Garmin/Navteq navigator accuracy - serious issues?

 

Can it be possible that I am the only one who has noticed that starting with the release of CNNA 2009 Garmin/Navteq''s mapping has gotten messed up?

With the release of CNNA 2009 my home changed sides of the street.

I live on the 'East' side of the street and I approach from the 'South'. Under the older mapping I have from 2003 and onward to 2008 inclusive my home has always been on the right, which is of course correct.

When I installed CNNA 2009 on my Nuvi 760 - and with CNNA 2009 and 2010.10 and CNNA 2010.20 on my Zumo 660, my house has mysteriously moved to the 'west' side of the street and is now reported as being on the left as I approach. It doesn't seem to matter whether I use a marked waypoint or calculate the address.

So tonight, while I was parked in the garage I created a new 'Home' waypoint and looked closely to see where it was.

Now, given that my driveway is about 40 feet long and the navigator was about 10 feet behind the garage door, it was 50 feet east of the street. The navigator was reporting 3 meter (almost 10 foot) accuracy, yet on the map, the waypoint was displayed as being more than 60 feet WEST of the street.

THAT IMPLIES A REGISTRATION ERROR OF MORE THAN 100 FEET TO THE WEST IN THE AREA OF MY HOME.

More than 100 feet, because we need to add in the 30+ feet of street width to the 50 feet on my side of the street and the 60 feet on the other where the system believed my car was parked!!!!

Now, perhaps my navigator is messed up.

So I took out the Zumo and tried that too. Guess what? Same error - about the same size of error.

The Zumo and my Nuvi use different GPS engines. Different core code and different generation processors (the Zumo has the MTC and the Nuvi has the Sirf) AND different generation maps.

Also, my old Zumo 550 (which had 2008 mapping) and before upgrading the Nuvi to 2009 both had my home on the correct side of the street as did my old GPSMAP 276c, Streetpilot III, StreetPilot Color and so on!!!

On the way into town, the unit now always tells me I am not on the expressway, even though I have entered and am four lanes over in the fast lane driving in. THAT IMPLIES A SERIOUS REGISTRATION ERROR BIASED TO THE SOUTH in this location, which is only about a mile from my home.

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But the REAL problem, and what made me do my little testing was that as I entered the expressway to come home tonight with the navigator active (for the traffic updates), It told me that I had missed the entrance (again I was in the leftmost lane of the 4 lanes that separated me from the leftmost lane of the service road) and kept trying to correct my navigation by issuing conflicting directions as it figured out slowly that I wasn’t on the service road, I wasn't taking the wrong exits on the right and I wasn’t continuing ahead, but was rather taking the left hand exit (as calculated originally by the Nuvi).

AND WHERE THE EXPRESSWAY ISSUES WERE ENCOUNTERED THE MAPPING HAD TO BE BIASED AT LEAST 100 FEET TO THE EAST.

I can see how someone in unfamiliar territory who is easily flustered could get himself EXTREMELY messed up - to the point of causing an accident.

Obviously there have been lots of changes in the code and in the hardware, but the fact is that this is downright dangerous - I think Garmin needs to address this posthaste.

I've sent off a variant of this message to Garmin Support, but I'm certain they'll somehow slough it off.

Perhaps complaints to the NHTSA are in order? This is a potentially very serious safety issue.

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Currently have: SP3, GPSMAP 276c, Nuvi 760T, Nuvi 3790LMT, Zumo 660T

NHTSA

Won't be of much use. GPSrs do not replace common sense.

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

Good point

I wonder what their product liability insurance provider would say about this?

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Currently have: SP3, GPSMAP 276c, Nuvi 760T, Nuvi 3790LMT, Zumo 660T

Disclaimer

Right and of course there's the disclaimer.

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sewisdom - Drive carefully. The life you save... may be someone who owes you money!

Also...

There are ways to report these discrepancies to Garmin, and Naveteq.

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

.

Disclaimers notwitshstanding - doesn't do them any good if someone winds up veering across many lanes of traffic to get somewhere he wasn't supposed to go because the navigator gave him faulty directions - and someone dies.

Especially in California.

As I wrote, Garmin's been notifed. But my experience with their support is that they tend to get pretty defensive about their code.

I'm looking forward to receiving their first line reply . . .

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Currently have: SP3, GPSMAP 276c, Nuvi 760T, Nuvi 3790LMT, Zumo 660T

How did you report this?

Did you use http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/errorForm.jsp and Naveteq's http://mapreporter.navteq.com/dur-web-external/secured/submi... or pen a scathing missive to their general email support?

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

Actually, the same text

I can't use the report form - it fails each and every time I try to use it.

So I sent off an e-mail to Product.Support@garmin.com

If the submission page works for you and if you think that somehow it will get 'noticed' better, feel free to copy my text and send it in on my behalf.

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Currently have: SP3, GPSMAP 276c, Nuvi 760T, Nuvi 3790LMT, Zumo 660T

~

Did you also try the Naveteq form?

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

No

To be honest, I have always felt that Navteq's reporting forms are something of a black hole.

I've been submitting reports to them for 10 years as I've encountered mapping issues and have yet to see any of the issues be corrected in their mapping.

However I have an engineering resource in Olathe that I've sent a copy of the message to. Maybe he will do something.

By the way; There are better ways to have this conversation, email being one so that everyone doesn't actually slog through this Q&A - or, if you have, there's MSN, Skype or I can just phone you from my VOIP line.

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Currently have: SP3, GPSMAP 276c, Nuvi 760T, Nuvi 3790LMT, Zumo 660T

Navteq

bramfrank wrote:

To be honest, I have always felt that Navteq's reporting forms are something of a black hole.

I've been submitting reports to them for 10 years as I've encountered mapping issues and have yet to see any of the issues be corrected in their mapping.

However I have an engineering resource in Olathe that I've sent a copy of the message to. Maybe he will do something.

By the way; There are better ways to have this conversation, email being one so that everyone doesn't actually slog through this Q&A - or, if you have, there's MSN, Skype or I can just phone you from my VOIP line.

I'm with you. I've never had any luck in reporting changes or additions to Navteq. Seems they are in a cave somewhere and never come out.

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With God, all things are possible. ——State motto of the Great State of Ohio