MMI 3G Satellite Navigation

[Hippogriff]

Having had RNS-E in an A4 previously, and almost wetting myself in anticipation of MMI 3G, I have found it all to be a bit of an anti-climax. That said, the MMI approach with integration of all key systems is brilliant - it's not that that I'm commenting about - but the satellite navigation part itself.

I have made a few notes about the following...

The guidance voice is extremly poor - the woman does not sound like she is uttering a complete phrase but, instead, is playing numerous sampled words played together at speed, she ends up sounding really unnatural and very clipped. RNS-E was much better than this.
The auto-zoom does not work as I expected it would - I expected it to stay at the zoom level you have set, even if that is 100 yards, and then zoom in for you at intersections that matter to you so you have more detail. It doesn't seem to do this - most noticeable on motorway driving is that it keeps resetting itself to 2.5 miles zoom. Why can't it just stay where you set it?
The old chestnut of the Street Name you're driving on not being displayed in the DIS - while having no navigation destination being set - RNS-E did this. You imagine the information is being published around the car, it just needs the DIS to pick it up.
3D... wow! What a waste of investment and hype. Could anyone tell me if they use this as their main display in navigation mode, because it doesn't work for me. By that I mean - it's not suitable - the bird's eye / plan / 2D view is always set because it's the most useful. The 3D display is also really quite slow to update - especially when driving around the centre of a city where most of the building have some height. I set it to 3D the other day as I drove past Bramall Lane football ground - fair play, there was a football stadium displayed. Was it really useful to me? I'd have to say "no".
Postcode search - don't get me started. A £90 TomTom has full postcode search. I know it's about Germany having a 5 character postcode format, but Internationalisation of systems is quite key when you're a global brand.
And, to branding... I believed I had previously read that Audi had got together with numerous other large brands to display their logos all over the screen - so you knew where the nearest Hilton or McDonalds was... is that in there, as I've not seen it yet... or did it get dropped as an idea? Is there a setting I've missed?
I still prefer to have my navigation built into the car - don't get me wrong. I had just expected that much more from the new MMI 3G satellite navigation that I tihnk I'm suffering from unrealistic expectations - however, the couple of backward steps from even RNS-E is an area for concern.

Without even talking about FoC Internet updates for maps, user updateable open standard POIs (things like safety cameras and post boxes would be excellent), safety camera warnings - as well as POIs, downloadable cinema listings and lots of other stuff I dream of... I am starting to think it is a missed opportunity.

At least it has TMC out of the box. ;)

I'm still glad that I spec'd it... as the A4 looks really bare without it... and the build quality (at least of the main MMI dial) is just excellent (sometimes I find it hard to differentiate between MMI 3G, sat. nav. and AMI - so I bundle it all together in my head, I think) and certainly has the "ooh" factor.

Does anyone else who's experienced previous Audi systems concur / disagree or have even more comments? I'd love to hear them if you have the time.

[ScottyUK]

I can't disagree with anything you've said. In fact I knew all these flaws before I ordered as I sat in a car at the dealers for a couple of hours playing before hand and also read lots of comments from A5 users etc.

My 5 year old (I think) TomTom 910 does some things better and that also BT'ed to my phone giving me handsfree. I even had it through the car speakers so apart from it being stuck on the screen if was quite integrated.....but I still prefer the MMI system.

The postcode issue is crazy. I've heard that the Germans only use 5 digits and hence it would be a UK special but why not? They sell enough cars here to cover the cost.

The voice is the biggest disappointment. The voice on my 09 A4 was much better.

Do you not see Shell, Esso icons etc on the map? Check that you've got the POI's turned on as I see loads of them. I'm just waiting for someone to work out how we can change the POIs and then I'll be happy with it.

[porty]

Whilst I haven't had experience of an Audi Sat Nav system previously, I agree with the comments that have been made. I also used a TomTom before which I do have to confess was much easier to operate and program. However, I love the fact that the MMI is there and ready to go and I'm not fumbling about sticking the sat nav on the windscreen and plugging in the power lead etc. My wife is getting a new Renault Megane next month with an integrated Carminat TomTom. It is only a £400 option but you can pop out the SD card and update POIs, traffic cameras, map corrections etc via your PC and so it should be pretty good.

[Jop]

I realised upon reading this post that I hadn't actually tried the nav.
I mean Ive had it switched on, yes, but i never actually had it direct me somewhere.

So at lunch time i let it direct me out and back into town. The spoken directions are nearly (not really) awful. Sounds like a mrs Stephen hawkins on speed.
I have to say that MMI 2G voice sounded better than this and quite cant understand the step backwards.

It did have a pretty cool display when coming up to a junction on dual carrigeway. In that it showed me what lane i needed to be in. I'd call this "lane assist" but in audi world i think thats something completely different.

Im happy with the UI and input mechanism. No, its not as fast as touch screen but do you really want grubby fingerprints all over your MMI screen?

[Hippogriff]

...do you really want grubby fingerprints all over your MMI screen?

No, indeed. Voice and dial is good enough (preferable) for me.

I had noticed the lane thingie, and I thought it was very good. I should have mentioned that above. That is an improvement over the previous version I have experience of.

[porty]

Lane guidance is a feature on all but the basic TomToms.

[MFGF]

The guidance voice is extremly poor - the woman does not sound like she is uttering a complete phrase but, instead, is playing numerous sampled words played together at speed, she ends up sounding really unnatural and very clipped. RNS-E was much better than this.

Does anyone else who's experienced previous Audi systems concur / disagree or have even more comments? I'd love to hear them if you have the time.

Hi,
The official reason for the odd-sounding voice guidance is that the 3G Nav High system uses a computer-generated voice not a recorded voice. The supposed benefit of the computer-generated speech is that street names or road numbers can be communicated (eg: "At the roundabout take the second exit onto Aston Road")

I do find it odd that some large roundabouts are referred to as a "square", though (for example the Handy Cross roundabout at M40 J4/A404). Still, twenty years of marriage has taught me not to criticise female instructions! :)


The auto-zoom does not work as I expected it would - I expected it to stay at the zoom level you have set, even if that is 100 yards, and then zoom in for you at intersections that matter to you so you have more detail. It doesn't seem to do this - most noticeable on motorway driving is that it keeps resetting itself to 2.5 miles zoom. Why can't it just stay where you set it?

Strange - I don't see this behaviour. I have mine set to 300 yards, and it stays at that zoom level until important intersections or junctions, where it zooms in. It then returns to 300 yards again after the junction. If yours is not doing this, it sounds like a bug (or negative, undocumented feature if you're in my line of work :) ) What software version are you running? Mine is:

Software version:
HNav_EU_K0022_1_D1

Nav. database version:
8R0060884C_ECE 5.6.8


Not sure if this is A6-specific though, as I know of another forum member with 3G Nav High in an A4 who reports the following version info:

HNAV_EU_P0022_DI
8R006884E_ECE5.8.5

Still, at least you're not experiencing the 3G Nav High radio tuning/TMC/TP glitch that has some of us tearing our hair out - consider yourself fortunate!

Regards,

MF.

[Hippogriff]

Hi,
The official reason for the odd-sounding voice guidance is that the 3G Nav High system uses a computer-generated voice not a recorded voice. The supposed benefit of the computer-generated speech is that street names or road numbers can be communicated (eg: "At the roundabout take the second exit onto Aston Road")

Yes, but that's only for the "Aston Road" part, innit? The rest of your example is surely built up from recorded / not calculated phrases, I thought. On the RNS-E this all sounded so much better. If they are calculating the whole phrase each and every time, then that is madness - imagine all that CPU power going to waste when you could just pull a nice sounding recorded sample for "At the roundabout take the second exit onto" from disk... something sultry. :Blush2:


Strange - I don't see this behaviour. I have mine set to 300 yards, and it stays at that zoom level until important intersections or junctions, where it zooms in. It then returns to 300 yards again after the junction. If yours is not doing this, it sounds like a bug (or negative, undocumented feature if you're in my line of work :) )

Interesting that. I noticed it on the M1 with route guidance active. It was most disconcerting. I really don't know why it kept changing the zoom level - at first I thought it was as I was going past motorway junctions, junctions that had no bearing on my journey, but it wasn't... it seemed to be more time related... I'd set it to 100 yards... then a minute later I'd look at it and it'd be set to 2.5 miles or 1.5 miles (it wasn't constant). I couldn't spend my time looking at my watch and keeping a beady eye on the screen as I was in the car alone... next time, though...

[ScottyUK]

My 5 year old TomTom 910's text to speach it far superior to the latest 3G version.

In fact my TomTom pronounces the town names etc in the native accent when abroad which is really done well. I'm yet to test 3G abroad but the UK voice means I'm not getting excited.

p.s. Why couldn't they code it so they is the road has three numbers it's referred to them by the number i.e. the A414 should be the A. 4. 1. 4. and not the A four hundred and fourteen. :aargh4:

[Hippogriff]

It's utter cack. I'm really underwhelmed.

Vorsprung durch Technik?

One step forwards, two steps back.

Problem is, I'd not have a TomTom stuck to my windscreen again with trailing wires to the power socket. Been there, done that. Hated it. Oh, for the abilities of RNS-E in the MMI.

I hope someone's proud of MMI 3G sat. nav., as it's a system only a mother could love.

[MFGF]

Yes, but that's only for the "Aston Road" part, innit? The rest of your example is surely built up from recorded / not calculated phrases, I thought. On the RNS-E this all sounded so much better. If they are calculating the whole phrase each and every time, then that is madness - imagine all that CPU power going to waste when you could just pull a nice sounding recorded sample for "At the roundabout take the second exit onto" from disk... something sultry. :Blush2:

Nope - the entire dialogue is computer-generated, hence the clipped speech. As Scotty says, TomTom do something similar too, although with TomTom you can choose to use either a recorded voice or a generated voice with announced names - but at least they give you a choice. As for the sultry part, I'd most likely find it too distracting and end up crashing (that is unless the wife had got huffy and made me switch the guidance off first :) )

MF.

[Hippogriff]

That's just an odd decision for anyone with a brain to make. The textual instructions must be stored somewhere, along with all the street names and road numbers... so the thing can 'read' it when assembling the speech... so why not just store the natural-sounding speech.

[ScottyUK]

All the street names and numbers aren't stored. The car interprets text and pronouces it in the way it thinks best. In the same way my TomTom used to be able to read me SMS's.

e.g. an example of text to speech is on this web site : http://www.ispeech.org/users/register/demo

I think it comes down to computing power but I'd have expected Audi's built in system to be more powerful than my old TomTom.