porsche9xx

When I met with some execs at a large cell phone manufacturer I asked them how is it that they cant offer or work closely with car manufacturers to offer the top of the line cell phone level navigation with car makers. The exec said that they tried but that the car makers have such stringent rules related to testing and safety that no matter what they do the technology they provide is outdated before the car is launched.

I think the best solution would be for a company like Porsche to have a screen that can mirror you cell phone so that we can plug our phones in and use whatever the latest app is on our nice built in screen. Tesla is on the right track with their large connected screen but they haven't yet allowed screen mirroring.

Just J

Sort of like this (well, it's a start). Sadly, Porsche is not among the car manufacturers listed at the bottom of the page. But Audi is, so maybe the rest of the VW Auto Group will follow.

Noah Fect

Same BS that the mobile telcos used to live by, in other words. They can always rattle off a thousand reasons why it's impossible to do the obvious right thing.

Industries like this are utterly intractable unless you have the negotiating powers of Yoda, Gandalf, or Steve Jobs.

StudGarden

Vehicle nav is almost obsolete as soon as it comes out. Why the market continues to reward that worthless "feature" with multi thousand dollar premiums is beyond me. I would never spec a car with one.

If they really wanted a useable option they'd open source their menu controls/touch screens and let third party app developers create vastly superior interfaces for tenths of pennies on the dollar.

Though it seems people will buy any option, and dealers will spam their builds with worthless junk anyway (then wonder why they're sitting on 2 year old new inventory lol). I'm suprised they don't offer rear seat entertainment in the 911 yet.

Ezkill

I agree with your assessment StudGarden. However, I sometimes spec a vehicle with it because the console area just looks cheap or plain without it. Kind of a stupid reason to spend on an option I'll never use but at the end of the day it will just bug the ever living hell out of me looking at the plain console. I'm not sure if I'd feel that way about the Porsche layout but in some other vehicles I ended up buying it just to improve the look. Some other manufacturers force you to take it just to get bluetooth integration in the vehicle. That's another issue but the long and short of it is most vehicles I own have nav for one reason or another. I'm sure the marketing folks realize that nav is somewhat worthless and look for ways to bundle it with more desirable features. I don't expect this to change anytime soon since every vehicle I own still has CD/DVD player...something I haven't had in my house in a good 10+ years.

Cheekymonkeyman

I'm struggling to understand this thread. I use the sat nav frequently here in the UK and find it easy and accurate. My wife's vw unit by comparison (and the bmw unit before it) were unfathomable...
So is this down to my 'tolerance' or is the UK system better???
P.s. I keep noticing the cd slot and thinking I will need to feed it one day.... When I find a silver disc and want to show my daughter 'how we used to live'

LexVan

Has anyone with a 2012.5 or 2013 done map updates yet?

I wonder when map updates for model year 2014 cars will become available?

Ezkill

I don't know if the UK system is any better and I don't think you're missing anything. I find the nav in the Porsches to be fine. Problem is my smartphone has way better nav, with accurate live traffic. Since I always have a phone and I pay for a plan having a slightly less useful and accurate navigation system in a vehicle is redundant.

That CD slot in your car can be filled with a really nice, no jiggle, smartphone holder

Vetsky

For traffic, does anyone use the XM traffic services?

Jerry991

I heard that map updates are stupid expensive but maybe I'm wrong.

LexVan

I'm thinking $300ish?? Does it require a dealer to install??

clangpap

I used it in mainland Europe and the Pacific NW/BC coastal regions. Drives me right to the door every time, including obscure addresses in historic areas of cities in Italy and France. Maybe you and I just have lower standards of expectation when it comes to navigation. I've never experienced Waze.

maxpowers

The problem is that the nav only searches like 5 miles from your location. Anything more than that you'd better know the zip code.

You would think that after 5 minutes of testing the system this situation would come up and the user would say "I'm looking for XYZ restaurant" that is a 15 minute drive away and it's not coming up when I search by name under POI". This is one of the primary uses of the system, so how this could not work right is a mystery to me. The information about it is in the system, so it would be a simple programming fix.

My parents 2005 Lexus lets you search by name under POI and you can see all the places with that name in increasing distance from your location. Why can't my 2014 Porsche 911?

Just J

Can't speak for Porsche yet, by my BMW map update came on a USB flash drive that I plugged into the car's USB port.

freeman

In the first month of ownership, my nav took me 10 miles in the opposite direction from a restaurant in Orlando that was in the POI.

To this day it takes me within 100 yards of my house and tells me it is on the left when I built it on the right side of the street 30 years ago. Did I build it on the wrong side? Should I move the house?

When was the last update for the 2013 991 nav? What is the current # of the nav?