on it, that are missing from my 2006 Sl nav dvd. Surely the map information was available as Navteq indicates on their website that they offer dvd's for Lexus and other makers. What's with that? And they want $199 for an update? If I had not used other mfg.'s navigation then I would not know that there is superior products out there. Also is it just me that has difficulty finding a specific address that I input and the nav only gives me a range? Maybe it is me. Any advice.

 

Navteq does not sell maps for North American Lexus on the site. Probably because those maps are compiled by GDT. GDT was sold in 2004 to Navteq competitor TeleAtlas, which may sell the maps now. As you observed those maps have a different flavor, more focussed on compiling large amounts of maps/data together, whereas Navteq seems to be more interested in the navigation aspect, drives more roads to ensure internal consistancy (at least that's what they claim) and that may take more time than compilation of existing data.

Navteq made a mapreporter available for reporting obvious errors:
http://mapreporter.navteq.com

 

Is it difficult to install the update? I don't recall seeing instructions in the owners manual, but maybe I didn't read it carefully enough.

Here is a link to Navteq's page that contains a description of the update. http://tinyurl.com/36f3rg

I continue to be disappointed with the MB nav system. I took my Garmin with me a couple weeks ago when I took a business trip from Dallas to Austin. I wanted to plot a course through the Texas hill country avoiding the I35 mess. You can't do that with the MB system because you can't enter enough "stop-overs". No problem with the Garmin. I'll not rant about it any further here.

Ed

 

It should be a disk that you just load in your a nav drive. Therefor you are just ejecting the old disk and putting a new one.

 

So, what is really the latest NAVI DVD for 2004 E320??
Some posts I have seen 2006.2 being the latest one, but then I found from Ebay DVD 2007-1 and it says in the description ;
" Mercedes Navigation DVD for United States and Canada. 2007-1 version. Original Price is $275.

This is the NEWEST disc available. It fits the following vehicles:

2004-06 S-Class & CL-Class

2004-08 E-Class

2005-08 SLK-Class & SL-Class

2006-08 CLS-Class

Part # is BQ6460229 "


I have not found anything for this 2007-1 version in mbworld forums or anywhere else, so just wondering if this is ???

Anyone ??