Hasn't failed ONCE for me and I've used it quite a few times since I took delivery of my C7. Some routes have been local and "urban" while others have been part of a pretty good drive (100 miles or more) and "rural".

Apparently, YMMV......

 

If it was a TR coupe with the painted top, it was likely ours.

 

Take out your phone, use Google Maps to route from Aurora, OR to Moab, UT (a "short" two day drive ) . Then do the same using "Fastest" and "Shortest" routing on the C7. You will see the difference. Make sure you turn off traffic rerouting so that is taken out of the equation. And Time Constrained Roads is turned on. And Freeways turned on also.

Google - 1,023 mi, 15 hr 46 min "fastest" (and shortest too) You can bet this is dead nuts on.

C7 - 1,092 mi, 16 hr 49 min "fastest"
C7 - 1021 mi, 17 hr 48 min "shortest" (pretty much the same as Google route but ETE is way off. The differences are the "shortest" programming errors which take you on surface streets cutting total distance by 2 miles and the ETE error due to using some unknown, incorrect speed calculation.

Bottom line, ETE is critical in determining the correct fastest route. Get it wrong and the rest is likely to be wrong. GIGO

Your exact time and distance and routing may vary slightly since you may start somewhere else than Aurora city center and finish at Moab's city center. But it will still show the calculation errors.

Yeah, I know, this is a longer routing, but the bad programming is still there and waiting to mislead you. Nothing owners can do or say will change that.

 

Ya know.. it strikes me that this is the equivalent of turning off Active Handling and Traction Control and then bitching about how crappy the handling is when the car ends up upside down in a ditch.

So you're saying that if I turn off this and turn on that (that is different from my currently working-as-it-should system), I can make it fail?

Think I'll go with "DUH".......

 

No, quite the contrary. This is the procedure GM gave me to document the Nav problem. Let me explain. If one wants to make sure someone else can duplicate something, you have to have set it up so everyone is on the same page.

So, you turn off Reroute for Traffic so that doesn't happen and you get pure routing information. If you don't, then the calculations can change real time as traffic conditions change and any evaluation is flawed.

You turn on Time Constrained Roads since who the frack knows what that does, except take out roads which are legitimate routing options. It is not explained in the manual. By having it on, then there are more highways to figure legitimate routes.

Turn Freeways on or you won't be driving on those.

Also, I forgot to mention, turn on Tunnels or you won't be able to go through those.

And lastly, turn off Ferries so we stay off the water.

All these steps are not anything like turning off Active Handling and Traction Control and then complaining. How silly. It is an attempt to document a problem with common parameters which one would likely have setup on their system anyway. Kind of a mini-scientific method. If you want to normally drive with other settings, great. But we cannot have an intelligent discussion if we are not all looking at the same thing.

If you don't want to take the time to try this, and maybe but not likely, prove me wrong, fine, that's your choice. But please have the courtesy to not pollute the conversation for others with off the wall comments.

 

I will give it a try at my earliest opportunity and report back what I find.

I am polluting nothing. I reported that my NAV system hasn't let me down in general and hasn't suffered from the deficiencies you report specifically. My point for comparison to AH and TC is that, given the proper settings, ANYTHING can be made to fail by configuring it a certain way. Whether or not that is a typical configuration is quite another matter.

That is completely germane to the spirit and letter of this thread's topic.

 

This has never been an attempt to cause the nav system to fail. It does it all very well by itself, even in factory default settings. But, if you want to have a long distant discussion and remove unwanted variables, you first have to agree on the correct parameters. If you have a better, logical, scientific way of duplicating or testing this issue, by all means enlighten us.

Just because you have not noticed an issue doesn't mean it does not exist. It is obvious others don't see the problem either, but likely, they too have not looked at it closely and then critically.

 

Just for clarification, I did not say it failed everytime. I think pretty much all the Nav units on market use the same mapset (NAVTEQ). The programming logic is my complaint. GM stripped useful features (such as 3 route selection w/o changing pages, direct coordinate input, from the C6 Navigation system for reasons unknown (but suspected) while loading the system up with features that allow it to integrate with it's propriety OnStar system. If you don't subscribe to OnStar, the system loses functionality (for example the ability to input GPS coordinates with out a computer). At the end of your trail period of OnStar, you are left with a "Remote Link" smartphone program that allows you only to duplicate the features on your key fob, lock, unlock, start, ect. However, if you subscribe to OnStar, you get full functionality. Meanwhile on their low end cars, they have a program called BrinGo, which allows your smartphone to integrate directly with the car. Toyota has done this since at least 2012, and somewhere else on this board they have stated that Chrysler also does this. Only internet application I have found so far that I can integrate through my Iphone is Pandora in my C7.
If you call the Infotainment help line to ask questions, you end up with OnStar. If you are unhappy with this, call 855-478-7767 and complain, not that it will do much except get "it is operating as designed" which to me means GM apparently wants to lock you into OnStar.

(Per Wikipedia, "NAVTEQ's underlying map database is based on first-hand observation of geographic features rather than relying on official government maps. It provides data used in a wide range of applications, including automotive navigation systems for many car makers, accounting for around 85% of market share.")

 

Wikipedia is hardly the end-all definitive source of accurate information. I'm not saying it's wrong but Wiki is user-supplied content and has been known to be wrong/biased/inaccurate.

I'm not saying it is in this case but I think I'd want something a bit more authoritative before I'd trust that info........

 

Interesting. One of our other vehicles is a 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the RHR navigation/media center comparable to the C7's as the top end equipment upgrade at the time. It too uses the NAVTEQ database, yet the when I plot that previous routing to Aurora, OR, it comes up with 1021 miles an 15 hrs 56 min. Much closer than C7 with data also from NAVTEQ.

Another member posted on this thread that NAVTEQ told him that they only supply data not programming. That might be true, but I recently installed a free 2014 database upgrade to the Jeep and it also installed a new software package for the system.

So if for now we give the benefit of the doubt to NAVTEQ, then it must be the GM programming folks that are at fault.

 

"The first is a wholly owned subsidiary in the GPS mapping applications and services space, NAVTEQ. In Q3 2012 Nokia announced the rebranding of NAVTEQ products as the HERE line. NAVTEQ already has a commanding 85% market share in automotive navigation systems and the HERE line will expand mapping capability across all mobile device operating systems, including iOS and Android."

4/23/13Motley Fool. Microsoft in September 2013, purchased Nokia, who owned Navteq. I didn't go all the way on research, but pretty sure that Garmin also uses Navteq.

http://beta.fool.com/paulinasheker/2...t-think/32480/

 

I refuse to use the GPS in the cars, they are useless. Have been using the Garmin, it's easy to use and intuitive.

 

I found this press release from Garmin.http://www8.garmin.com/pressroom/corporate/111607.html

and this http://www.cnet.com/news/garmin-swit...e-map-updates/

 

It is true that the auto manufactures Nav systems are not up to smart phones or Garmin...etc but they do integrate other infotainment systems in a nice package like bluetooth, general auto settings, cell phone, and USB/SD systems, though obviously needing better programming.

 

...Hit that nail on the head!

The whole set of issues related to both the Nav and Infotainment systems are the result of a poorly designed interface by the GM folks, and the software company (named QNX) that they hired to write the actual software!

IMHO,
Ed

 

Don't forget what might have been their software design, integrate the Nav system into OnStar for routing, need to keep "directions and connections" service going.

 

QNX = Blackberry, nuf said!

 

I figured it out...

The C7 includes all of the extra stops your wife makes you do, Google does not listen to her!

 

After putting 5800 miles in the first 5 weeks, my impression is that the C7 Nav system is the worst I have seen in a car. We have 3 other vehicles with Navigation that are better. However, none can match a cheap $130 Garmin. Sad to spend 75K and they cannot even get something decent. From now on, my long trips will be accompanied by a Garmin on my dash. What a shame.

 

I am waiting on my C7 A8 Z51 with Nav and a camera I probably will just use as a toy.

I know my IPhone probably is more accurate. But I like a big screen to view and no matter how bad you say the system is, the C6 nav was a joke.

I had to prove to a group of Corvette owners one major fault.

If I programmed a trip from Toledo, Ohio to Marco Island, Fl it showed a route almost 300 miles longer. It did not matter which direction I went the error was the same. No differance in type of route ie toll, ferry, shortest. It always made the same error.

When getting to Naples Fl it did not direct me to get off at exit 101 on I75 and go directly south to Marco Island.

Instead it sent me east on Alligator Alley to Ft Lauderdale, then to Miami, then Route 41 back to Marco Island. On the return trip it would try to sent me back to Miami via the same route. The route it used was almost 300 miles vs the direct route of 16 miles.

There were a number of other similar errors but just a few miles off.

It would quickly correct it self after I tok the right exit.

We tried the same route program at a car show on Marco Island with six other Corvettes and 5 other brand cars. All the C6 vets made the same error. The rest plotted the route correctly. My dealer was there and we checked software versions, mine had the latest as well as 3 others.

As a former flight instructor a nav unit like this could be fatal in instrument conditions. But fortunately we have road signs and google

The dealer could never fix it and I lost patience. As my wife said just enjoy the car which I did.