Tech Pack Advanced (2015) & Traffic

[hshah]

I have the Tech Pack Advanced on the BiTDI I bought new back in July and was curious about the traffic service. It is active and it shows traffic on the map, but it doesn't seem to factor this into the arrival time or route (the option to do so is enabled). I have been testing it with various journeys by having that and Google Maps running on my phone, and Google seems to fair more accurate and diverts me around traffic whereas the built in one doesn't (even though it shows the traffic on the map).

[belly buster]

I have the Tech Pack Advanced on the BiTDI I bought new back in July and was curious about the traffic service. It is active and it shows traffic on the map, but it doesn't seem to factor this into the arrival time or route (the option to do so is enabled). I have been testing it with various journeys by having that and Google Maps running on my phone, and Google seems to fair more accurate and diverts me around traffic whereas the built in one doesn't (even though it shows the traffic on the map).

In the bottom left of your display, does it say "Online" or "TMC"?

[hshah]

In the bottom left of your display, does it say "Online" or "TMC"?

It says ONLINE :)

[A6S]

I just have the tech pack and find the arrival time reasonably close. Since the forth road bridge closure and the re-routing the sat navs been doing I find its timing is within 5 minutes on my 60 mile commute. Lots of traffic both and red lines on the roads to show where the traffic is.

i have found on mine sometimes it says online and the mmi isn't actually getting online. My old three sim did this. I connected the phone to the cars wifi and found it wasn't connected even though the mmi says online.

[hshah]

I just have the tech pack and find the arrival time reasonably close. Since the forth road bridge closure and the re-routing the sat navs been doing I find its timing is within 5 minutes on my 60 mile commute. Lots of traffic both and red lines on the roads to show where the traffic is.

i have found on mine sometimes it says online and the mmi isn't actually getting online. My old three sim did this. I connected the phone to the cars wifi and found it wasn't connected even though the mmi says online.

My phone is always on the car's wifi when I am in it, and internet connectivity seems to work. I too have a 3 SIM but since I am online I don't think that that makes much difference.

[wildbore]

And you select "Dynamic route" as the routing option? (Just checking....!)

[hshah]

And you select "Dynamic route" as the routing option? (Just checking....!)

Yep :)

[wildbore]

As it is an Audi Connect service, have you checked your "Online Traffic Data Licence" is enabled on My Audi or in the car? Do you see the green, yellow and red stripes alongside the roads to show the traffic flow conditions?

[belly buster]

It says ONLINE :)

OK well that is as expected.

[belly buster]

Just an observation for my usage. When the nav gives you 3 options, these don't take into account the traffic. When you select an option, the arrival time is updated after about 10 seconds to take into account of the traffic delays.

[IsDon]

TMC or TP also show coloured lines on the road for traffic conditions. Just because you're getting these lines doesn't mean your necessarily getting online traffic.

If you're not getting a good 3G/4G signal you might not get online traffic but still be getting the degraded form of traffic.

It will always be inferior to google maps though. It's outstanding.

Personally, I'm waiting on a retrofit of Apple CarPlay so I can puts off the inferior Audi nav system completely.

[hshah]

Just an observation for my usage. When the nav gives you 3 options, these don't take into account the traffic. When you select an option, the arrival time is updated after about 10 seconds to take into account of the traffic delays.

Mine doesn't give you 3 options. The 2013 A6 I had did, but this one doesn't.


As it is an Audi Connect service, have you checked your "Online Traffic Data Licence" is enabled on My Audi or in the car? Do you see the green, yellow and red stripes alongside the roads to show the traffic flow conditions?

I've checked it in the car and on my PC (via the myAudi website) and both say I have it till July 2018 (makes sense since the car will be 3 years old then). I do see the green, yellow and red stripes you mentioned.


I just did a journey from Croydon to Regents Park and back again... Google popped up twice with faster routes whereas the MMI tried to more or less take me as the crow flies.

[wildbore]

Mine doesn't give you 3 options. The 2013 A6 I had did, but this one doesn't.


I've checked it in the car and on my PC (via the myAudi website) and both say I have it till July 2018 (makes sense since the car will be 3 years old then). I do see the green, yellow and red stripes you mentioned.

That all sounds OK then.


I just did a journey from Croydon to Regents Park and back again... Google popped up twice with faster routes whereas the MMI tried to more or less take me as the crow flies.

The navigation software in the car is all Audi's (well Harmon, to be exact), and the traffic data comes from another supplier, whose name I forget, so there is nothing in common between your Audi's nav system and Google's routing app (which - I think - uses flow data from Android phones). How aggressively the software re-routes you is down to the application programmer and in this case, it is not only different programmers but they are using different data sources for traffic.

If it's any consolation, the Audi does re-route when traffic is really bad, but I always keep in mind that the Transport Research Laboratory did an analysis some years ago that established that in 90% of cases you are better sticking on the published route than deviating. I imagine that will be especially true now that we all have cars and phones eager to divert us down the quietest back streets to try to wriggle around the next holdup.

[pany]

I've similarly noted in the last Week that the routing doesn't seem to update to take account of traffic, and misses a lot of traffic delays until I'm sitting in them. I have t changed any settings and assumed my PAYG data sim was out of allowance, but this isn't the case.
Not sure why the nav seems to have gone backwards.