LeoDLion

I have a 2010 that I bought in Dec. of 2009. After driving extensively and trying to use the gps, here are some major complain:
(a) I selected using freeways but the gps still wants me to use a regular street. Is there a way to make freeways a default option?
(b) I program the gps to go from Reno to San Francisco. It keep on telling me to exit and take a country road instead of insterstate 80. For every exit, it says to exit. It became so irritating I have to turn off the audio level. Why does it not recalculate right away?
(c) It will stay quiet for long stretches of road without assurance that you are still on the right track.

For comparison I brought along a Tom-Tom. The T2 is much better in my opinion. It will recalculate immediately if you take a different route. I wish I can replace the gps with T2.

DunWkg

Try setting your preferences differently for the three different routes. Shortest, Quickest and whatever the third is called, I forget the name.

Yeah, the a U-turn suggestion is a pain.

Pushing the map button will bring her up again. I turn off the voice completely and then just push the map button when I want some information from her. This got me into trouble once. I missed several turns because I had the audio screen up and the voice turned off.


(Its on page 105 of the 2010-2012 navigation manual. Quick, Short, and Alternate. It's a preference for each type of route)

BertL

I've never had the problem with significant routing problems... Just like some nav systems, it will sometimes take you on a very different route than you'd at first think is right, but i've never had problems for example routing from San Diego to Fresno, or even when I brought my RX out from Atlanta to San Diego a few years back. My initial reaction is, what do you have the MPH set for streets and highway... Speed is part of the way the nav calculates a route, and while I've never tried it, your problem makes we wonder what it would do if say highway speeds are set lower than residential... I bet you've already done it, but be sure you check all the Nav settings to ensure they are reasonable. I'll let someone with a 2010 suggest if there is a setting regarding preference to freeways. I can't remember if it was on my 2006 RX that i just traded in, or if it was my BMW where I could set that preference ... Doing so would have caused the problem you're encountering.

On the point the nav is not telling you things are OK for long distances. This is true when there are no major exits or intersections for long stretches where it anticipates you may make a wrong turn... I've run into that a lot when driving on major interstates in desolate areas or where only small streets connect to major highways, such as through the desert. I consider that OK. If it worries me, I just look in the upper right corner of the screen and see how many miles it is to the next turn or destination. Not a problem for me. I'd be irritated if it talked to me tooooo much with no real information.

BertL

THAT'S IT I'm pretty sure. I'm showing my age I guess, or too focused trying to absorb these manuals on my 2013. :-)

ejm3

I've only used the GPS for routing a couple times so far but its not surprising. My Garmin used to want me to get on and off the highway too.

My complain it that it seems "slow". The map shows me a couple seconds behind where I actually am.

DunWkg

Common complaint with all lead foots!!


If LeoDLion doesn't mind, here's a couple more:
Sometimes when she speaks I don't understand her until the street name shows up on the screen.
Driving on the border of two states that are in different regions and you need to switch back and forth for destination searches.
When previewing a route, the cursor gets off the route and sometimes the screen just freezes.

TomT127

My only complaint with the Lexus GPS and probably others is the so called "fastest" route is really just the popular route, not really the fastest. I travel a lot between Houston and Fort Worth and the GPS always wants to take me on a route that would take almost an hour longer then my usual route.

LeoDLion

I am also wondering if some of the problems is due to the fact that the map is old. Where I live now it does not have the map of the vicinity.

But the most irritating if I have to repeat myself is the failure to recalculate the route. Once you miss an exit or road it wants you to take, it will keep on repeating to make a u-turn until you are close to your destination. I was travelling from Reno to SF and the message to exit happens on every exit. That will take about 6 hours!

BertL

Map updates for the most part don't change the "logic" inside the Nav of how routes are calculated, only what possibilities there are for those routes, if you get what I mean. In other words, updating the maps will only help if there are new streets/highways that would get you to your destination quicker however the Nav does it's internal calculation of the possibilities.

Design of the Nav is if you miss the suggested turn, within a few seconds, it will recalculate what it then considers to be the next best route to get you to the same destination. Some times, that is a U-turn to get you back on the original course. Some times depending on now where you are (and also real-time traffic conditions on later gen Nav), it will take you on a slightly different route. E.g. I was coming home to San Diego from Monterey, decided to take a different route down around Pebble Beach area to see the sights, and the Nav recalculated the route not clear back North and over to the same freeway I went up and it originally wanted me to use, but back down the coast and then over to the 5 through Los Angeles... very smart.

Have you closely looked at why the Nav wanted to make you keep turning around for 6 hours and what route it was really suggesting to your destination? ...I'll leave it to you as we may just have a difference of opinion, but as DunWkg and I suggested, I bet it had to do with your preferences and/or speed preferences setup and the Nav attempting to get you back on surface streets or some other priority that just isn't normal for most of us. I've driven SF-Reno-Bishop-Vegas-Phoenix areas with both my 2002 and 2006 Lexus Navs and just not had the dramatic problem you are describing. I do have the occasional multiple U-turn frustration when I miss an exit or just want to go another way, yes, but long-term failures, no. The Nav has always "settled down" after I get further along my way. Anyway, good luck.

LeoDLion

First of all many thanks for the replies. There are two main roads which are basically parallel with one another. One is a freeway and the other a main street. Why the Lexus gps default to using the main street is perhaps the freeway is new and not in its map? Even if I select the freeway preference it still wants me to use the main street.

Maybe 6 hours is an exaggeration. I was on I-80 passing thru Sacramento on the way to Concord. It wanted me to make an exit as I approaches Sacramento. There is a road 113 which crosses 12 and then connects to I-80 and I think this is the one it wanted me to take. Unless you want to pass some small town this is not the route to take. And then it does something weird. We were in I-80 and it says to exit, turn left and proceed x miles to I-80. ??? We are already in I-80. Tom-tom was correct all the way

BertL

I think you've found part of the challenge. ;-) If the freeway is not in the map database, there is no way for the Nav to know about it in its calculations. I have a whole subdivision that was added north of me here, and when I traveled through it, it was blank on the map, and would never suggest routes through that area either -- just as if it did not exist (it didn't to the Nav) even when they were shorter. I considered that my problem for not updating my maps once the new subdivision was included in them.

As far as "what makes sense" in the routing, well, I don't always agree with my Nav or Google Maps either. If I owned a Tom-Tom, it would probably be the same situation. As an X-computer programmer myself, I know all too well that preferences we set or are default inside of computer programs like our Navs never quite match the more dynamic and complex logic in our brains -- they are only approximations, sometimes better, sometimes worse, hopefully at least the same. Do a few searches if you're interested here on the forums... You'll find others with similar concerns and observations as yours, and some that found changing the approximations in MPH of the three different types of roads dramatically influenced what they considered to be the right or wrong route the Nav ended up presenting (in addition to ETA of course). Reading those posts a while back, it sounded to me like some non-Lexus brands of nav had real posted Speed limits of roads within their mapping database, vs what Lexus does with matching roads in the database to this three-road-type MPH approximation each driver can control. There are pros and cons to both solutions I suppose... The debate certainly was taking place in those other threads.

MC5Wes

In the settings you can set the system for what you want. And how fast you drive. You can also select or deselect certian roads. Like tollways .

On the taking a side street. If you have shortest selected. And the highway is just a bit longer. It will take the side street.

Thats what mine did at first. Your travelling down the highway and plan on taking the interchange to the next highway. If the GPS sees a side street that is a short cut. It will tell you to get off the highway. Cut the corner and bypass the exchange. Then get back on the highway. You then saved a 1/10 of a mile.

coachlkg

You could upgrade your Lexus NAV for $169+, or you could buy a Garmin with lifetime free upgrades for about $200.00.

markrivers

the $2,500 We paid for the "Navigation" upgrade, is not ONLY the GPS capability.
i would argue that the larger and colored screen is better than the Non-Navi counterpart.
good as an infotainment and a larger back up screen.

Those with 2011 and older can appreciate this, since their back up camera is a tiny pop up window on the rear view

coachlkg

My Nav gave me wrong turns twice last night on the way to a restaurant. Fortunately I knew how to get there, so I ignored the Nav. It was spot on for the trip home. Apparently I will need to get "internet directions" before I leave on any trip, because the $2500 Lexus Nav system cannot be fully trusted.