I just had the opportunity to use full navigation from Philadelphia to Hartford last week as compared to the older multiple CD based systems as in my former '03 S55. Bottom line is that the new system leaves much to be desired, makes poor routing decisions and is as annoying as before in terms of unecessary vocal reminders. Here are the problems:

1. In the old system you were asked to confirm fastest or shortest for each trip. Now that is preset and if you forget to think about which one you chose you can end up with a terrible route.

2. Before, after the system mapped a route you could bring up a list of streets and highways it chose and easily confirm whether it is the best selection based on your own general knowledge. Now you cannot display a list but rather individual mapped section after section that is all but useless. The result is that you may be going way out of your way.

3. The old system, unlike Hertz Neverlost for example, often gave 3 vocal instructions as you approached an exit on an interstate in spite of the fact that it intended for you to stay on that road. I hoped the new DVD system would improve. No, the same 3 redundant voice notices. I wouldn't mind a single pleasant reminder but exit after exit to hear it tell you to stay on the road you're already on is extremely annoying. You end up muting it.

4. Just having fastest or shortest is too limiting. A third option, perhaps named dynamic would help that was a combination of fast and short. The new system has told me to go way out of my way, literally going two sides of a triangle instead of straight ahead. In one case I was 1/2 mile from my destination and it told me I had 4 miles remaining taking me on larger highways because it was supposidly faster. Fortunately, I knew better!

5. Last week I was coming South on route 684 toward the Tappan Zee Bridge to the Garden State Pkwy. Since I had no way to review the route (see 2) I was trusting the system and took the Sprain Pkwy, following instructions. Here I was only a few miles from the Tappan Zee but suddenly ended up going over the GW Bridge at 5pm. The trip took 40 minutes longer. Had I been able to review a route list I would have ignored the direction. On the other hand, isn't that why we have it, to trust it to make intelligent route choices?

In summary, the newest system and release looks nicer, sounds nicer and is easier to program. Unfortunately the final result is not nearly as good in terms of getting you somewhere with the least traffic and time.

 

To me it looked like you had decided which one is better before trying the other. Also when devices are different, the familiar one always feels better, until you learn the new one. Perhaps some of your points are valid though.

1) For the first one, if it always asked the type of route you want to have, 99% of users would complain about the useless additional step. It would be seldom people would want to change the setting.

2) If the new system was only able to give a list of streets, I bet 95% of users would ask for a graphical presentation of the route. You seemed to have a lot of cases for roads you were very familiar with. I would mostly use navi when I'm not familiar with the place. The list of street names in that case would give me zero info. The graphical route would make it easy to see if I would prefer a different route myself.

3) This one is programmable on some devices, then it could allow different levels of spoken guidance. Now that it is fixed, I actually prefer it as it is. Again, when driving unfamiliar roads, if the next activity appears after a long drive on one road, it really is useful to "wake up the driver". The one a bit before the actual turn is useful when the GPS isn't very accurate, a good time to see the map quickly to get an idea of the next turn.

4) the dynamic route takes into account traffic info, it isn't supposed to be a combination of fast and short route. To me it looked like you assumed a third mode on the MB navi making it able to make a short route on small roads as fast as if it was the same distance on high way.

5) this can happen, a quick look at the selected route would be useful to judge if manual intervention was needed. The route calculation usually tries to reach a major road quickly and use that until approaching the destination. I haven't seen significant differences on the route selection on different devices (not claiming there wasn't any). The main difference would come from the map data base.

I accept your preferences, I hope you accept my preference on the actual MB implementation, on most of the above cases (not necessarily all).

 

I agree with your observation. As benefits of new system I see only eta and which side your destination.

 

I hate to say it but you're right. Not too long ago, I programmed a destination and it created a route from my garage which formed a triangle that would have put me out of the way almost 100 miles!!!! My destination was Columbus , Georgia from Trussville, AL which is 2 1/2 hours southeast of my home. When I initiated the program, it wanted me to go northeast 40 miles then turn back south 40 miles all of which brings me back near my initial position by only 10 miles!!! From that point on it looked as if the directions were correct. Why the site seeing tour, I don't know!!!

This is the only time it's done this. Overall though, I still like it better than the old system. Hopefully this is a fluke. After posting this, I may get out to my car and type in some random destinations and just see what happens. I don't travel much and I mostly use my system for current knowledge of where I am just so I don't get lost within the cities nearby. I pretty much know my bearings, I just need help seeing streets to get to a nearby interstate from time to time.

 

Does Navteq have good coverage for this area? Not only roads on the map but also the related navigation data for the roads? Navteq has been a bit poor in the US, compared to Tele-Atlas. Updates should bring them on par, unfortunately this takes some time. The example anyway sounds unacceptable.

I know a place close to my home where I prefer a different road from the one the MB navi selects. The reason for this is the fact that the road my navi prefers is classified as a bigger road in our road numbering system. Clearly the system prefers to stay on "best roads", perhaps a bit too eagerly on some cases. I wonder if your example would have been solved with the shortest route option? Not necessarily, it may pick up too small roads, making it a slower option really (compared to the driver's knowledge about the optimum road).

 

Diesel Benz makes some good points that I want to respond to:

1. The system should at least remind the user which mode they are in.
2. It would be easy to program the 2-options. Display a list or display the graphical presentation. To me, the list is essential.
3. As I said, I don't mind a reminder but no one should need 3 of them that are telling you to stay on the road you're on. If anything, the concept is more confusing then useful. The next turn distance display has the driver thinking a turn is coming up in x miles when that is not the case at all.
4. I was suggesting a dynamic mode. Your reply makes it sound like one is already there, albeit in the background. I can't find any info on this.
5. In my situation I was already on one major road and nearing another (route 287). Regardless, a quick look at a route list if one was available, would have eliminated the situation.

I'm off to Pocono Raceway in PA Wednesday evening for the AMG Challenge driving event. I am staying overnight at a friends house not far from the track. Interestingly the NAV system finds the town but not the street the house is on. Confused, I moved the map to the general area of my destination and the street is there. I had already tried a POI, a restaurant near the house, on a main route that I'm told has been there for decades. I thought that would be a good alternate destination since the system couldn't find the street. It can't find the restaurant either!

And again, the system routed me on an alternate major highway ignoring the Pennsylvania Turnpike that I know is the better route. Problem is that with no mode reminder I don't know if I have it set on fast or short which may explain the non-logical route choice.