[zacu]

Somebody may have complained about this before, or completely disagree, but I will share my experiences anyway,

I have 335i with iDrive and integrated Navigation Professional, the software was updated less than 2 months ago, so its very current.

I have been testing it now for some time and I have to say that I am really disappointed. Maybe some of you people have explanation or a fix to some of these, but at least I have not figured out any other explanation than the fact that the software in the BMW navigation is just pretty bad.

Let's list a few:
1. Navigation makes REALLY, really bad decisions about routes. For example, just today I travelled here in Finland between two cities. I know which is the best route, which I have used it for years. I turned the Navi on anyway just to see what it would suggest. The first suggestion was absolutely stupid (will not bother to explain, but something like 15 extra kilometers). I drove the way I always did and eventually the Navi made a recalculation: this time obviously closer but far from the optimal. Kept driving "my" route and soon again it did the recalculation. I watched the estimated arrival time drop first more than 8, then some 10 minutes on the recalculations. Eventually I reached my destination about 30 minutes before the very original arrival time that I was given soon after my departure. What?!?! That is pretty bad in a journey that takes less than 2 hours.

I obviously have the "fast route" setting on. Why would it select the route so badly, when it obviously "knows" to drop the arrival time on recalculation? It seems that it just does not evaluate the roads well and really pick the genuinely fastest route from all the possibilities.

2. Related to previous: the estimated arrival times are always far off.

3. It really does not seem to realize the meaning of traffic lights. The fast route setting every time suggests me to drive a route through town instead of a beltway. That is 15 minutes of traffic lights and speed limits versus 3 minutes of traffic lights and generous speed limits. Even if the distance is maybe some kilometers shorter through town (of 40 km in total), the beltway obviously is at least 15 minutes faster. On a such short journey (35 minutes in total), that is really bad.

4. Finland has two official languages: Finnish and Swedish. Most roads have names in both languages, although the Finnish versions are more commonly used (even the Swedish speaking minority of 12% uses mostly the Finnish names). The Navi system carries these both language versions, but has absolutely no logic in picking them up to the screen. Watching any map view is absolutely frustrating when street names are totally randomly on either language. Is this a problem in other countries? For instance Switzerland has four languages? Any Swiss people around, are you having the same problem?

5. The map information is not very reliable. For example, exiting from a very major beltway to another very major highway requires one to exit left. This one tells to exit to right (there is no exit on the right side btw.). I have experienced similar problems on other occasions too.

6. I have rather recent map DVD. However, I checked the price for an update. Friggin 350 euros?!? A brand new TOP model of TomTom with also USA does not cost that much more.

7. For this money, one would expect the system to excel. Yet I tested a TomTom for some time and it was absolutely wonderful. None of the previous problems existed -- it was fast, reliable and made really good route suggestions. The map was more current and it paired with my phone no problem (BMW does not). Weather and traffic services worked. Only once in italy it had some of the street numbering a bit messed. It really annoys me to pay some 4000 euros of the integrated system which is clearly inferior to 500 euro TomTom.

8. Staying on a highway and avoiding lanes that take you off is poorly presented. In many occasions it appears that I need to turn somewhere, when it really wants to say is "stay on this road and do NOT exit to right".

9. Minor, but as a sort of a software UI designer, this really annoys me: why is zooming the map done wrong? In western cultures "right" means forward, down and "deeper", Left means back, up, and "out". Even when you scroll ordinary lists with iDrive, this is the case. Then why would you flip this logic with zooming and make "right" zoom out and "left" zoom in?

Probably something else...

[Two Sheds]

Originally Posted by zacu

Somebody may have complained about this before, or completely disagree, but I will share my experiences anyway

I haven't come across anyone so far who would claim that the BMW nav system is genuinely good.

From my experience using the nav in Canada (mainly around Toronto) if you enter an address (lets not even go into searching for a place of interest) the navigation is clear and it generally picks a pretty good route. I do find sometimes that the nav system comes up telling me to stay left or right on a highway when all I have to do is stay on the road and it would be clearer if it said nothing.

I'm beginning to wonder why BMW doesn't just enter into an agreement/partnership with tom tom, Garmin or similar to basically integrate thier solution into the BMW as the integrated factory nav system as the third party systems are far superior to BMW's.

[glamprecht]

Most of the points you've made relates to the particular data on the DVD. The DVD is supplied by Navteq and not BMW.

Navteq also supplies Mercedes amongst many other factory fitted car systems.

Regarding the zoom issue - I agree. I always turn it the wrong way first.
I have a LG microwave oven that adds seconds to the time when I turn the knob anti-clockwise. How stupid.

[Cabby]

I found that if you have it on Fastest Route, it will stick to major highways even when local roads may in fact be faster. It's like if you pick Fastest, you might as well have picked With Highways.

The times are always off, but I like to feel I'm making good time by always getting there earlier than estimated

[drkeng]

Zoom in/out is kind of counter-intuitive.
Think of it as the amount of land showing--counterclockwise/down/less area shown. This has been working for me after retraining my brain.

For my highway exit, which has separate east and west exits from a northbound highway, I should take the 2nd exit (west)and loop around. However, the i-drive tells me to take the 1st exit and turn left at the end of the ramp, which is illegal and would essentially be a U-turn on a main street. Obviously, this is a Navteq software problem, not BMW. If someone was relying on this, they'd be kinda messed up. Will have to try the same thing in our Cayenne and see what it says.