Does anyone have any experience regarding the difference between the free RDS based Traffic in the Nav system, and buying the Sirius add-on traffic subscription for $3.99 a month?

I am wondering most specifically if the display of traffic or the quality of the updating is any different.

Of course, all of this assumes that one is in a market with RDS coverage to begin with, which I am (Los Angeles).

Thanks!

 

I personally spoke with a tech at MB headquarters (not a dealeship) and he said we get only the RDS signal at this time for traffic info. He said satellite input is not even in the equation at this time. Also, at this time it is FREE! Funny thing is, the MB salesmen don't have their story straight about this. Some guys will tell you that you have to have it activated through Sirius. That is not true. If I'm telling you wrong, then it is a false statement being made from MB because I heard it straight from them (and others on this forum have come to the same conclusion).


Now that is not to say that Sirius wouldn't work. I'm just saying that officially the RDS is the mainstream way to go with this. If someone does get it to work through satellite , PLEASE let me know as I have no coverage via RDS in my city.

 

Navteq RDS data is free ONLY to Mercedes. The same data is provided via subscription to other Nav systems. See--
http://www.navigation.com/is-bin/INT...0AAAERl3RK.VeR
and
http://news.hspn.com/articles/868/1/...ice/Page1.html

Others pay $60 per year ($5 per month). We get it for free because Mercedes agreed to pay for it for 2008 CL and S class vehicles.


It is highly unlikely that the quality of the traffic information would vary based on being provided by Navteq RDS or Sirius. These companies do NOT generate the information, all they do is provide the data available from state and local highway sources which own and operate the sensors. The data is only as good as the sensors which are the same for all data providers.

The only issue with regard to quality is the delay in obtaining the information. It appears that RDSs data in Southern California is repeated about once every 4 minutes (it takes that long to transmit the data). Sirius can transmit at a faster speed, but since it must transmit the data for a larger geographic area, it could potentially still take about 4 minutes to get all of the data surrounding your present location. RDS has an advantage here since it is only transmitted on via local FM radio stations which only transmit data about the traffic in their coverage area (not the entire country or state (i.e. I can't see New Your traffic data while I am in California, who cares?).