'10 Navigation Issues

[TheNeuf]

First off, hello! We picked up our 2010 x35d about two weeks ago for my wife because of our recent move to CO. I've driven everything from Fords (Explorer, Expedition) to Nissans (Altima) to Toyotas (Sienna) to Mercedes (GL450, S63), to Audis (Q7, S5) to Jaguar (XF Supercharged), and this X5 is one of the most fun cars I've ever driven. BMW has acquired a fan for sure, and I will definitely consider another when I'm ready to give up my S5 in a few years.

The question I had was if anyone has run into strange navigation calculation and timing issues. I've had nav units of all kinds for the better part of a decade. I'm used to the quirks and issues you run into, such as them taking you a little out of the way at times. However, the navigation in our X5 offers a whole new level of craziness. I've tried messing with the settings (efficient vs. fast vs. short), and nothing seems to help.

First, it takes you on wild good chases in terms of directions. We live in a suburb of Denver, and the roads are not that crazy here. It consistently takes us on routes that are easily 50% longer then necessary, and refuses to "give in" when we try to go our own way until the very last minute.

Second, the calculation for arrival time is completely off. What will take us 20 minutes, the car thinks will take an hour. Sometimes this is due to it trying to take us in roundabout routes, but other times, even when following the directions to a T, it's still completely off. Again, I understand if there's some traffic up ahead it thinks we'll run into, but this is every single time. For example, last night we were heading home, and had 4.9 miles to go. We followed the directions exactly (as there was no other way to go), and it thought these five miles would take us 24 minutes. Of course, it took closer to eight minutes or so.

Our clock is set correctly. I mentioned that I've tried changing the nav and route preferences. Is this normal? Is there some place to update the speeds that it thinks we'll be traveling (maybe it thinks we have to go 25mph on all non-freeway roads?)? I may ask the dealer about it next time we have to take it in, but it's such a weird problem I thought I'd ask if anyone has heard of anything similar before.

Thanks, and also thanks for all the previous threads and posts. They've been a wealth of info!

[Diesel Guy]

Do you have "Dynamic Guidance" checked on your navigation preferences ? There are some settings that you should look at in the manual or on the iDrive nav setup screen. I had similar issues when I first took delivery..once I read the manual, it is much easier to understand.

[TheNeuf]

I've tried turning that both on and off. If I remember, is dynamic guidance the option that routes you around traffic automatically?

Plus, I don't think that would account for the wacky arrival time info when there was only five miles to go.

[Armand]

Congrats on the new x5. I once had the nav take traffic detours and after a couple of crazy detours I turned off the feature and found out that the locations it thought were congested were actually clear. I don't know if there is a default setting for that. Perhaps it is trying to avoid imaginary traffic congestions in your case?? The other thing I can think of is perhaps the map does not have all the roads in your area. Can you see the routes it is not following when guidance is off?

[London Lad]

Try entering the destination using the 'cross hairs' on the map and see if it calculates the route differently.

[TheNeuf]

Cool. I'll double check that dynamic guidance is off.

As for the roads existing, it definitely sees them. It tells me to make u-turns on them every half mile or so I don't mind the occasional longer drive as long as it gets me there. The weirdest thing is the time calculation.

I'll try using the crosshairs to set the destination and see if that helps.

Otherwise, it's a cool car. I'm only jealous that my wife drives it more than I do.

[gianteli]

This is what happened when they switched from navteq maps to teleatlas...they had to write new routing algorithms.

[ard]

Originally Posted by gianteli

This is what happened when they switched from navteq maps to teleatlas...they had to write new routing algorithms.

Something is up...I've seen issues on occasion.

It is as if the 'data' associated with a road has it not being 'connected'... the system will not route you through that impasse until you actually cross it. The roads are there, and look contiguous. But up until you cross that 'block', it keeps routing you in strange ways...

Although I've also seen weird things when you have 'avoid highways' selected.

I really like navteq and dislike teleatlas, in terms of their dataset.

[Boosh]

Same problems here, previous nav system on my 5 series was accurate as far as time of arrival and chose appropriate route. Current system chooses roundabout routes which make absolutely no sense. Even when the route is correct, time of arrival is always 10-20 minutes more than it really is without any traffic detected. Have tried changing route prefs, dynamic guidance...

[TheNeuf]

Interesting. I haven't been able to find a fix over the last few days unfortunately.