I drive mainly in the San Antonio, TX and Austin, TX area. I have XM traffic and I would have to say that it's pretty darn accurate - maybe 95% time it is spot on.

As others have mentioned, the only part that sucks is that it only occurs major highways/freeways. I wish that it provided as much data as Google maps.

Btw, here is a nice short article on how Google is able to detect traffic congestion: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/googl...ion-49523.html

~ Im2bz2p345

 

The XM TRAFFIC is JUNK. XM should be ashamed to charge money for the crap they give you. My wife's 2015 Sienna has the FM Traffic, which is FREE, and has all the roads, including all my local roads. I'm not going to renew XM DATA. Same for weather, they only have the really big cities.

 

Woah there my friend. "Junk" is a pretty harsh word. I only pay bare minimum for my data service and I travel back & forth between these larger cities in TX.. so for ME it's not "junk."

But I agree with you statement in that I'd much rather have HD traffic like on the 2015+ models which is FREE - although according to the OP, he considers that "junk" because it's not accurate.

So it looks like we are screwed either way, lol.

~ Im2bz2p345

 

Where does their data for all of the roads come from?

Edit: I just googled the answer. Interesting.

 

I've found it to be inaccurate as well, to the point where I rarely rely on it and if it shows something, I'll double check it on my phone.

 

I don't trust either. I use the app WAZE, Since the driver reports conditions it is extremely accurate, so much so that some Police Departments are against it, being that you can also report Police on the road. WAZE will report traffic conditions, hazards, Police, accidents, red light cameras and more. Only draw backs; you use your cell, and the directions sometimes aren't the best, though it is supposed to learn your preferred route.

 

Haha I feel sorry for you guys in big cities that have to deal with traffic on a daily basis. Where I live "Knoxille TN" we rarely get bumper to bump traffic unless some idiot cause an accident blocking the road.

But when we do have traffic its 95% accurate and fast. I have XM traffic.
I remember one day driving on the interstate with my wife on clear almost empty highway. On the Lexus Gps shows red arrows line showing traffic up ahead. I told my wife that is imposibble there is hardly any traffic right now. But sure enough when we reached that section of the highway we hit a wall of cars bumper to bumper. This really impresses me with XM nav traffic. It works great everytime for me. Maby you guys have a broken traffic reciever? Cuz mines works flawlessly.

 

I live here in the Bay Area and I find the XM traffic to be about 95-98% accurate and appreciate having it in the car.

 

It's awful. I received a free 3 month subscription. I plan on keeping the music and getting rid of the other crap. Every morning I start my car XM radio tells me there is severe weather near by. The sky is clear so I check the map and it shows flooding in the area. No flooding is in my area. The stocks are slow. The sports package is awful. This is why XM stock won't go up! Cuz it's poo!

 

Inrix on my phone is 1000x better than XM data on the nav screen. If I want to see what's going on and why, since I'm already stopped on the highway, I'll pull it up and the app will show me, complete with traffic cams.

In big cities, traffic jams can happen in seconds, and clear up in minutes or hours. Accurate data is critical, and 15-45 minute updates from XM doesn't cut it around here. Like Rominl said, the coverage doesn't cut it here in Texas either. Get outside the metroplex and the nav thinks you're in the twilight zone.