Confusing BMW navigation "improvements"
 

I generally really like what they have done with iDrive and nav on my 2011 X5, compared to my old 2007 X5. Notably, I can now search for businesses without having to drill down to a very specific category (which was a really stupid requirement)! :thumbup:

However, looks like they simply moved their stupidity to regular road searches! In older nav version, I could simply choose a street name, and then the house number. Now, most of the time, I have to choose a street name along with A SPECIFIC NEIGHBORHOOD AREA, then the house number. Problem is, most of the time I don't know what neighborhood area
my destination is in. Very stupid.

The other annoying thing is that the turn-by-turn voice direction is now unnecessarily way too chatty. For example, in freeways, every time I approach an exit that's not my target exit, it does this:
"Prepare to keep left, and continue on blabla..."
A few seconds later: "Now keep left."

Imagine traveling 100 miles on interstate, it would say the above 90+ times :dunno::yikes: Yes I know about "Dynamic driving guidance" option, which actually resulted in turning off some helpful directions.

Does anyone also feel that the voice is now too "muddy" when driving at high speed? I like the older voice better. I could hear it much clearer than the new one.

I like it just the way it is... There are times when left or right lane on a highway suddenly becomes an exit only lane, so giving you an advance instructions to steer clear of that side of the road is a good idea.

Just like you mentioned, I've hated the previous version on my 2008. The new generation is big leap, it is actually quite useful... Re specific areas, I agree it is a bit confusing, but I got used to it, and it can be avoided by always asking for and entering zip code!

I'm still getting used to it, but..

I would agree that this section is VERY confusing - it looks like filling out a form or something. However - and maybe it's just my area - I don't have to fill out a neighborhood or any such thing. So far, it's worked very well with just a street, city and a house number. I'll have a closer look next time I'm entering an address (now that you mention it).

I don't use the voice guidance at all. I think I listened to it for all of 10 seconds (no exaggeration). I didn't use it in my Lexus either, though, where, incidentally, it was perfectly fine - I'll give the BMW another chance there.

I use only the "visual" guidance, although this was another VERY big reason I added the HUD option, which I LOVE. It isn't just that I get to see my speed, but directions are in that charming "European" style, which I find much more useful.

It SEEMS to handle lanes (Lexus still doesn't), although that may be an odd coincidence that it says there are three or four lanes and there actually are (it could depend on the type of road). It does an EXCELLENT job with "complex" turnoffs, ramps, traffic circles, etc. The TeleAtlas data seems weak on POIs, but it seems dead on when it comes to where everything is.

If it will actually SHOW me turn-by-turn directions, I haven't figured out how to do it yet - I've been too busy actually driving it (1050 miles in 2.5 weeks now) but that was always a nice thing with the Lexus.

I primarily use my NAV for time and distance, and turn-by-turn directions if I need to go somewhere I'm unfamiliar, even in my own town. Now, this is another "comparison" - the Lexus "time to destination" was very good. The BMW is, for whatever reason, completely unrealistic. For example, if I punch in the office, it says I will arrive in like 50 minutes, even though it's 30 minutes without traffic. I don't know what it's algorithm is - distance, type of road, current speed, traffic maybe? No clue, but it always GROSSLY overestimates the time required, although it gets much, MUCH better the closer I get, but that's a lot less helpful. The Lexus was generally correct with "time to destination," although it's assumptions were very simple, i.e. "local road = 45mph, highway = 55mph, interstate = 65mph" (and I could SET these speeds).

I don't suppose anyone knows where this fancy, sexy NAV system I have now makes these calculations?

Oh, I will vouch for the traffic info, however. Yesterday it showed a nasty red line along my destination and kept trying to reroute me. I knew what it was trying to tell me, but frankly I thought it was full of crap. Sure enough - both lanes blocked, nasty wreck. I really never thought it would be USEFUL, but since it comes free with the feature, I thought I'd try it, and that's twice now it was spot on for traffic problems.

I know some people really hate it, although I've noticed that this is not unusual - most people feel that an inexpensive consumer unit is far superior to their very expensive, integrated NAV. So far, however, I'm actually very impressed with it. It's not PERFECT..

- POI data could be more extensive
- address entry could be easier (NO arguing with you there!)
- it seems a bit slow for a hard drive-based system
- why on earth does it take it a minute to start up? it's not even consistent about it!
- either I need to learn about "trips" or it's route management is inadequate

Example.. Enter three destinations, and put them in the correct order. Go to destination one, park, etc. Fire it back up, go to destination two (sometimes I have to tell it), park, etc. Fire it back up for a short trip, but I cannot SUSPEND it - I either have to say "resume guidance" or give it up, i.e. I can't "break" my trip and resume later. I very frequently set up all my destinations for the day (or so) when I leave the house, so this is really kind of annoying. I guess I have more reading to do..

when setting up multi-destination trips, you can "save" them once you entered your points. Then you can recall a trip from a list of saved trips and resume it from any point.

So aggravated with this "category" thing every time I need to search for something. The other thing that pisses me off is you need to be extremely accurate with towns too if you want to find a specific number there... like East (Town Name) matters. It needs fuzzy search ability. Drilling down sucks... and I can only imagine it's done to save time... let it take longer for all I care, just find it.