murzik said:

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.

I drive through DC on a regular basis and drove through baltimore last week, both big cities, without one missed turn. Thats why I am wondering if we are doing something differently.

I drive through DC on a regular basis and drove through baltimore last week, both big cities, without one missed turn. Thats why I am wondering if we are doing something differently.

.
Have you checked any of your routes with yahoo maps or different navigation device?
I must to admit that Pioneer will get you to your destination, but how efficient will be your route.
I wish I know if I am doing something different. I went through all setting many times, got ETA kind of fixed adjusting local speed limits. But have no luck to have “short” route to be really short and efficient. :cry:

HeavenSoldier said:

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

I called pioneer today and they seemed oblivious to the problem. Someone was supposed to call me back today but I haven't heard from him yet. Don't want to seund too negative here, but I'm not really counting on Pioneer to admit that they may have screwed up. I was, after all, one of the first people to buy this product.

Talk about mixed reviews. How does someone get a better calibration after 500+ miles while someone else gets their routing problems fixed buy simply replacing the unit? Something's not right here.

Yes, I did compare the routing with both mapquest and my old garmin 2650 (which cost me about 1200 less btw). Case in point: I plotted a route from my house to a local Home Depot. Both the Garmin and Mapquest calculated the distance to be 9.5 miles and the time to be 16 minutes. The Z1 calculate the same route, but calculated the route to be 8.9 miles and 23 minutes.That's a time difference of seven minutes or roughly 40% for the same route.

murzik said:

I drive through DC on a regular basis and drove through baltimore last week, both big cities, without one missed turn. Thats why I am wondering if we are doing something differently.

.
Have you checked any of your routes with yahoo maps or different navigation device?
I must to admit that Pioneer will get you to your destination, but how efficient will be your route.
I wish I know if I am doing something different. I went through all setting many times, got ETA kind of fixed adjusting local speed limits. But have no luck to have “short” route to be really short and efficient. :cry:

For the ones in DC and Baltimore yes, I had mapquest and mapblast backups, plus I know much of the routes in DC.

Have you guys adjusted your average speeds in the options menu? I tweaked mine, specifically my highway speed, a bit higher than the default. I doubt this has impact on the routing but it probably affects the time estimate. I did find the time estimates to be higher than the actual travel time, but I don't consider this to be poor routing, I consider it to be poor estimating.

First of all, I don't think it routes better after more mileage on the nav, it just learns to route more according to your driving habits over the same or similar route. If you clear all your learning history it would start from scratch. Changing the virtual speed will definitely impact the ETA since that is what it bases its calculation on. Given all maps and routing software are identical, if one unit routes differently than the other, there must be a problem on the harddisk (not taking learning history into consideration), but would the problem be slight enough that you would not get any error message at all?

perhaps the older units are using a different version of software/firmware? That would explain why swapping a unit would fix the problem.

When was your unit manufactured. Mine says April of 06.

I don’t think it is different software or firmware versions. My unit manufactured in April and firmware version is 1.0

May be there are truely defective units in some cases but installation erros in others? Mine has a manufactured date of March 06. I was not impressed about the routing the first week or 2, but as I use it more now, I'm beginning to think it is not too bad. eg. For those who know Berkeley, I was going to Haste street on University from 80, it told me to turn right on San Pablo, but I just kept going staight because I'd rather go all the way to the end of University and take Oxford. As soon as I cross San Pablo without turning, the route changed to go straight on University. It did not ask me to turn right at every intersaction, it only told me to turn right at oxford. I have another PocketPC GPS that would keep telling me to turn right at every chance it got. BTW, that was the first time I went on that route, so it is not from routing history. All GPS and maps have faults, but they should all work fairly good to a certain degree. But if your unit tells you something totally rediculous (as far as route calculation goes), then may be you have a defective unit. But if it does not know where you are, check your antenna or instalation. But keep in mind that civilian GPS are not perfect.....

Anybody else having these problems with the routing? I don't plan on getting it until the end of this fall, but the main reason I'm buying it is for navigation and traveling and don't won't to be lost, or be going on a bad route and not be aware of it.

nav is to get you from a - b, and b being a place you don't know where/ how to get there. Its not to get you to a local 7-11. Do nav takes the easiest way. may not be the best. but if your going to "b" you don't know what the best or the worse is. nav is supposed to take u easy and direct way. all the navs Ive seen are the same way. in some manuals they even state that.

HeavenSoldier said:

Anybody else having these problems with the routing? I don't plan on getting it until the end of this fall, but the main reason I'm buying it is for navigation and traveling and don't won't to be lost, or be going on a bad route and not be aware of it.

I bought a Magellan Roadmate 860T yesterday for my other vehicle. I plan on setting the same routes on both units to see if they differ and if the difference is significant, I'll report back.

edrock200 said:

HeavenSoldier said:

Anybody else having these problems with the routing? I don't plan on getting it until the end of this fall, but the main reason I'm buying it is for navigation and traveling and don't won't to be lost, or be going on a bad route and not be aware of it.

I bought a Magellan Roadmate 860T yesterday for my other vehicle. I plan on setting the same routes on both units to see if they differ and if the difference is significant, I'll report back.

Yeah that will be interesting. Let us know. God Bless.

Any updates?

I really want to love this unit. I do-to a point. I have in installed in my work truck, which happens to be a Volvo semi truck. I pull 53 foot trailers delivering to Wal Marts. The XM works perfect. I like the NavTraffic a lot. Having a DVD player I can watch when I have down time is very nice. The navigation? Not so much.

The way the Z1 routes me at times can be really bad. I know it's more geared for passenger cars, but that's not really the problem. Today, for instance, I routed from my last stop to home. The unit had me turn right, and then take a left, and began to tell me I need to make a U-turn. It was sending me through neighborhood roads that I shouldn't have been on-for no reason. I pulled out my backup unit (a Garmin iQue3600), and it got me back on track. If I had been told to take a left out of the store instead of a right, I would have been perfect. One left turn onto a main road instead of turning right on said road, and then left off of it, and then told to U-turn. :(

I have had this happen several times. The unit will tell me to make a U-turn, or a turn-even when the highlited line continues straight :?

It can be very aggravating when you depend on this unit as a tool. A wrong turn can put me in a spot that I might not be able to get out of.

I also have the issue that the estimated times are usually incorrect. My iQue3600 is usually within 2 or 3 minutes of actual. The Z1 can be off by as much as 30 minutes. I have played with the speed settings to get this to even out, but it hasn't yet. Hoping that it will "learn" my driving habits.

I guess my biggest issue is why a $400 hand held outperforms the Z1 that I paid almost 2g for. It doesn't make sense that I have to use both to make sure the Z1 isn't sending me the wrong way.

Also, the information is over a year old. We need an update!

I agree, the nav info is not up to date. i had the same issue and I live in Brooklyn NY. Paying 2g's for this thing for looks is not worth it, I hope they make an update asap because its ridiculous that a $300 gps system can out perform this $2k system hands down in terms of navigation.

Monirul79 said:

I agree, the nav info is not up to date. i had the same issue and I live in Brooklyn NY. Paying 2g's for this thing for looks is not worth it, I hope they make an update asap because its ridiculous that a $300 gps system can out perform this $2k system hands down in terms of navigation.

Lets compare apples to apples however....does the $400 unit play DVD's? MP3's? CDs? Accept voice commands? You aren't paying $2G's just for nav. That said, it is alarming that so many are having problems with the NAV. I recently picked up a roadmate 860t for my other vehicle and I've been testing it against my z1. So far I've noticed the 860t is more accurate on time estimates and occasionally the z1 and the 860t will route slightly different but nothing significant, normally just different side roads. I haven't found anything so far however to show the z1 being way off or poor routing. I'm beginning to wonder if it just has the DC area mapped out extremely well as is poor in other areas....though my trip to canada, and trips within canada were seemless, I'm not familiar with canada so far all I know it may not have been the best routes.

So far it seems to be a 50/50 split of users that are happy against users who aren't. Perhaps we should post a poll. I am still very pleased with my z1's routing.

I agree it is more than a nav system. Like edrock mentioned does the other ones play DVD, MP3, CDs, XM or Siruis Radio, back-up camera, bluetooth, a harddrive, and all of the bells and whistles that the Z1 has? I too have been lead a stray with some of the Z1s directions, but you do not see me pulling it out of my dash and saying I want a refund. Come on guys we all bought this unit and love it for one reason or another..

I believe Magellan uses TeleAtlas maps too, so the maps technically should be the same as the Avic-Z1 (difference should only be in POI). If it gives you different route, it is the routing software. Also, people should know that TeleAtlas US maps are not as accurate/current as NavTeq US maps.

I am happy with the Z1. I just want the navigation bugs fixed. It is well worth the money for all the bells and whistles. For the average trip in a passenger car, you should be pretty happy with the navigation.

guest said:

I believe Magellan uses TeleAtlas maps too, so the maps technically should be the same as the Avic-Z1 (difference should only be in POI). If it gives you different route, it is the routing software. Also, people should know that TeleAtlas US maps are not as accurate/current as NavTeq US maps.

Thats just it though, most people who complain about the Z1 complain about how it routes you, not a lack of map data. Therefore it shouldn't matter if the sources are the same as the routing engine is what is in question.

That's my view of the Z1, Ed. Maps are very comparable to my Garmin 2160 but no comparison with the routing logic, although neither are perfect. I have had both units try to take me down a dirt road. What disappoints is the fact that even the multiple routes don't include my choice.

Magellan and Pioneer both use TeleAtlas maps so the difference would mostly be in routing software. But Garmin uses Navteq maps which has much current/accurate US maps so the differences are maps as well as routing software.

Okay, this is for those that think gps and routing is a perfect science, I plotted a route from my house in the San Francisco peninsula to UCSD.

Yahoo Maps 496.1 miles 6 hours 53 min
Mapquest 497.49 miles 7 hours 38 min
Mapblast 488.4 miles 7 hours 9 min
Streets & Trips 505.6 miles 8 hours 9 min
Pocketmap 499.6 miles 7 hours 2 min
AVIC-Z1 (30/45/65) 496 miles 9 hours 8 min
AVIC-Z1 (35/45/70) 496 miles 8 hours 30 min

The AVIC reports the most time, they all take a little different route in the LA area so the difference in time. I suspect the AVIC maps database does not account for a large section of interstate 5 has speed limit of 75 mph, thus the time is longer.

Correcting myself, maps data should have speed limit, so the big difference is that other routing software probably calculate time weighted by speed limit of roads, while the AVIC may simply based on the average speed set in the setting and not influenced as much by the actual speed limit factor with the maps.