Right navigation is for places you don't know about. Pioneer AVIC uses navtec right, or teleatlas something like that? Whatever it is I believe it's the same thing mapquest uses. When I put directions into http://www.mapquest.com they give me the correct route, but they always for some reason take me a long route to my destination where I could have taken a short cut and gotten then in a short amount of time. So it's probaly the same with the z1, but the z1 will learn your shortcuts and apply them to your routes next time. God Bless.

Ironically mine kept trying to get me to go to the Interstate which was about 1 mile longer for the trip (5 miles total) and the navtraffic unit thought it was congested too...

JasonH said:

I agree with the navigation. When I hit the go to school button, my D1 wants to go down a major street with stop lights every block instead of driving a extra few miles and getting on the interstate. it does however get the correct route if I hit the next button and go to route #2.
However, Car Navigation in general is a very new concept, we are the "early adopters" and have to adjust our criticism accordingly. New concepts are never perfect.

The speedometer error, I believe was caused by poor installation. They could have a bad connection on the wire, there could be noise or interference somehow leaking into the wire, but from my experience with places like Best Buy, they just cut the wire, wrap the 2, or 3 together, and tape it. This causes a bad connection and could very well lead to your inaccurate speedometer.

HeavenSoldier - avic uses teleatlas, mapquest and all the other map sites use a mix between the two, some states teleatlas some cities maybe navteq, all mixed up.

Mchance, I read in the other thread where you were complaining about the avic always using US 1. The same thing happens to me, it seems to think that taking us 1 300 miles south to key west is a suitable alternative to 95 or the turnpike. Any time I head south it wants to take me to US 1 instead of 95. This morning I noticed that it didnt have the "new" bridge that connects palm beach airport to 95, and the way it wanted to take was slower than the temporary method they used for 3 or 4 years.
Now, I live a few miles east of 95, and 95 does that crazy jog to the west just south of me so in a perfect world US 1 would be faster/shorter aside from the fact you will have to stop at hundreds of traffic lights and drive at 1/2 to 1/4 the speed.

I understand what its trying to do though, and this thing does learn the routes you like to take. I guess the question is, when you actually need it, will it take you on a route thats way out of the way.

When I actually needed it it did route me incorrectly. And not because it 'learned' a bad route from me. You can't even select the proper route on I95, all the choices have at least some US1, which is totally wrong.
I returned the unit earlier today and will be using with my Magellan 700 which uses a different and more reliable nav data set and superior, in my opinion, algorithms.

Anonymous said:

Mchance, I read in the other thread where you were complaining about the avic always using US 1. The same thing happens to me, it seems to think that taking us 1 300 miles south to key west is a suitable alternative to 95 or the turnpike. Any time I head south it wants to take me to US 1 instead of 95. This morning I noticed that it didnt have the "new" bridge that connects palm beach airport to 95, and the way it wanted to take was slower than the temporary method they used for 3 or 4 years.
Now, I live a few miles east of 95, and 95 does that crazy jog to the west just south of me so in a perfect world US 1 would be faster/shorter aside from the fact you will have to stop at hundreds of traffic lights and drive at 1/2 to 1/4 the speed.

I understand what its trying to do though, and this thing does learn the routes you like to take. I guess the question is, when you actually need it, will it take you on a route thats way out of the way.

There is no recall. Just another one of those internet rumors.

NYRngrs24 said:

HeavenSoldier -

i heard about the recall you mentioned. I read it in some car audio forum, I dont know what the recall is about, but i heard about a recall too.

I have Z1 for 2 week and can say navigation part is useless. Maps are outdated. Rouitung just ridiculous. I have tomtom 5 instaled on my DELL x50, pioneer is not even close. I used to have many navigation units with
different software, AVIC has worse routing I have ever seen.

Sucks that you had such a bad experience. I've had quite the opposite experience, the Z1 has the best routing I've seen and hasn't steered me wrong yet.

Hey Guys,

I got the first Z1 in LA and posted the "Welcome to the Future" post on CNET. Now that my orgasmic introduction has subsided, here are my thoughts on it after having it for 2 months.

Having to burn regular CD's is one of the more stupid things Pioneer could have done.

Not reading ID3 tags and relying solely on CDDB pisses me off to now end when loading these cd's, because you have to type manually each track artist/title. Now I just put one artist per CD to save type time. However, the compression isn't really noticable. I can only assume a dog wrote the CNET post about how 'awful' the compression is, because human ears don't notice it. Feel free to tell me which song has the most noticable compression and I'll test it.

For the cost of this unit, I could have purchased a Macbook Pro.

The Map features are 96% accurate. However, on my first big road trip, the Nav unit didn't realize that some nimrod in Nevada decided to tear up an interstate (215) and the Z1 got completely screwed up. It did, however, bypass me around some gnarly jams prior to that major screwup.

Hey pioneer, here's an idea. When you realize that some roads no longer exist, how about putting out an update.

XM works great - would be nice if you have more than 6 preset channels per band.

Nav Traffic works ok.

I really hate the Hard Drive limitations.

I have also seen a few routing issues compared to other navigation systems that I have used. TomTom has been the best so far in my opinion however none of the systems I have used were perfect either. With the Z1, routing issues near my home are not really a big deal to me. I simply drive the route that I know and eventually the system will adjust. The learning mode has even adjusted to my daily commute route. As for areas that I am not familiar with, at least I can be pretty confident that I will get there. The maps seem to be pretty accurate. At least here in Tampa they do. Even the POI database has the new address for one of my favorite restaurants that moved only about a year ago.

I do not use the hard drive at all for music. My entire music collection travels with me on a 60gb Ipod. As others have stated the Ipod adapter is slow but it is nothing I can't live with. I generally search in such a manner to limit my scrolling. For example I search by genre first as opposed to going directly to artists or album search. And of course playlists can help a lot.

Like others have stated I hope that Pioneer does provide updates to this unit for both the navigation database and the unit itself.

Anonymous said:

I have also seen a few routing issues compared to other navigation systems that I have used. TomTom has been the best so far in my opinion however none of the systems I have used were perfect either. With the Z1, routing issues near my home are not really a big deal to me. I simply drive the route that I know and eventually the system will adjust. The learning mode has even adjusted to my daily commute route. As for areas that I am not familiar with, at least I can be pretty confident that I will get there. The maps seem to be pretty accurate. At least here in Tampa they do. Even the POI database has the new address for one of my favorite restaurants that moved only about a year ago.

I do not use the hard drive at all for music. My entire music collection travels with me on a 60gb Ipod. As others have stated the Ipod adapter is slow but it is nothing I can't live with. I generally search in such a manner to limit my scrolling. For example I search by genre first as opposed to going directly to artists or album search. And of course playlists can help a lot.

Like others have stated I hope that Pioneer does provide updates to this unit for both the navigation database and the unit itself.

This was my post.... I forgot to log in!

Yea I gotta be honest the routing on this unit is pretty bad. It wants to route me about four miles out of the way to go to one of my favorite eateries. On another trip it insisted my destination was three blocks away from its actual location. And on another trip it wanted me to drive through a gated community.

Well I didn't buy it for the navigation -- so this is mostly an irritation rather than a critical problem. Still Pioneer needs to fix this thing.

rontbeamer said:

Yea I gotta be honest the routing on this unit is pretty bad. It wants to route me about four miles out of the way to go to one of my favorite eateries. On another trip it insisted my destination was three blocks away from its actual location. And on another trip it wanted me to drive through a gated community.

Well I didn't buy it for the navigation -- so this is mostly an irritation rather than a critical problem. Still Pioneer needs to fix this thing.

Well the main reason I'm getting it is because of the navigation, so they need to fix this. Anyone call them and ask them when a update is coming out soon? I'm getting it probaly at the end of fall, so a update should be out by then.

I am in Chicago area. Every other route is wrong. Most of the POI shows on wrong side of the street.. Short route is never really short. Sometimes navigation just takes you off major road and then in a few blocks returns you back. Estimated time of arrival usually is way off reality. Especially I like when 0.5 miles ETA is about 5-7 minutes. TomTom does not have any of these problems

I think there is a problem with some of the units concerning the software.I had the same problem on my first unit with the ridiculous routing schemes,The unit was replaced and the routing is a whole lot better now.

Did you have your unit replaced through pioneer or through the store you purchased it from? I am getting pretty fed up with the routing on mine. I drove down to Key West this weekend and it tried to send me 300 miles down surface streets instead of driving 5 miles west to I-95. I put in a waypoint at the nearest i-95 onramp and it sent me 20 - 30 minutes north to get on 95. This has been a constant problem, it wants to use us-1 for everything.
I think either it has some kind of incorrect data about US-1, maybe the speed limit or the number of intersections. It is the straightest line between most places on the east coast of florida so I can understand it showing up if you search for the shortest route but it is insane that it shows up in the fastest route.

I had it replaced by the tweeter store last week.

solrackm said:

I think there is a problem with some of the units concerning the software.I had the same problem on my first unit with the ridiculous routing schemes,The unit was replaced and the routing is a whole lot better now.

Did your routing problem really seem to go away after you got your unit replaced? I was testing the routing driving around my area for like 4 hours today and found the routing to be pitiful... This is the 3rd gps I've owned and I've never had any units that had me scratching my head like this one. It seems to miss obvious exits, and had me driving in circles. The estimated time is invariably overstated, even when I select fastest route and adjust the road speed settings (like 55 mph for small roads, 65mph for ordinary roads, and 90mph for freeways!!!!). It does seem to "adjust" to the time of arrival as you get close to the destination...but that kind of defeats the point doesn't it? I had the unit professionally installed by a very experienced installer. The antenna is mounted right on the front windshield. For the 3000 grand I paid to get this in my car, I expected a lot better performance than this!!!! Should I go back to my installer and ask for another one? I would love for that to fix this problem!!! I would appreciate any insight.

To exchange for another one will be your best bet.

p.s. my routing problem did go away.

It can take up to 500 miles for the 3D hybrid to calibrate. The eta became much more accurate after it did

Anonymous said:

solrackm said:

I think there is a problem with some of the units concerning the software.I had the same problem on my first unit with the ridiculous routing schemes,The unit was replaced and the routing is a whole lot better now.

Did your routing problem really seem to go away after you got your unit replaced? I was testing the routing driving around my area for like 4 hours today and found the routing to be pitiful... This is the 3rd gps I've owned and I've never had any units that had me scratching my head like this one. It seems to miss obvious exits, and had me driving in circles. The estimated time is invariably overstated, even when I select fastest route and adjust the road speed settings (like 55 mph for small roads, 65mph for ordinary roads, and 90mph for freeways!!!!). It does seem to "adjust" to the time of arrival as you get close to the destination...but that kind of defeats the point doesn't it? I had the unit professionally installed by a very experienced installer. The antenna is mounted right on the front windshield. For the 3000 grand I paid to get this in my car, I expected a lot better performance than this!!!! Should I go back to my installer and ask for another one? I would love for that to fix this problem!!! I would appreciate any insight.

It can take up to 500 miles for the 3D hybrid to calibrate. The eta became much more accurate after it did

After more then 1000 miles, I see no improvements.

murzik said:

It can take up to 500 miles for the 3D hybrid to calibrate. The eta became much more accurate after it did

After more then 1000 miles, I see no improvements.

I'm genuinely curious as to why so many are having routing issues...I realize I sound like a fan-boy but I honestly have had zero problems with this unit. Perhaps that I live in a major city helps but I've read about people in chicago having problems as well. Are all of you tapping your VSS wires as well? I drove from my door step in Virginia to my cousins doorstep in Toronto Canada without one wrong turn...

However hearing so many having routing problems, even in big cities like Chicago makes me wonder if there is something we are doing differently? I've never seen such mixed reviews on a product...people seem to either love the routing on this or hate it. It's been dead-on for me however.

Of course, VSS wire is connected, Vehicle Dynamics display works well. However, you might not have problem with route from Virginia to Toronto Canada because there is not many option I guess only few highways, But in big city it is more complicated. In addition, I don’t see unit to be really learning, because every day I use one route from my work to my home. and every day navigation gives me route at least 6-7 miles longer then I use with shortest time at least 15 minutes more then I get with my own route and all off this happens on 12 miles – 30 minutes way.
I will try to exchange my unit, but I not sure this will help, it look to me like maps it self are not good, may be with wrong speed limits posted. Problems with POI are definitely maps issue.

Of course, VSS wire is connected, Vehicle Dynamics display works well. However, you might not have problem with route from Virginia to Toronto Canada because there is not many option I guess only few highways, But in big city it is more complicated. In addition, I don’t see unit to be really learning, because every day I use one route from my work to my home. and every day navigation gives me route at least 6-7 miles longer then I use with shortest time at least 15 minutes more then I get with my own route and all off this happens on 12 miles – 30 minutes way.
I will try to exchange my unit, but I not sure this will help, it look to me like maps it self are not good, may be with wrong speed limits posted. Problems with POI are definitely maps issue.

Anyone tried calling pioneer about and seeing what they say? Ask about update info too. God Bless