dsc07

The new screen is AWESOME compared to the one in the LS430. I have noticed, however, that the system seems very slow to respond. For example, the double-bong you're supposed to get telling you it's time to turn, doesn't happen on mine until I'm already 3/4 of the way through the turn. On the old system, you used to get it about 50 feet before the intersection. Has anyone else experienced this?

Also, this map doesn't seem to recognize streets the old system did. The streets are there, mind you, the route determination just won't send you through them, when the 430 would. In fact, even when I am on the street and only need to turn left into the parking lot of my destination, the system wants to route me past the destination and circle around for about 2 miles to come in on it's route. The old system would re-route me and recognize that I had arrived. I checked the preference settings and none of them come into play, or make any difference regardless of how they are set.

So far, I have only used the guidance system going back and forth to work, in order to get the real-time traffic updates, but I'm curious to hear from those of you that have used it to go to unkown places. How has it performed? Does it give you adequate warning on upcoming turns?

luxury1

I use the navigation extensively. Almost every destination is foreign and I rely on it heavily. I did not notice the delay's. Compared to my old E class
navigation the LS460 is incredible. I have been extremely impressed.

dsc07

That's good news. I think I'll have to try re-calibrating mine this weekend and see if that helps.

exBMWowner

I'm finding the traffic data to be quite accurate. I can see exactly where I'm going to have a slow down on the freeway and it is accurate to within a few hundred feet.

Sometimes it will reroute me when it sees a lot of traffic on one freeway, and the alternate it chooses seems equally bad. You have to use your judgment whether to take the advice of rerouting you or just staying your course.

Today it told me to get off the 101 South and take the 110 South to the 405 South. I never tried that before but the 101 was a parking lot. The new route actually got me right home with hardly any traffic for a Friday afternoon. I was quite impressed. I've only been given really bad advice once or twice now, so overall I generally go with the recommendations when it reroutes me to avoid traffic.

I find it laughable when the traffic is moving 45-50mph and the system warns me "slow traffic ahead". In LA that is like having no traffic at all on the freeway.

encore888

^^^
Excellent news for us LA drivers! Of course I probably will have to wait until XM NavTraffic trickles down to the other Lexus models...

uthatch

Amen to that. If the nav saves 5 minutes of LA traffic, it's a godsend.

acecert

I wish I could vouch for the same, that is, that the nav traffic is accurate. I go to the gym at 4:30 a.m. and was on the 57 N to the 210 and the nav traffic said the 57 N and S was colored orange. There wasn't hardly anyone on either side of the freeway..it was clear. When I checked XM's site for nav traffic under the FAQ: Is it accurate? There was a fuzzy answer something to the effect that this technology has not been available before and as more cameras, etc. become available it will be more accurate. In short, my experience in the inland area has been it has been hit and miss with accuracy.

As a general comment of the nav comment, I've been overall impressed with the layout and the clarity (although I don't like some of the features that are greyed out when moving). What bothers me most about the system is the voice commands. They simply are not concise. For example, dialing a phone number by name you press the voice button, she says something to the effect of say a command, and if not in the phone menu, you have to first say "phone". Now,it would have been nice right there at that point to simply give you a beep to proceed after she would announce that she is in the phone menu. But, instead, you have to hit the voice button again, wait for her to say her announcement to please say a command. I usually hit the voice button in the middle of that statement to interrupt her and say "dial by name". Once again, you have to hit the voice button (instead of just having some kind of cue to continue) she says another announcement where I again hit the button to interrupt her and say the name I'm dialing. You hear your voice tag confirmation in your voice, then she comes on again to say either say dial or hit the off hook button. That process could be drastically shortened if a simple audible tone (I had this with my BMW) would alert you to continue and if you didn't know the command you could just say "help". I find the functions within the nav system such as the phone way to lengthy and time consuming to accomplish a simple task.

encore888

^^^
I agree with the shortening the commands bit, I just saw the demonstration for how to enter an Address by voice and it seems needlessly cumbersome...I wonder if there is a way to turn off the voice prompts?

mcalbala

I am finding the nav system great with one fairly minor annoyance. Apparently, it avoids the Garden State Parkway, or attempts to. I don't know if this is something inadvertantly turned on or some preferences somewhere in the system. There are no routes to be avoided listed in the car (I checked that)

Any help appreciated.

nblexus15

I thought I read in the manual that you can eliminate "her" speaking and simply say the commands after you hear the beep.

mdchachi

Go to the setup menu and turn off Voice Recognition Guidance if you want it to behave this way.

BTW, in the BMW do you have to press the button each time you want to talk?

mdchachi

Make sure all route preferences are turned on (allow freeways, allow time-limited roads, etc.) to be sure it's not due to one of those. They are accessible under the Route button when you have a destination set.

acecert

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that feature is for turning her voice off while she is giving directions, not for the prompts for accomplishing tasks such as making a phone call.

Regarding the 7 Series BMW question, you hit the button the steering wheel and he asked you to "say a command", you had to say (for instance) "phone" to get to the phone menu, then yes, you had to hit it again to say "dial number", he then said "say the number" (you then heard a beep to prompt you automatically unlike the Lexus where you have to hit that darn voice button each time), after saying the number, he would confirm it, then you heard a beep automatically, then you said dial. The main difference is that once in the menu that you need to be in, BMW walks you through it with automatic prompts and didn't keep repeating itself like the Lexus system does with it continually saying something like, "press the voice talk switch and say a command", "press the voice talk switch and say dail by name, dial by number", "press the talk switch and say the (name) (number)", the FINALLY, press the talk switch and say dial or press the off-hook switch". It's just way to cumbersome for a simiple task. If they had it automatically give you the beep and just provide a help menu only (in the BMW it was called "options") it would then list the available commands for where you were at in the menu choice. Much, much easier and for those of us who become familiar with the menu sequence, you could whip right through it without having to continually deal with your steering wheel voice switch that the Lexus requires you to do. This continually having to deal with the voice switch is particularly challenging because it's on the left underside of the steering wheel and if you are turning while she is prompting you can't get to it until you are finished turning. In short, the BMW had a more friendly voice user system while the Lexus system has the better resolution and touch-screen. The voice thing is a simple programming issue and can be updated...let's hope Lexus chooses to do this but they need to hear from you to consider it!

Helmar

No. If you issue a voice command, and it needs additional information, it will ask for it, and then "Beep" and wait for your answer.

The voice recognition system in the BMW is far more accurate than the one in my '03 LS430. The LS430 rarely understood what I was saying, while the BMW almost always does.

Have they improved the voice recognition in the LS460?

HBH

mdchachi

Thanks for the detailed response regarding the BMW system. In the Lexus system there is an option specifically for voice recognition guidance (as well as one for route directions). If you turn it off, it stops the prompt that happens between pressing the talk button and the beep. So rather than something like "[button]Say a command [beep]", it becomes "[button] [beep]". So I think it's similar to what you were asking for but you still have to press the button each time you want to talk. Give it a try and let us know.

I should hope so!