Hi All,

We just took delivery of a 2013 RX 350. This is our first car with built in navigation.
My issue is with the accuracy of the directions....for instance...The "lady" tells us we are
at our destination when we are actually a block away. Our old Garmin would direct us right
to our driveway. Is this just the way it is or does our nav have to be adjusted/calibrated
somehow?

Thanks in advance for any information and/or suggestions.

Everett

 

Need to read the book on it . The system will tell you are there so you could start to look for a place to park. I do not care for that myself but you get used to it . I always check my route just to make sure she dose not send my off the long way to get there . Read all the books that came with your new car and enjoy it

 

Everett, congrats on your new RX and welcome to the forum.

Assuming you have good GPS reception, are not blocking it someway with a roof carrier, bike on the top, etc., my experience is you should have closer accuracy than 1 block away with something like an individual home (not a condo complex) in an established neighborhood. My experience is the Nav is within a driveway or so of the right place in my neighborhood... The manual says it can be normal to be off by as much as 300 feet, and there are a boatload of things it describes on one of the pages of things that can cause inaccuracies... Besides the previous recommendation to make your way through the manuals and all that detail when you can, here's a couple thoughts...

-- Nav calibration is only needed when you change tires, e.g. 18s to 19s or something like that. The process is in that infamous Nav Manual, but basically, turn your truck on (this option will not show up in accessory mode), using your controller, press Menu, go to Setup, then Navigation, and you'll see an option in that list for calibration. Basically, you tell it to do it, then drive around the block or so and it will reset itself automagically. It can't hurt for you to try that.

-- The other thing is, do some more isolation if you have a real problem or not with the Nav... E.g. be sure you are putting in a complete address and not doing something by intersections or whatever that can be problematic for most GPS. Are ALL addresses you put in off by a whole block, or only certain ones? Is there some pattern to that? I say that, because the technology used in my iPad is consistently off when using even google maps to locate my home, pointing to my neighbors house for example, and I have a friend where the same sort of thing happens with his android phone that is always off by a house or two in his and my neighborhood at least.

Give those things a go and well try to help further.

 

Thanks Bert. I will try recalibration as you suggest. Admittedly we've only used it a couple of times.
The other odd thing it did was tell us to "make a legal u turn" when we were almost at the destination
and a u turn would have taken us away from the destination!

Thanks again. I hope the nav isn't this incorrect very often!

Everett

 

Recalibrate it ... plus a good test is to just drive through some major intersections in your area and have a route which requires a turn. You will get distance to intersection updates and look at them for accuracy. If they are not right, you have a problem. I have found the accuracy good in my RX.

One thing I am amazed by is just how good free NAV has become when compared to the Lexus system. Google NAV on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phone is pretty amazing ... in many ways it is better than the Lexus system.

 

Thank you UCSB. Yes, our 5 year old inexpensive mobile Garmin unit seems much more
accurate than the one in our brand new Lexus. That is disappointing as I thought Lexus would
have a first rate nav system.

 

My systems are much older, and I have noticed that the "you have arrived at your destination" is voiced a bit early all the time, but when crossing a visible landmark, the nav system looks to be accurate to within a foot or so. I think the destination arrival note is like the needle on the gas gauge.

 

I have compared several Captive GPS/Nav system with differing Garmin models and the Garmins ALWAYS came out on top. I have found that the Garmin will almost always find the shortest route whereas the captive systems in my Lexii will only find those routings as I drive along following Garmin.

So I simply remove the DVD from the captive system(*) and use the Garmin. Which, by the way, comes with lifetime map updates whereas Lexus wants $250 for a map update.

* Elminates the "I agree" crap and the (possible) distraction of the moving map DEFAULT display.

 

As long as there is a "sucker born every minute" Lexus does not need a system competitive with the Garmin.

At least we no longer need to visit Car Toys to get a decent sound system in a $50-70,000 Lexus.

Progress.

But the climate control systems could certainly use a LOT of tinkering.