Is the D3 a bad trip planner ?

[qcapson]

I was ready to buy the AVIC-D3 this week with Circuit City's free install. but after reading how piss poor the navigation is I have decided to wait. That and the fact that the Bluetooth Wireless adapter (CDBTB200) seems to be super picky on what phones it will sync with. I have a Helio Ocean, it's a newer phone that supports the latest bluetooth protocols will it work who knows? Navigation isn't a new technology you would think that if Pioneer had the foresight to add the Divx encoder they would have run some R&D on the navigation. It almost sounds like it's default setting is "Scenic Route".

[ike]

I was ready to buy the AVIC-D3 this week with Circuit City's free install. but after reading how piss poor the navigation is I have decided to wait. That and the fact that the Bluetooth Wireless adapter (CDBTB200) seems to be super picky on what phones it will sync with. I have a Helio Ocean, it's a newer phone that supports the latest bluetooth protocols will it work who knows? Navigation isn't a new technology you would think that if Pioneer had the foresight to add the Divx encoder they would have run some R&D on the navigation. It almost sounds like it's default setting is "Scenic Route".

 

Unfortunately, I have to agree with your decision. I'd happily pay a few more hundred $$ for a unit that has a useful Nav.

 

BTW - I plugged our North Carolina vacation spot into my handheld Garmin iQue M3 and it quickly plotted a route very similar to Yahoo and Google maps - 300 miles and 5 hours - as opposed to the D3's "Scenic" 400+ miles and 7+ hours.

[yatti]

After reading all this, I`m feel like a dumbass. I just had the D3 installed in my car yesterday. I solely purchased this unit for the dvd/navigation. I usually take trips and I didn`t want to keep relying on Google maps. I`m starting to think I should go out buy a Garmin now. Since someone stated that they give free updates thru their websites.

[steve310]

I live in CT and go to school in Rochester, NY about 400 miles away. I know the way well but figured it would be a good test for the D3. I plotted it in Yahoo maps, Google maps and on the AVIC. All 3 gave me the same route, although for some reason the mileage was slightly different between the 2 websites. I would compare it to the D3, but I can't figure out how to change the distance from an "as the crow flies" sort of distance. Can anyone help me out with that?

 

This is the first long route that I have planned and it worked perfectly. No complaints about the nav here (yet haha)

[ike]

I live in CT and go to school in Rochester, NY about 400 miles away. I know the way well but figured it would be a good test for the D3. I plotted it in Yahoo maps, Google maps and on the AVIC. All 3 gave me the same route, although for some reason the mileage was slightly different between the 2 websites. I would compare it to the D3, but I can't figure out how to change the distance from an "as the crow flies" sort of distance. Can anyone help me out with that?

 

This is the first long route that I have planned and it worked perfectly. No complaints about the nav here (yet haha)

 

Maybe it just screws up certain routes. BTW - I also plotted my Northern Virgina home to my Parents home in Pennsylvania. Yahoo, Google and the D3 were all within a few miles of each other and I actually liked the D3's route better !

 

But I don't understand these "as the crow flies" distance comments. When I routed the D3 from Northern Virginia to North Carolina, the FIRST distance it gave me was 400 miles. That's definitly NOT as the crow flies unless that Crow is drunk. The actual driving distance is only 300 miles if you don't take a ridiculous route.

[steve310]

It has the route on screen as a green path over the roads, but there is also a thinner red line that goes straight from my current location to my destination. Yesterday when I put in the route, I know the distance is about 400 miles, but it was telling me 260. Just by looking at it it looked like it was telling me the distance of the red line. I'm at work now, but I'll see if I can go out to my car and take some pics.

[ike]

It has the route on screen as a green path over the roads, but there is also a thinner red line that goes straight from my current location to my destination. Yesterday when I put in the route, I know the distance is about 400 miles, but it was telling me 260. Just by looking at it it looked like it was telling me the distance of the red line. I'm at work now, but I'll see if I can go out to my car and take some pics.

 

I do see the thin red line that keeps pointing towards the destination (kind've a nice feature). But I've not seen the D3 display a straight-line distance - because on my trip from Northern Virginia to North Carolina, the straight-line distance would have been under 300 miles and the D3 immediately showed just over 400 miles - just after calculating the route.

[steve310]

I took a picture. Google and the D3 have the same route, but the D3 says its about 120 miles shorter. I have a feeling I'm just looking at something wrong...

[etazeta956]

Guys I want to chime in on this. First off let me say that I travel quite a bit for work. I live in MS and often travel to LA, TN, and AL. For about 2 years I have owned a Garmin M5 which did an excellent job in terms of routing.

 

Here is what I have found with the D3. The first thing you need to do is set your average speeds. In the south there are many "major" roads that have speed limits of 55 mph, but they are 4 lane roads that you can easily do 65-70 mph on. I had to tell the D3 that. Freeway, put in what you really average. Don't tell it 90 mph because that is the fastest you go, tell it your average speed, for me, that's 75 mph.

 

Next thing is to go into route options and change from 1 route to mulitple. That way, when you route to your destination, it will give you usually about 6 routes to choose from. Now I will say that there is a glitch that I have found. I am planning a trip this weekend and planned it on Google, Mapquest, and Yahoo. They all returned the exact same route. My D3 is set to "fastest route". The D3 picked route number 1 as a very "out of the way" option. However, I went to route 2 and it was dead on with the 3 web-based options. Mileage, time, everything. It picked my best route as an option, but not as it's first option.

 

Bottom line - this unit is great. The routing can be fine if you know how to operate it as efficiently as possible. I would never jump in my car for a trip or vacation and rely solely on a radio/gps to get me where I am going. For short stuff, yes. But if I'm traveling any amount of real miles I am going to look at a couple of options first.

 

There's my review, for what it's worth.

[ike]

Here is what I have found with the D3. The first thing you need to do is set your average speeds. In the south there are many "major" roads that have speed limits of 55 mph, but they are 4 lane roads that you can easily do 65-70 mph on. I had to tell the D3 that. Freeway, put in what you really average. Don't tell it 90 mph because that is the fastest you go, tell it your average speed, for me, that's 75 mph.

 

I have no problem with the time estimates given by the D3. They are fine by me as default. My only concern is that it can't consistently find the shortest route.

 

Next thing is to go into route options and change from 1 route to mulitple. That way, when you route to your destination, it will give you usually about 6 routes to choose from. Now I will say that there is a glitch that I have found. I am planning a trip this weekend and planned it on Google, Mapquest, and Yahoo. They all returned the exact same route. My D3 is set to "fastest route". The D3 picked route number 1 as a very "out of the way" option. However, I went to route 2 and it was dead on with the 3 web-based options. Mileage, time, everything. It picked my best route as an option, but not as it's first option.

 

That's an odd glitch - and I'll guess that it happens both on fastest or shortest route. If the D3 can find 6 routes, why can't it pick the shortest of the 6 as it's first choice ?

 

Bottom line - this unit is great. The routing can be fine if you know how to operate it as efficiently as possible. I would never jump in my car for a trip or vacation and rely solely on a radio/gps to get me where I am going. For short stuff, yes. But if I'm traveling any amount of real miles I am going to look at a couple of options first.

 

I agree that on a long trip, I wouldn't rely on it or any other nav solely. But I was still pretty shocked that it put me on a route that was 100 miles longer than necessary on a trip that's only 300 miles.

[ike]

I just tested the multiple (6) route option with my Northern Virginia -> North Carolina route. I looked at every one of these 6 routes and every one of them completely avoided the most obvious short route as shown in the picture I attached from Yahoo! maps. I tried shortest and fastest route. Same results.

 

So for whatever reason, the D3 will not take the shortest route on this particular trip. It just refuses to go down route 64 - the very obvious straight line between my two travel points.

[pivert]

I live in Denmark, and have had the unit installed for about a month. I've overall been happy with the navigation. Sometimes it seems to pick a strange route, but i just choose another route and then it's fine. I like the straight line feature, as it gives you a good idea of how good the current route is. The iPod integration is very good, although it has a few tiny glitches that i definitely can live with. The TMC feature also seems to work very nice. The Bluetooth is both a blessing and a curse i think. It has extensive features, but it's very picky about the phones. I have tried a Nokia 6300 and 6230i and it couldn't read any of the phones phonebook. However, the automatic connection whenever i get into the car is priceless imho. It's even setup in a way so if both me and the mrs. is in the car it picks my phone as it's my car, but if she drives alone it connects to her phone automatically. neat. Overall thumbs up, i would recommend it.

BTW sometimes it can take some time for it to find sattelites around two-three minutes - does anyone else experience this? i don't find it a problem, but the mrs. is a bit impatient...

[etazeta956]

The average speed is more valuable than we realize. It isn't just for time estimates - it's where the D3 gets it variables from for the math problem.

 

Typically (where I am anyway), the interstate is an out of the way trip. Well guess were my avaerage speed is set the fastest on the D3?

[ike]

The average speed is more valuable than we realize. It isn't just for time estimates - it's where the D3 gets it variables from for the math problem.

 

Typically (where I am anyway), the interstate is an out of the way trip. Well guess were my avaerage speed is set the fastest on the D3?

 

Regardless - on my trip from Northern VA to North Carolina, the D3 put me on a course that was over 400 miles and over 7 hours by it's own calculation. Every one of it's 6 routes took pretty much the same distance and time.

 

HOWEVER, when I finally forced the D3 to use the route I thought was better, it - by it's own calculation - came up with about 300 miles and 5 hours. It did this without me changing anything in the average speeds for certain roads.

 

So, I don't see what difference it would make to change the. average speeds of any road type. The D3 is calculating the distances and times correctly - for me anyway. It's only problem is that it cannot find the shortest or fastest route for some reason.

[rising_suns]

I regret buying my D3 because the navigation routing is as people describe; terrible. If I could do it again, I'd say go with the Kenwood (Garmin) unit.

 

You would think for $1,000 you would get the best features. But the D3 doesn't even have text-to-speech. And there is sometimes a terrible lag in the satellite reception; to the point that it tells me to turn as I am passing the road. Absolutely worthless.

 

The only thing that the nav is good for is for visual reference of where you are on your trip. The points of interest database can be useful too. But if it cannot get you to your desitination properly and quickly, then what is the point. Stick with Yahoo maps.