I have a 6 week old E320 and my Nav system in Manhattan is pinpointing my location one block away from where I really am. Soon as I go outside manhattan, it works ok. Then as soon as I get back onto the island it is off again. Dealer says it could be a satellite issue and if it persists to bring the car in. It is weird that the Nav system works fine on one side of the Lincoln tunnel but not on the other. This problem showed up suddenly today. I was wondering if anyone has seen anything like this?

 

mine does that too although i havent really noticed it in manhattan. ive noticed it like when i get off the bqe and im really on third avenue and it still thinks im on the bqe. or im on the service road of the si expressway and it still thinks im on the expressway. i guess the roads are so close and they run parallel with eachother that it cant figure it out. to tell you the truth i really dont care. i know where i am, anywhere in the 5 boros so no big deal. i just hope it doesnt do that when i really need it to work.

 

I've had that problem on Housten St in our 530. Off by a couple of blocks. Works fine on 6th ave though.

 

I was driving my wife to work the other day and soon as I got out of the Brooklyn battery tunnel my gps was off as well. Could it be that we had the bad weather that day and it screwed things up? Or the military changing stuff on their satellites for security with the upcoming Republican Convention here in NYC ?? Conspiracy theories?

 

I think it is just the buildings blocking the satellites. I think it only picks up a few, and just looses it resolution.

 

I heard somwhere that MB navi doesnt even bring you to the exact adress you input just the street, is this true?

 

MB navi brings you exactly where you want to go...it just requires a short moment of atention at the end of the guidance when aproaching your destination...

The few times I have been to Manhattan it was difficult enough for me to see daylight...and it will definitely be difficult for a nav system to see satelites..the buildings there black anything from above and the number of received satelites will definitely be a lot less then anywhere yway from the skycrapers.

greetingz,

 

for the older comands, I believe it brings you to the block where your address may reside in. For instance, if you want to go to 5127 MBENZNL LANE, then you have to pick the block of number from 5100-5200 and it will take you to that area. I believe in newer comands like 211, you can enter the exact house number.

 

Generally speaking, when you input a location/street/address, the address you are able to input is based on how densely the street is populated. The more housing units, the smaller the address number range. On my block the range is address #1 - # 100, some streets it is #1 - 50, and on some streets, no house numbers at all, since when you are on the street, it is obvious, which place you need to go into. Nav can't replace having some clue as to where you need to be, but it will get you extremely close to where you need to be.

 

Mine usually gives me the checkered flag as soon as turn onto the final street.

 

After being a little off in the morning, the NAV is working perfectly again. It is correctly picking my location in midtown manhattan within 50 feet or so (what more can you ask for?). I still don't understand why it was putting me exactly 1 block north of where I actually was (when it was malfunctioning).

MB Manhattan did say that sometimes the govt does co-opt the satellites for security reasons leading to NAV being incorrect in manhattan. According to them, this problem does not exist off the island. That is consistent with my experience, it never faltered outside manhattan.

 

I've noticed it messed up in Manhattan as well. But then I check down on the nav screen and see that it shows it picking up no satellites, so the car is inaccurately figuring it out on its own.

 

Where do you see that it is not picking up satellites? is there a button in the NAV system?

 

I forget exactly where, but in the settings somwhere, it has an option to show this information, which is off by default. With that on, you will see a bar along the bottom that will display your coordinates, elevation, and the number sats that are being picked up. A lot of times in Manhattan, I will see just dashes in all of the information areas indicating that the buildings are blocking the signal. Typically, it still works properly, but I have seen it be a block or more off.

 

I have 04 E320 w/nav and it not off by a block in Manhattan. It anticipates the destination by about 50-75 feet but when I am on, for example 59th St, that's where it says I am. I have occasionally experienced wildly wrong location, like in the middle of Long Island Sound (I think it was a satellite problem) but something like a street away. Maybe try recalibrating?

 

I agree, the Nav system usually knows precisely where I am. This one block off problem occurred only for one day and then it went away by itself. I guess it must have been a satellite issue....

 

Did it happen during the "terror alert"? Because if it did it was them making the sats not as specific and throwing the info off on purpose.. Just a thought..

 

I'm in Austin, TX and my Nav is constantly 50 feet off. I test it by zooming in on the map, and then when I go through an intersection, at the point I'm in the intersection, the Nav shows the car 50 feet before the intersection.

Even if I setup for directions, and let's say I have to make a left turn on a street and I'm waiting (first car) at the light to make the left (i.e. I'm at the intersection), the Nav guidance shows 50 feet to the left turn point.

Dealer is looking into this right now since my car is with him for other problems. I will let you know the result...

 

Your problem with the 50 feet off I think is universal among all US W211's, as I have the exact some thing happen, whether I am in NYC or not. I could be right at the intersection, but it will always show me a little bit back. This is typically not a huge problem, but in some areas, when you are trying to get directions from the Nav, it can be difficult to figure out where you should be turning.

I have not, nor do I know of, any sort of calibration that can be done, as this is done automatically. Back a while ago when it was extremely off by a couple hundred feet for me, I ended up pulling the fuses for the entire COMAND system, and that seemed to work (at least it returned me to the 50 feet off situation). When I took it to the dealer last to be fixed, they could not remedy it.

 

Haha you guys seem to be having fun with the NAV system. I personally find the NAV particularly funny in the Boston Central Artery tunnel area where it imagines me going "OFF-ROAD" and decides to tell me to go left and go right. :-)

It really is amazing that the car can use its current speed and direction to determine its position when no satellite data is not availalbe, although it is prone to error. Perhaps what you are experiencing is the NAV relying on the "calculated" position (because of blocked signal because of skyscrapers) based on your current speed and direction, and the last satellite contact.

 

There are 3 systems that will give you the posistion. GPS, ABS sensors and a Gyro Compass. When no sats available, it will use the other systems to calculate your position. Each weekend, I travel through a long tunnel under the Oslofjord (8 km long). Its not straight, but the Nav indicates exactly where in the tunnel I am.

 

[QUOTE=onpaws]Haha you guys seem to be having fun with the NAV system. I personally find the NAV particularly funny in the Boston Central Artery tunnel area where it imagines me going "OFF-ROAD" and decides to tell me to go left and go right. :-)
QUOTE]

Probably the DVD in your drive was mapped & published before the tunnel & rerouted streets were added to the database. A nav update should solve the problem

 

No doubt. And it seems to need contact with at least 3 sats to be accure, but most likely more. One of the times that it was way off, I was in NYC. The other time, though, I was on I-80, and I don't remember the sat count, but I think that it was in the normal operating range, with nothing in the way to block reception.

 

Well I have a Nav system on my 2000 Honda and it is right on the money all the time. So really don't believe it is a satellite problem. I think it is purely a s/w issue. If you notice very carefully, the Nav position increments in 50 feet increments. Watch you car icon on the screen carefully and it seems to move in incremements that is equivalent to 50 feet. My theory is that there is a s/w issue, so that once the system finds your position, it does not move your icon to that position until it gets the next position from the satellite, so you are always 1 incremement (50 feet) behind your actual position.

 

Haha yes I realize I need a NAV update (It's a May 2004 built car!), thought I doubt NavTech have exactly mapped out the BigDig just yet. The tunnels have changed on a regular basis, and will continue to, until far into next year...

http://www.boston.com/travel/article...g_dig_muddles/

"The devices direct you to your destination using sophisticated mapping software and global positioning system, or GPS, technology. The systems are vastly superior to the minimalist maps the rental car companies hand out, but they have limited effectiveness in downtown Boston, where tall buildings and extensive underground tunnels block GPS signals and Big Dig construction alters street maps almost daily.

''Boston is the only city in the country with all [those] three factors at work. It's unique," said Pat Ray, business development director for Hertz's NeverLost. ''Boston is the toughest test to put a navigation system through.""

Good Luck navTech!