Please take a moment to state your level of satisfaction with Lexus Navigation.

In general, does it do a good job? How does it compare with Google Maps?

Thanks in advance.

 

I had Lexus navigation in a 2013 ES and now in a 2019 ES. The 2019 is improved and I would say generally good. I've had to use Google maps when the Lexus navigation couldn't find the address, but don't have unlimited data on the phone so it's always secondary. The best, IMO, is my portable Garmin unit that I always carry whenever directions are required.
Most times I simply plug it in and don't use the car nav system or Google. Also, don't like the idea that Google knows where I'm going and where I've been.

 

I agree with bc6152 in that the factory nav is generally acceptable. Living in a metropolitan area of about 700K people, I don’t use it a ton locally unless I am heading somewhere and don’t have anything but an address. I tend to use it more when on a road trip. That said, it has always gotten me to the destination, although it does tend to favor interstate highways, which given the amount of traffic on local interstates may not be the fastest or most efficient route. I was recently in Seattle and it kept pushing me to the major North/South interstate which was at a virtual standstill. This is probably where Waze would be superior. Anyway, when we are on a road trip my wife will often use Google Maps on her phone (I do NOT fiddle with my phone while driving) and compare the routes. Both get us to the destination with relatively subtle differences. We have seen times when we think both come up with a preferable route.

In general I don’t subscribe to the interface complaints I have heard from others on various subforums . There will always be someone that makes a better mousetrap but the Lexus system meets my needs just fine. The interface is acceptable with a little practice, and I quite like the much maligned touchpad. It works better for me than touchscreens I have had in other vehicles as I don’t have to lean or stretch to navigate on it.

 

Totally agree. The only time I'll use Waze is when I know there's a major traffic mess along the way.

 

I tend to use Waze for my day-to-day commute. Waze is simply faster at calculating alternate routes when traffic patterns change - especially when an accident or stall could impact the current route. Waze also has that nifty "police reported ahead" feature for those of us who like to travel at an accelerated pace.

I do however, prefer to use my in-car navigation for road trips as it does a better job of identifying rest areas, restaurants, etc for upcoming exits. Where the in-car navigation really excels is that it does not limit you to a certain type of media source - you can listen to CDs (if you still have them), radio, USB music, and still get turn-by-turn directions and other info.

Additionally - the in-car navigation has no problem understanding my southern drawl. It typically gets "spoken" address entries correct on the first attempt. Waze must have been created by Yankees (ha!).

 

No speeding and safe travels

 

I had a harrowing experience with the factory Nav.

We were at the Royal Gorge in southern Colorado, and wanted to go to the Great Sand Dunes National Park (very unusual place!) I pushed the button on the overhead console, and asked the nice lady to route me to the park. She did, and we were off. It routed me off the highway before I expected to get there, and we headed through what looked like a neighborhood for people that choose to "live off the grid". This turned into a dirt road, but I decided maybe we were coming in a side entrance and I foolishly continued until it sent me down another dirt road with a sign that said (no joke) "High Clearance Vehicles Only"! My ES350 doesn't qualify, so I gave up and turned around, but it was too late. This odd neighborhood had no paved roads except for the one I came in on, but I had already decided to try and circumvent the High Clearance road rather than just leave. I'm stubborn that way, and before long, we were hopelessly lost. I finally decided nav had routed me to the closest BOUNDARY of the park, not the main entrance when I found the road it wanted me to be on again. It lead to a trail head parking lot (full of Jeeps!), just inside the boundary line on the Nav Map. After close to an hour of wandering around on dirt roads where I found several more "High Clearance Only"roads while trying unsuccessfully with factory nav, Waze, Google, AND Apple Maps, I finally found the paved road we came in on WITHOUT the benefit of assisted navigation, and we escaped. We found our way back to the highway, made a guess at which way to turn (I wasn't going to try nav again!), and headed off. 20 minutes down the road, we saw the sign for the main entrance to the park. Moral of the story: make sure you're specific when picking your destination! While trying to figure out what happened later at the hotel in Taos, I routed to the Visitor Center for the park and it sent me in the right way. Such was our trip into the Twilight Zone!

I had just detailed my 3 month old car to go on our vacation. I was pretty upset (initially) about all the dirt roads. Looking back (after cleaning the car and an adult beverage), it was actually kinda interesting. We saw several nicely maintained religious compounds (think cult-ish), and some ODD houses. Geodesic domes with randomly place windows, seemed pretty popular, but they were all one-off designs on large lots, and looked mostly homeowner built. There were no apparent utilities for any of them (lots of laundry lines and propane tanks!) but all of the roads has street signs. Pretty interesting, plus my lovely wife was thoroughly entertained watching me flounder around on dirt roads.

 

My '17 IS200t is the 4th Lexus vehicle I've had and I've gotten to the point I don't really trust the factory nav sometimes. Too many times of, what seems to me as, going out of the way instead of using a more direct route. I can Google map a trip before I leave and the factory nav won't choose anything resembling that route.

I had one really bad experience where I was going to a music venue in Nashville, TN that I had looked at on Google maps and saw where it was on the west side of town. Left home here in North Alabama heading up I-65 and I knew I would have to go left on I-65/I-40 to get to the venue but the nav kept indicating a right turn. As I got closer to town I thought the system must know something about a traffic problem or something else so I trusted it and took I-65 right but then the system told me to take the first exit, go back under the interstate and come back up on the other side going the way I should have been going in the first place. At that point it was a good thing I didn't have a hammer with me because I was so angry I could have smashed it to pieces. I've also had a previous car tell me to get off at an exit and just get right back on for some reason.

 

On the other hand (which also has four fingers and a thumb), I’ve been driving in the mountains with a 4cyl Camry with a trunk full of camping gear and two kayaks on the roof. Picture a winding, hilly road limited to 35 mph alongside a mountain lake and poor gps reception. Garmin showed me cruising straight down the middle of the lake at 100 mph. Was actually kind of funny at the time. I’ve had no real issues with any gps but I don’t commute in the ridiculous traffic many of you folks have to deal with.

 

Woodrow relates an interesting journey! Couple of ideas now that you are safe:

1) Route Trace - engaged at the first dirt road would have left "bread crumbs" to follow back
2) The "overhead button" is for Safety Connect, Destination Assist has an on screen button.
Did the Emergency Operator link or transfer your call or handle it themselves?

Your observations of remote lifestyles reminds me of some scenes from the classic movie
Vanishing Point. Kowalski interacts will Delaney and Bonnie, naked motorcycling women...