NAV questions

[Unobtanium]

I have a touring. It has the option for NAV, if I buy it. It is a 2015. I have heard that the 2016+ does NOT have live traffic update, which is stupid, worthless, and not worth a dime of my money. I've never had a vehicle without it, and it (via my cellphone nav this time) saved me probably over an hour on my last road trip avoiding accidents miles before I got to them. Now, I understand the 2015 NAV is NOT the same as 2016+ NAV? Does the 2015 NAV have accident avoidance programming, rush-hour avoidance, etc? Or no?

 

[craigo]

Phone mount + Waze will do more than these systems can ever hope to. Cost: about $25

 

[yrwei52]

Yes, I believe Tom-Tom GPS in 2015 MY CX-5 does support live traffic.

 

[jhu8]

Yeah the 15 has live traffic. But I agree about Waze. Just get a mount and use that. Much, much better than any car infotainment/navigation system. Well except those who have decided to advance technology and include Android Auto. Mazda is really pissing me off.

 

[Unobtanium]

Phone mount + Waze will do more than these systems can ever hope to. Cost: about $25

Waze is cool, but when I lose signal, I'm screwed. I go places where my phone can't/doesn't, sometimes (Verizon, before anyone asks, and yes, I'm very happy with them). That makes the in-car systems worth it, but if they won't do live traffic, screw that. Looks like I',m in luck with the 2015, though!

 

[GAXIBM]

The TomTom units use HD traffic but it is integrated and gives suggestions for alternate routes, distance to delay etc. In the Atlanta area my experience was that most distant delays cleared before I got to them, I never got off the interstate systems to take an alternate suggested route. The HD traffic app (not integrated) in my 2016 is too small to easily read and sucks...

 

[ALafya]

Waze is cool, but when I lose signal, I'm screwed. I go places where my phone can't/doesn't, sometimes (Verizon, before anyone asks, and yes, I'm very happy with them). That makes the in-car systems worth it, but if they won't do live traffic, screw that. Looks like I',m in luck with the 2015, though!

Waze is best for commute/local drives, where as Google Maps is best for long drives and is more feature rich. Both offer live traffic.
Google Maps supports offline maps, so you don't need a signal to get navigation. Yes, when offline you don't get traffic, but this is rarely an issue because there is data where there is much traffic. Some GPS systems get traffic through FM receivers, but these only include traffic for highways and not even all highways, so it is semi helpful.

I use Google Maps for all long trips I make and it is superior to any GPS, plus the software and maps keeps updating all the time.

 

[Unobtanium]

Well, it seems like the NAV might be worth it regardless, if it offers the main thing I want (traffic updates, etc.)

Will it give altitude, GPS coordinates,color live weather radar, etc. like my 370Z did, or no?

 

[jhu8]

Waze is best for commute/local drives, where as Google Maps is best for long drives and is more feature rich. Both offer live traffic.
Google Maps supports offline maps, so you don't need a signal to get navigation. Yes, when offline you don't get traffic, but this is rarely an issue because there is data where there is much traffic. Some GPS systems get traffic through FM receivers, but these only include traffic for highways and not even all highways, so it is semi helpful.

I use Google Maps for all long trips I make and it is superior to any GPS, plus the software and maps keeps updating all the time.

You don't even need to choose. Just use both at same time. I always do that. Just have both applications running at same time on my phone. Usually use google maps for actual navigation and than I have Waze running in the background informing me of accidents, hazards, construction, and cops!

 

[craigo]

Waze is best for commute/local drives, where as Google Maps is best for long drives and is more feature rich. Both offer live traffic.
Google Maps supports offline maps, so you don't need a signal to get navigation. Yes, when offline you don't get traffic, but this is rarely an issue because there is data where there is much traffic. Some GPS systems get traffic through FM receivers, but these only include traffic for highways and not even all highways, so it is semi helpful.

I use Google Maps for all long trips I make and it is superior to any GPS, plus the software and maps keeps updating all the time.

Unless its changed *very* recently, Waze tends to re-route around traffic better I find. It's odd because google owns Waze and this should work identically. Haven't had issues with long drives, where I mostly use it.

Of course none of them are perfect. Waze loves to send me to difficult left turns in the city...

 

[craigo]

Waze is cool, but when I lose signal, I'm screwed. I go places where my phone can't/doesn't, sometimes (Verizon, before anyone asks, and yes, I'm very happy with them). That makes the in-car systems worth it, but if they won't do live traffic, screw that. Looks like I',m in luck with the 2015, though!

I used to use Navigon for non-signal situations. It's a funky german over-engineered app, and kind of pricey, but it works very well and updates maps regularly. I used it in rural northeastern PA before ATT upgraded the towers to 4G.

I also have used Navmii for this which is much much cheaper, but they rely on open source street data and don't update the app or that data very much.

IIRC, Navigon is about $50 for USA/Canada with quarterly map updates. They have sales every now and then too. Still better than the in-car system.

 

[ALafya]

Unless its changed *very* recently, Waze tends to re-route around traffic better I find. It's odd because google owns Waze and this should work identically. Haven't had issues with long drives, where I mostly use it.

Of course none of them are perfect. Waze loves to send me to difficult left turns in the city...

Waze builds their app separately and have some autonomy from Google, I think they may even still use Amazon cloud platform and not Google's, not sure. They do share data though.
I do find Waze to find more elaborate routes while Google Maps keeps it simple. In the past, long routes (> 200 miles) did not work well for me with Waze, but with the availability of offline maps, I use only Google Maps for long trips off major freeways, which often involve no data for many miles. I imagine I'd still use my old GPS unit for trips in Canada or in other countries (with a rental car).

 

[Fozzy Badfeet]

It's a bummer reading about all the negative reviews on the Navigation.

Sure, I use Google Maps off my iPhone all the time, but having Navigation in your car, I thought that was neat. I'll test it out and see how I like it.

I'll be driving my CX5 across country, all the comments I've read, seems to lead me towards using the GPS on my phone.

 

[123373]

My 2014 has live traffic and is very accurate. I keep it set to ask me before it re-routes automatically. I like to test it every now and then!

 

[mazdafollower]

Hi, can someone please confirm this: Besides the lack of Live traffic, 2016 cx5 also requires one to remove SD card from car and insert into PC in order to find out from within Mazda Toolbox if a map update is available? With 2015 cx5 & earlier one can easily check the TomTom map site before removing SD card. Thx!

 

[jhu8]

Hi, can someone please confirm this: Besides the lack of Live traffic, 2016 cx5 also requires one to remove SD card from car and insert into PC in order to find out from within Mazda Toolbox if a map update is available? With 2015 cx5 & earlier one can easily check the TomTom map site before removing SD card. Thx!

You don't have to do all of that just to check. You can go to http://infotainment.mazdahandsfree.com/navigation-updatemymaps?language=en-CA# and see if there is an update. They will state whether there is an update. In fact, it use to say the latest update was from Dec 2015(written in red on page, you couldn't miss it). It is now missing. Maybe they're preparing an update. My understanding was that updates hit twice a year. We're midway through 2016 so an update should be soon.

 

[mazdafollower]

Thanks jhu8. So normally it would confirm the date of the most recent version, which is good. (I'm aware of the above URL but since that red message you mentioned is gone, I was clueless. Thanks!)

 

[jhu8]

Thanks jhu8. So normally it would confirm the date of the most recent version, which is good. (I'm aware of the above URL but since that red message you mentioned is gone, I was clueless. Thanks!)

No problem! They actually just released a new version of the Nav Toolbox, version 4.2. So hoping that also confirms they're working on things behind the scenes.

 

[xtrailman]

You don't have to do all of that just to check. You can go to http://infotainment.mazdahandsfree.com/navigation-updatemymaps?language=en-CA# and see if there is an update. They will state whether there is an update. In fact, it use to say the latest update was from Dec 2015(written in red on page, you couldn't miss it). It is now missing. Maybe they're preparing an update. My understanding was that updates hit twice a year. We're midway through 2016 so an update should be soon.

I updated in Nov last year, not had an update since, perhaps the US is different.