1. We're in Edmonton, Canada. (St. Albert, to be exact.) The maps on my wife's 2010 350 are probably 3-4 years out of date and seem anything but exact for the areas that ARE on them. Are they that crappy everywhere? When is an update due? How do I check if I have the most current version of the maps installed? Why on Earth doesn't Lexus use NAVTEQ maps instead of this Denso stuff?? (My 2 year old Grand Cherokee SRT8 has never had the maps updated and they are FAR more current than the RX.)

2. Does anyone have a hard time getting the voice recognition to work really well? If we follow step-by-step (ie. Audio. pause. Select channel by name. Pause. The Virus.), it works. However, it won't follow higher level commands like it seems to imply in the books or promotional material. (ie. I can't say "Change the satellite channel to The Virus" or "Give me directions to a gas station.") Am I doing something wrong, or am I misunderstanding the system's capabilities? Also, what setting needs to be changed so the system doesn't have to read so many prompts after pressing the voice command button? (Currently, we basically have to press it twice - once to activate, and once to skip the reading of the subsequent menu by the system.)

 

It seems you can get the version information out of Navi (I don't recall how-to. Will check it later). We can check if everyone has the same version. I guess we do.

As for the map accuracy, I've found something wierd, or someone may say it's normal. Some info isn't showing on the maps, especially for some particular araes (unfortunatelly they're all Canada areas so far). I just returned from the trips to NS, PEI, and NB. Info about roads are quite accurate, but you usually cannot find the lakes/rivers on the maps. For example, when you drive along with the rivers/sea/lakes, the Navi shows the forests/lands next to you. When you go thru the normal road, the Navi shows you're driving on the bridge over the lake.




It's hard for me to "follow" its procedures to make voice command working. I probably need to spend more time to read the manuals. This system totally isn't friendly, at least to me.

 

When we took delivery and drove home I immediately noticed the map had been upgraded from my Magellon that was just over a year old. The exit we get off on had been totally rebuilt and made operational about a year ago. The Nav map was spot on with it.

Like any new device or version for instance of Windows, there is a learning curve. It's getting easier than at first as I'm starting to figure out their logic. Still some things I don't have quite perfect yet but getting there. It was a bit quirky at first.

How can I say it better? I love this car, I used to be in the business and this car excites me technically and with craftmanship more than any other I've owned. Lifetime count over 80 new and used. Some were just 90 day notes for private re-sale, but a lot of them I bought to drive.

Yes, I can Monday morning quarter back and say I like somethings better on my '03 RX like for instance the seats with individual arm rests and the 'stretch' pocket on the back. But all in all, this may become the car of the year to desire and yearn for.

 

Just checked mine, the Map Data is ver.08.1.

Menu on Navi -> Info/Phone -> Map Data

 

My maps seem fine. The commercials totally lie about the voice though. I have had 10 people try to say "Go Home", and 9 times it heard "Phone" instead.

 

fyi--bmw charges at list a couple of hundred for a new current disk

when I picked up my car last year--someone had switched the prior disk for my new disk. Caught it before leaving dealer.

 

That sounds the right number. A friend told me that Acura ever randomly selected customers and sent them the free disc.



I heard of that stealing things before...

 

A couple weeks further on, the Nav is really infuriating me. Street addresses that are 4 years old don't show up. My house number is 23 - and according to the nav, house #23 is a block away from where it says my house is (which shows up as house #6). Experimenting with POI's is useless as well - it tells me that the nearest gas station to my house is one that closed 3 years ago. We tried to use it to find a campsite that some friends were at out of town and even the LAKE that they were at wasn't in the database. The nav is weaksauce. My wife and I used to make fun of the MyGig navigation in my Jeep SRT8 - but we both agree that it's head and shoulders better than this system. I'm hoping that the dealer is going to provide us with a database upgrade for free when it comes out (because if there isn't a problem with my particular unit, the maps for my area are so inadequate that the feature is nearly moot), and that Lexus gets a software update for the entire system soon.

Don't get me started on the voice recognition system - it is without a doubt THE WORST I've ever used.

Does anyone know if there's a setting to change so you can keep the display screen on an audio screen rather than the map? Ours only stays on audio for a few seconds and then automatically returns to the map.

 

@skoobz: yes there's a setting for the display to stay in audio. In the nav setting, change the "Auto change display" to off.

for the nav voice, chnage the setting to off where it says "voice recognition guidance"

Don't have the car in front of me so I'm not sure of the correct verbage.

 

Cool, thanks!

 

Many GPS maps doesn't work good for Canada area. The new RX map is pretty much upto date for california.
voice recognition are all junk if there is no self learning system. I dont think lexus develop that software, they all bought commencial code. btw next time you could say "take me home" instead of "go home". car will realize it.

 

Last week we test drove a 2010 RX 350 with a nav system. The nav system, frankly, stinks.

We loved the nav system in our current RX 300. The new one has a terrible "voice", you have to set the voice "off" BEFORE you can drive (not during driving). There's no "set way point" option anymore. This is a huge step backwards.

The mouse hardware works fine, but the software is AWFUL!. This is a deal-breaker.

 

Hi everyone, this is my first post and this is an old thread, but I have to bring it up.

A couple of weeks ago a guy ran a red light hitting my car and it's a total loss, but I'm OK.

So I have been out test driving many cars. I am a real estate agent and a nav is important since I can go to 10 homes or more I have never been to a day. I live in Irvine, Ca and the population is 220,000 and Orange County is almost 4 million. There are many homes.

I test drove the RX 350 two times and planning on test driving it again today. I am sold on the RX, but today's test drive will be about using the nav.

The other times I had test driven the RX and the ES the salesman could not get the nav to understand voice commands. We both would tell it the state is California and it would ask us if we meant the District of Columbia. We would ask the nav a command and on many occasions it would say something that had nothing to do with our command.

I also test drove the BMW 5 series, X5, Audi Q5 and A6 and Mercedes ML 350. All of those nav's worked without a single problem. I was very impressed with the nav in the BMW 5 series. The sales guy called out at least 10 commands and the nav understood everyone.

I test drove the Hyundai Genesis and the Honda Accord and both has the same problem the Lexus has. Ask it something and it comes back with something completely different.

Both the Lexus and Hyundai salesman said they hadn't read the manual enough to know how to use it

Today I will test drive the RX 350 again, but this time I will ask for the person that knows how the nav works 100% because it could be a deal breaker.

I will let you know how my navigation test drive goes.

 

I hope you have good luck. It's a great car. As far a the NAV system goes, I love it but it's not been without a learning curve. Now that I'm understanding the built in logic (much different than my Magellan) it's performing very well. Another issue was telling it who to call etc and that again was mine. When you get it, you have to 'pair' it to your phone. Then each time you start it, it will connect with your phone and indicate 'successful' but you still have to push a button on the phone giving the phone permission to connect (at least on my phone). I kept forgetting that procedure and insulting the system with a barrage of 5 letter words beginning with 'b' and ending with 'h'. Anyway all is well now .

 

The issue that's been bugging me is that even at the most detailed zoom level, the Nav leaves off the names of many streets and cross streets on the map. Sometimes it seems like only every other street is actually labeled. Is this a setting?