AvramD

Ok, this is REALLY annoying, makes the NAV system pretty much useless. First, let me be clear - the system certainly HAS I-95, it just sometimes can't tell when I'm on it.

Some times, when I fire up my NAV system, enter a destination, and tell it to start, it calcluates the route, and then says "Please proceed to the nearest road" even if I'm on a road that it knows. The display just says "OFF ROAD." For the uninitiated, this means supposedly that I'm on a road that's not in the database.

I tried this coming through NYC yesterday. I was on I-95 the whole way, for example, on the George Washington Bridge. I stayed on I-95 all the way home, over 120 miles. It NEVER picked up on it and never started giving me route guidance. Has anyone else experienced this?

I've made several troubleshooting attempts, and here's what I've uncovered:

First of all, I have region 7, which includes New York, New York.

1) GPS appears to be fine - the GPS coordinates change as I drive, and the "Bee-Line distance" to my destination seems about right, and reduces to zero as I approach.

2) I've pulled up the route list, and after it calculates it, it seems to know exactly where I am. It will say "5 miles on I-95" until the next interchange. Sometimes it says things like "0.0 mi on Main St. Then 0.0 mi on Summer St. Then 5 miles on I-95" indicating that perhaps it thinks I'm near some side streets I can use to get to I-95, albeit within 50' of I-95.

3) I've tried turning NAV off & back on at several points along the trip. No difference.

4) When I turn off & back on, it doesn't go through the initialization again, so I've even tried turning the whole CAR off & back on, still no difference.

5) This problem is not limited to I-95. I just use that as an example b/c obviously it SHOULD work there. Same problem on I-91 and SR-2 in CT.

6) Sometimes, the system works fine. I've driven 20 miles on roads that I've received perfect route guidance on before (e.g. I-91 in Hartford), and other times had it still tell me "Please proceed to the nearest road" on the same streatch.

7) It doesn't matter whether I start on a road it knows or not. Whether I turn it on while I'm ON I-95, or when I'm in some parking lot that it doesn't know, it's the same. Sometimes it figures out where I am when I get to the road, and other times I can drive 50+ miles on major interstates, and get the above behavior.

I'd just like to know if others are experiencing this. I'm sorta hoping there are. If it's just me, I'm sure I can look forward to an eternity of mechanics saying "uh, gee - I don't know." If it's lots of people then it should be easier to raise it up to the level of someone at Audi who can really get it fixed.

ct

I wish they would do what Acura does in their cars: They have a DVD/CD player, and the entire contiguous US is on ONE DVD. That seems like the much smarter and easier way to do it, unless they are really counting on people shelling out hundreds of extra dollars for extra cds.

mpm

Is the "Off Road" happening intermittently, or at the same places? I remember you telling me that it doesn't recognize your home. And do you program while driving, because I think that may confuse it a little at first.

I have a similar situation on I-93 by the South Station Tunnel. It seems to think that I'm on a surface road, but it catches up pretty quick. I think it gets confused by elivated roads.

Think of that nest of roads by the GWB. If you turned it on there, it may not even know where to start. But being a major road...hmmm, it doesn't make sence.

It's probably the software, but NYC is supposed to be complete. If it worked on a spot of I-95 once and then not a second time, that clearly means something is wrong.

Is it possible it could have something to do with the satellite link? I'll e-mail my brother he does this kind of stuff for Motorola.

scot kight

I would suggest getting the gps really checked out, if its even 50ft off or something, it wont be able to figure out where you are. You could be 50ft off of 95.

Please let us know what happens. Also, your disk might just have some bad sectors on it. call audiusa customer support or your dealer and see.

AvramD

It has worked on the 10 mile streach of I-95 that I use to go to work, and yet it didn't wake up anywhere on 95 from NY to RI, including same streach yesterday.

It's not that it occasionally forgets where I am - once it figures out where I am, it sticks until I arrive at my destination. It's just that more often than not, it never figures out where I am.

AvramD

Interesting ideas. I have apt. w/ dealer Wed. We'll see.

mpm

Sorry bro, I haven't had any experience like that...good luck, and please keep us posted

Jim De Arras

GPS can be up to 100 metres off, at times.

Jim De Arras

The NAV systems use a combination of GPS, intertial guidance, and dead-recknoning. Once it knows where is it, i.e. it shows you on the right road, it will use all the above, checked against the map data, to track you. If it starts out "lost", I can see where it would take a while to figure out where it is, assuming you make enough turns for it to find a fit on it's map. If you make no turns, i.e., stay on I95, it would have a very hard time matching your path to the map. Remember, GPS is up to 100 meters off, that's quite an error for the software to correct starting from an unknown point.