allaboutA7

I am a big Audi fan. Love, love their cars but there has been one feature that has annoyed me for some time now and i can hold it no more, Audi's Navigation OMG. Like every car manufacturer, Audi does there own navigation (Don't know why) and the basic works ok. The problem is that the the thing is updated maybe once a year or even less frequently. When new roads a built or traffic pattern change, it take quite a while for Navtec or who every does the mapping software to get updates to the market. To add insult to injury, my 2016 A7 like many audi's has Google earth. This is a real joke as google earth is updated much more quickly than the mapping software in this car. So what happens is google earth downloads the updated images but the mapping software doesn't have any of that information and is struggling to follow the path in its database which is outdated. Why the cheap gimmick? Simple give me google maps like the tesla's and that will be that. It is so annoying to have a nav system in the car and always use my phone to get accurate navigation. Also i don't have to pay for updates on my phone. Audi was unto something when it partnered with Google a while ago but i think they have gone down the wrong path. Audi, please please drop the nav system and google earth gimmick and give us Google maps.

superswiss

I see you even needed to start two threads for this. There's a very good reason most car navigation systems don't use online maps. You will know why, the first time you drive a Tesla in cellular no man's land and your beloved Google Maps turns into a grey background with no roads. To combat this major flaw, Tesla's instrument cluster needs to run a backup Garmin with locally stored maps that need to be updated as well, so you don't get stranded if you don't have a cellular signal, but Google Maps will be completely dead until you have cell reception again. Future navigation systems in German cars will use HERE maps, which they recently acquired from Nokia. HERE maps has full offline support, Google Maps doesn't. There's an app for iOS and Android, too. Used to be exclusive to Windows Phone. It's great for international travel.

Baloo588

I can update my 2016 Audi A7 over the air for the navigation updates. I love how the google maps is integrated into the car though not perfect like the phone. The navigation has definitely improved and has the traffic information integrated. I have no issues with it so far. I use google search on my Audi connect to put in the names of the places I want to go and I can enter in the destination on my phone and it can be sent to the car.

allaboutA7

My apologies i am still learning how to work the forum hence the double post. I am in 100% agreement on what you said about online navigation. My case was more for the quick updates to the mapping data rather than just being online. In today's world were the car has LTE and information is vital for our everyday lifes , having to wait 1 year to update the navigation data on the local data when the google maps data is updated as soon as the data is available is for me a NO NO. The Tesla approach to have a backup local database in case you lose connectivity is totally acceptable. Why my car will have LTE connectivity and i can't get updates as they become available is so 1980. There are roads that cut my commute down by as much as an hour that have been available for more than a year, the only way i can use those roads is to use my phone to do my navigation rather than the MMI. The car shows all the new roads because of google earth but the local database doesn't have the information to navigate the new roads. Like i said, today is about quick information, just the same way we have traffic information in quick time, we should also be able to get information on new roads and traffic patterns as soon as they are available. So again there is no need for it to be pretty if it is useless for my commute. I'd prefer if the map system was overlaid with Google Maps rather than Google Earth, that will be less gimmicky.

allaboutA7

@Baloo58
So can i but the information is updated maybe once a year. The information on those maps change more quickly than that. I know it looks pretty, everyone that steps into the car says that, only for me to pull out my phone to navigate to where i am going. Need speedier updates that's all

superswiss

Depending on where you live, outdated maps can certainly be an issue. It hasn't been an issue here for the last 10 years as the roads and traffic patterns don't change that drastically to make it an issue. Starting with the 2016 A7, you get map updates twice a year over the LTE connection or you can download it from my.audi.com, save it on an SD card and then use it to update the map database, but that's only one side of the equation. The mapping companies have to first actually update their maps with the new roads and traffic patterns. Perhaps Google is faster at it, but it takes human beings to update the map data first. Somebody has to actually map the new roads first.

allaboutA7

Yes it is. I live in Charlotte NC and the road patterns have been changing and are still changing 8 years after i got here. I say updated every year cause i had a 2014 A7, I got that in April 2014 and now a 2016 A7, i got in May 2015. In that time the only time that the navigation was updated was this earlier this year, 2016. When I had the 2014 A7, there was no update for the nav system in the period i owned that car. When i got the 2016, the dealer wasn't even sure how it will be updated until one day i saw a notification that an update was available online which i updated. I was so happy with that until i realized that the roads that i needed were not even included in the update. Meanwhile, google maps had had the update for over a year. So there lies my frustration.

superswiss

Do the new roads show up on www.here.com? Audi, BMW and Mercedes and many others use HERE's map data (formerly known as Navteq). You can take an active role and report missing roads etc. on here.com, so that the maps get updated in time.

Baloo588

I agree I like more frequent downloads to be pushed to my car from Audi instead of 1-2x a year.. But to be honest I like the Audi navigation way more than BMW and Mercedes cars in the house. The BMW navigation is boring and not accurate whereas the Mercedes is mind boggling to input addresses etc. The best navigation that was most accurate was my 2013 Lexus GS F-Sport which would have precise locations and directions that tops the germans. Lexus even had more updates to the navigation that was done few or more times a year without me having to go and select update navigation data on the car system.

allaboutA7

They should simply get the updated maps from google who seem to be on their game when it comes to map data. If Audi wants to lead the way it in car infotainment, they should take the extra step