cukoodukoo

we had our Q7 prestige for about a month and crossed into canada twice and found that real time traffic info is unavailable on our car.Even the google earth maps become fuzzy. It works fine when I am in the US. Is this normal? We never had such issues with our previous BMW's in the past.

superswiss

First of all, crossing into Canada means that the cellular radio in the MMI has to roam. I'm not positive if the new system even supports roaming. Did you notice if you had a working Internet connection? Roaming incurs extra charges, but I don't see a provision in the Connect PRIME plan for roaming. The older MMI had a roaming setting that was turned off by default and traffic was delivered via satellite (SiriusXM), so with roaming turned on, the old system as far as I know continued to work in Canada.

The other challenge is that traffic is now delivered via the car's Internet connection and no longer via satellites, so if roaming is not possible, then you won't get traffic. To further complicate things, these services are not available on Canadian spec vehicles, so the Audi's servers may not even source traffic data for Canada, and even if you manged to get the Internet working, you still may not get traffic data, because Audi simply doesn't source it.

jk2317

Hi guys -- new member and first post. I'm very close to pulling the trigger on a new Q7 (my first Audi). As it happens I'm an American living in Canada for a couple of years. It's relatively easy for me to buy the car in Canada or the US, and I need to decide which. Pricing is relatively on par at this time, with exchange rates and taxes where they sit. I'll spend 90% of my time in Canada for the next couple of years, and then full time back to USA.

So it's little things like this that will help me decide where to buy the Q7. I can't get a clear understanding of what Audi Connect really DOES on Canadian cars. I'm told no Google Earth, no Wi-Fi hot spot, and something about "you get 5 map updates, and after that you pay [I don't know how much, says dealer]." Also, Canadian dealer told me I get some set of Connect services (geofencing, speed limit, valet blah blah) for free for 48 months, and after that I can subscribe (how much? don't know).

It seems like Audi Connect is MUCH more full-featured (and documented) in the US. It's also relatively expensive (and this thread says it won't even work while I'm in Canada - which is most of the time).


Can anyone point me to a reference that will help me clearly understand the differences in Audi Connect between a US spec car and a Canada spec car? (A more general reference for all US/CA differences would be great, but I think I have a handle on most of them)

Thanks!

boshiku

I have Canadian Q7 with no Audi Connect. I was able to turn on Google Earth overlay and wifi hotspot, can use external or internal sim card for those purposes. Internal sim card's home area is US, so I get notification to enable roaming everytime I use data in Canada, no such notification when in US. Not paying anything for those 2 functions, only bought lte antenna to connect to MMI. Not sure if you can enable those functions with Audi Connect preinstalled.
With no audi Connect, you will not have detailed traffic info, only very patchy info on traffic jams (mainly on highways) when you subscribe to SiriusXM traffic ($4/month).

jk2317

Very interesting. I was reading all through the thread about enabling Google Earth without Audi Connect. I'm certainly keen to try a little messing around to get that going.

I would really appreciate help understanding the terms "internal SIM" and "external SIM." They are used all over that other thread, but I'm not sure which is which, and what are the characteristics and capabilities of each.

You also specifically mentioned that you got hotspot working *without* Audi Connect. Is that a case where you purchase some sort of data-only plan from a regular Canadian (or, I suppose, US-based) provider? The car I'm most interested in right now does lack Audi Connect, so I'm very keen to learn about the possibilities in a vehicle lacking that option.

Thanks!

superswiss

Audi connect in Canada: Audi connect > Owners and Customers > Audi Canada

Audi connect in USA: https://www.audiusa.com/technology/i...e/audi-connect

jk2317

Sure, thanks. If you think the Audi Canada site explains anything, I'm guessing you haven't read it. It's unfortunately terrible. For example, there isn't even mention of whether (or not) a subscription is required. On the one hand, it's not mentioned, so I assume not. But then a dealer tells me "it is subscription based. Your initial subscription lasts 48 months. After that I think you pay for it? I don't know how much."

I poked around the forums and found more clarity. It comes down to "Audi Connect doesn't really do much in Canada, but you should get it, because maybe one day it will!" Hrmph!

I'm in marketing myself, so I understand -- if your product is terrible or useless (e.g. Audi Connect in Canada), make sure your message is confusing, so hopefully people will just buy it anyway.

superswiss

That's the best I could find. It was only introduced recently in Canada. It seems to essentially only support the parts of Audi connect that are subscription free in the USA. If you look at the USA site you can see three parts of Audi connect. The first part is the security and service features which are complementary and then Connect PRIME which includes Google Earth etc. and requires a subscription and then there is the Wifi hotspot which requires a separate subscription if the data usage goes beyond 6GB, which is the allotted hotspot data you get complementary with Connect PRIME.

jk2317

Ah thanks! This is a much clearer way to look at it than I had previously been able to gather.

It appears to me that Wi-Fi hotspot isn't officially supported in Canada, yet folks HAVE been able to make it work. Is that right?

superswiss

Yes, there are some coding instructions floating around to enable Google Earth and the Wifi hotspot in Canadian models.