spec33

I use my NAV all the time and to this day it has put me at my distination exactly when it said that I would be there; give or take a minute. I have also notice that it changes with my speed and recalulates the time. If it is doing this and is accurate, why change the settings?

Iceman

When I was in Munich for the drivers trainng last wekend I put in my home address and the nav calculated 3.5 hours for me... It just took me 2.5...

Changing the settings...:

Example....

It is highway 130 Km/h, other roads outside citys/non-highways 80 Km/h and in citys 50 Km/h.

Now, let's say you average 150 Km/h on highways, 70 Km/h on other roads, and 30 Km/h inside the city, because you are in a big city with a lot of traffic, traffic lights, traffic jams and a lot of stop-and-go.

When you live (like I do) close to a highway entrance it could be better to calculate a route via highway, because you can't drive 50 Km/h in the city all the way, but you can go faster on the highway than the 130 Km/h your system is calculating for you.

Now, putting in a destination on the other side of the city, where you could use the highway... The system might still calculates a "faster" route through the city, because it says you are just making 130 Km/h on highways and 50 Km/h in the city... So the city route is fatser... But in fact it isn't... But your system finds out "WHILE" you are on route, and then it is too late.........

having teh option to switch the settings yourself would help those, who are living (like I do) in big citys and close to highways...

If you don't want to use it, you leave the factory settings... But it would improve the nav system...

spec33

You make a good argument. I guess we must agree to disagree. I think that based on past experience, BMW does not have a good track record on fixes. I say let them work on the more important thing first and then the lesser. Just my 2 euro cents.

Iceman

I agree...

BMW can only help us, if we let them know what we want.
I am pretty sure that other things ARE coming first, but maybe they've just never thought about it, so it won't hurt telling them...
That's why...

I have to say that it would nice to have this, but if not I can live without it, no doubt.
And while we are at it... I would love to have a rotor on the car... or at least some blue police lights... just kidding...

535D Sport

Surely once you have started your journey, the nav system will keep recalculating your ETA no matter what speed settings you have entered for different types of roads as it is updating your ETA throughout the journey.So what is the point of entering anything ?

Iceman

I'm not going to repeat it, read the above explanation.
Also the car will STILL calculate the rest of your journey with the speed from it's settings and NOT your actuall average. You can watch that the nav is correcting the ETA constantly. It knows and corrects the way behind you, you've allready traveled. For the way you still have to go it still uses the programmed average.
But as you can read above the ETA is not THE POINT. It is a possibly better/faster route, if you would enter your actuall averages, that you are able to do...

535D Sport

Iceman.....in your post you quote the above,in your reply to me you say,
Also the car will STILL calculate the rest of your journey with the speed from it's settings and NOT your actuall average,which is it ?Also if you choose the shortest route option how is this ETA calculated,by your speed or mileage for that journey ?

Iceman

OK, now I'm confused even myself a bit when reading it that way

Now,
when you start driving yo have an ETA.
If you drive, the way BEHIND you was averaged different than the average from the settings in the system, so it takes the actual speed/average into consideration on the ETA... for the way behind you!
The way in front of you will still be calculated with the settings in the system.

So I hope that explains it a little more (bringing those two quotes together).

The other thing...

When you put your destination in the nav it calculates a route, what the system thinks is the quickest (if you choose this option). But "quick" is relative. How does the system knows, what the quickest way is ? Because it knows the mileage and the roads you will use. So the system calculates with the average speed from it's settings, but they might be different to the actual speeds you can average. Where I live you can't average 50 Km/h. It'll be 30 Km/h if you're lucky. Most of the times even less! So a route using the highway (there is a close by entrance) and going around the city would be way quicker.
A little example...
There is that one place I have to go quite often. The "quickest route" would lead me through a hell of traffic jams and traffic lights. It takes me about 15 minutes. The highway would lead me there in just 12 minutes. If the system would just know, that I can average more on the highway and less in the city...
OK, for the example I know the way... But I don't know the way to some other destinations... and still want it to be the quickest...
And this example is for a pretty close destination. Other destinations are further away and so the time gap will become a little bigger. It gets bigger and bigger, the more your system wants to lead you through traffic where you can't average the speed the system uses in it's settings.

I hope this clears it up a bit...

Rudy

I got dizzy reading this entire thread so excuse me if this has already been mentioned:

In my experiences with both the E39 and D60 navs, sure the ETA eventually is right and gets more accurate toward the end of the journey.

The difficult part (and the part that I believe is trying to be solved here) is getting the ETA to be as accurate as possible at the beginning of the journey.

If I enter a destination far away that uses mostly highways but my recent average speed is slow due to city driving, the ETA is calculated by putting too much weight on my current average speed. There are times when I want to see how long it'll take me to get somewhere before I even decide to go. There's really no way to get an accurate answer to that question until you get up to speed.

Also, I've seen the ETA respond way too quickly to fluctuations in speed. Do some highway driving for a few hours then pull over for a few minutes but leave the engine running. The ETA will spike up pretty quickly as if your average speed is going to continue to be near zero. When you pull away, it takes a while for the ETA to readjust back to a reasonable ETA.

If preset "personal averages" were setup in the system, the ETA calculations could be weighted more heavily than the current average speed.

browellm

Iceman, sorry I've been away for a few days - looks like you are having a great time explaining the feature we would like

Rudy, this is not what I'm after!


1) The car revises it's ETA as you go along, dependent on speed - no problem, not an issue.

2) At the start of a journey the car uses it's hardcoded speeds for each type of road TO DETERMINE "THE QUICKEST ROUTE". If you were able to change these values then the Navgation system would potentially choose a different route based on the new rules that are set.

For example, in the UK, the A1 is really more like a motorway than an A road (in terms of average speeds), BUT I have no way of telling Nav that my A Road speeds are generally higher than the presets.

SO, as a consequence, the Nav calculates relatively few routes using the A1 (and other fast A roads I use).