Comment about Nav

[rps]

Coming from an '08 135i with Nav, I had to use a Garmin because the Nav was terrible. I made a road trip this week and tried out the Nav in the X1. I fully assumed that it would be terrible and I would have to rely on the Garmin again. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the Nav, it actually worked correctly and I appreciated the turn directions on the right side of the display.

The only criticism I had about the Nav was the volume of the voice directions. I have since learned that you can raise and lower the Nav volume by using the radio volume control. That must be done when it is talking for any change to take effect.

[vbbuilt]

My other criticism is that the NAV cannot pronounce street names. Oh, it'll say, "take ramp to I81", "turn right", turn left". But it does not speak names, such as main street, Prosperity Ave, hollywood blvd. My era 2009 Garmin can do that! Why not BMW NAV?

[jaeezzy]

apart from not giving street number for highways and speed limit warning I have no complains. I wish it cud show speed/red light cameras as well

[NumberSix]

Can you input directions with the vehicle in motion (navigator inputs data)

[Eric5273]

The nav is generally good, but every once in a while it sends me somewhere the long way. So it's not perfect, but it does get you where you want to go.

[themishmosh]

Originally Posted by Eric5273

The nav is generally good, but every once in a while it sends me somewhere the long way. So it's not perfect, but it does get you where you want to go.

Same here. I usually will have an idea about getting there so just ignore the directions it gives initially. Eventually, it'll take the route I had in mind. Seems like it will take the shortest distance but not pay attention to the time savings of highways. I wish car makers would adopt google maps!

One thing I do like is the "send to car" feature of google maps. I will plan out a trip on google maps using my desktop. Any destination can then be sent to the car in the form of messages with the destination in it for NAV to go to. I guess it is only good while the freebie BMW Connect membership is good though.

[Grovsnus]

Originally Posted by vbbuilt

My other criticism is that the NAV cannot pronounce street names. Oh, it'll say, "take ramp to I81", "turn right", turn left". But it does not speak names, such as main street, Prosperity Ave, hollywood blvd. My era 2009 Garmin can do that! Why not BMW NAV?

i am very glad it doesn't try to speak the street names. My Garmin does, and so does my Evoque, and both get the pronunciation wrong often enough that it is a major annoyance. Mind, many of the street names here are Algonquian.

The Garmin is worst, failing even on English names like Hopmeadow which it thinks should be Hopmeh-dao, but the Microsoft-based atrocity in the Range Rover isn't much better, mispronouncing both Worchester and Hartford.

Neither has a chance when faced with Quinnipiac or Cassacubque.

So no thanks, tell me how to get there, nothing else. That way I don't have to look for street name signs or exclaim "turn right on WHAT?"

[Twix]

I always have my GPS muted. I can see the screen just fine. Hearing voices nagging me just makes me want to throw the thing out the window

[Redsoxx1918]

Originally Posted by themishmosh

Same here. I usually will have an idea about getting there so just ignore the directions it gives initially. Eventually, it'll take the route I had in mind. Seems like it will take the shortest distance but not pay attention to the time savings of highways. I wish car makers would adopt google maps!

One thing I do like is the "send to car" feature of google maps. I will plan out a trip on google maps using my desktop. Any destination can then be sent to the car in the form of messages with the destination in it for NAV to go to. I guess it is only good while the freebie BMW Connect membership is good though.

I skipped the tech package all together. There isn't any car tech on the market that works as well as my iPhone. And I hate the new BMW screen that is stuck onto the dashboard of the 2 series, 3 series etc. The new NAV screen that Mercedes has is even worse! I just bought a Kenu Airframe holder for my iPhone 6. It attaches cleanly to my air vent and provides ten times the tech as any car based system on the market. Google maps works great and will play over bluetooth if you want it to. It's always updated, extremely accurate and includes up to the minute traffic info. Siri plays over Bluetooth and will let me send texts by voice or read incoming texts. Heck...I could even watch a movie, while I drive, through my Nexflix app...lol. Not that I would....but I could. And when I don't need it I can stow it away.

[MrT-Man]

The nav is ok, but I still take a garmin with me for longer road trips. The UI, graphics and features are so much better. Plus the voice recognition on my Garmin works WAY better than the voice recognition on the X1 nav.

I have to say, it's actually neat to drive with two navigation systems. The garmin will be the main one I use (again, on road trips) with a typical zoomed in view showing me where to turn etc., and I'll set the X1's nav to provide a zoomed out, north-up overhead map view, showing the overall progress to my destination.

[scottomfg]

Originally Posted by Redsoxx1918

I skipped the tech package all together. There isn't any car tech on the market that works as well as my iPhone.

I've always used my iPhone nav too (both google maps and native maps), but I gotta say, I think the nav in my x1 is better, especially when you utilize split view, with arrows on the smaller screen. It shows more information and does a better job preparing you for the next steps. The UI it uses for showing you how the lanes on the freeway are about to split in those situations is excellent too.

Of course, actually inputting an address into the thing and getting to the point where it's actually navigating is still a far bigger pain in the ass than on the iPhone, much to be improved there.

[punchyninja]

I really like the split screen view as well, and the progress bar showing how close the turn is, very cool feature. I also think the voice is nicer than the one with waze or google.

I wish the traffic info was a little more, aggressive, with what it considers bad traffic.

[Eric5273]

The only problem with a phone nav as opposed to a nav built into the car is that the phone nav has no idea what the car is doing or which way the car is facing. Often times in New York City the buildings are too tall or you are going through a tunnel, and the nav has no idea where you are, where as the car based nav does know where you are because it is connected to the car and even when it loses GPS signal it still can approximate your position and direction you are heading.

The best of both worlds will be soon enough when some of the car companies finally start putting Apple Carplay into their cars.

[Grovsnus]

Originally Posted by Eric5273

The best of both worlds will be soon enough when some of the car companies finally start putting Apple Carplay into their cars.

That would make me boycott those cars, to be honest.
Apple is one of two companies I refuse to give a penny for ethical reasons.
My principles are not for sale, no matter how shiny the baubles and beads are.

[Eric5273]

Originally Posted by Grovsnus

That would make me boycott those cars, to be honest.
Apple is one of two companies I refuse to give a penny for ethical reasons.
My principles are not for sale, no matter how shiny the baubles and beads are.

There is a similar system for google android which will also be in many cars as well, and they are optional systems. Just like the radio in your car is satellite radio capable, but you may or may not have a subscription and use it, it will be the same way with these car phone mirroring systems.

I'd be in trouble if I refused to give Apple my money since there are tons of music software I use for work that are only available for the mac. You can't really be in any sort of creative media business without using Apple stuff. And once you use one, it pays to use them all since they all work together so well.

[mscottc]

Interesting, Eric. I work for one of the largest users of video editing equipment in the nation, CBS TV. Almost all of our video editing gear for both News and Sports on the east coast is Avid on PCs. Very very few Mac based editing systems in play, and only in very small islands. The argument that Macs are better for creative situations is totally bogus. Equal perhaps, but not better.

[scottomfg]

Originally Posted by Grovsnus

That would make me boycott those cars, to be honest.
Apple is one of two companies I refuse to give a penny for ethical reasons.
My principles are not for sale, no matter how shiny the baubles and beads are.

I'd love to hear about these ethical reasons. Also curious what ethical software you are using.

[Eric5273]

Originally Posted by mscottc

Interesting, Eric. I work for one of the largest users of video editing equipment in the nation, CBS TV. Almost all of our video editing gear for both News and Sports on the east coast is Avid on PCs. Very very few Mac based editing systems in play, and only in very small islands. The argument that Macs are better for creative situations is totally bogus. Equal perhaps, but not better.

This is getting off topic, but.....

Yes, you are talking about video editing, but for music everything is mac. I'm sure if you are involved in video editing for television then you have used production music.

Your own employer, CBS, requires that all production music submitted be encoded for their search system using Soundminer, which is a mac only software. So does ESPN, Turner Broadcasting and a whole host of other big media giants.

So if you produce production music, which I do, then you must use that software or you automatically lose half of your possible distribution avenues. Also Logic is the main sampling & editing software that most songwriters are using these days. It is worlds better than anything else out there, and much less expensive than many other systems as well.

Find me someone who writes and edits music who uses a PC. They are few and far between. An iPad has more music producing capabilities than a Windows PC does. I'm sure a PC is "capable", but all the major software is mac.

My understanding is that the computer graphics field is also similar in that way.

[Grovsnus]

Originally Posted by Eric5273

This is getting off topic, but.....

Yes, you are talking about video editing, but for music everything is mac.

No, it isn't. I sit in a music studio as I write this, and it's an Apple-free studio.
MOTU mixer, M-audio audio card, Cubase, Reason and other DAW programs - nothing Mac about any of it.
You may just be moving in Mac circles, and thus think that everybody uses Mac, but that's far from the case.

[Eric5273]

Originally Posted by Grovsnus

No, it isn't. I sit in a music studio as I write this, and it's an Apple-free studio.
MOTU mixer, M-audio audio card, Cubase, Reason and other DAW programs - nothing Mac about any of it.
You may just be moving in Mac circles, and thus think that everybody uses Mac, but that's far from the case.

The entire production music library industry (that is music that is recorded for production libraries for use in television programs, commercials, films, etc.) works off of macs. The primary metadata tagging software that most of the large studios require all music be encoded in is Soundminer which is not even available for Windows. I once asked the owner of Soundminer why he does not make a Windows version, and he said there is no demand for it.

If you don't encode your music with Soundminer metadata, you cannot get it submitted into the music search systems at most major network broadcast and cable television stations.

The previously mentioned Avid editing system actually has the ability built into it to read Soundminer metadata. Soundminer is like the MP3 metadata tagging, except it tags broadcast quality WAV files and it has many more metadata fields than MP3, such as music category, keyword and description fields for search purposes.

[themishmosh]

Not really adding to the discussion but very interesting the lines of works us BMW X1 owners are in! Who would have thought you'd fine two people with professional music production experience in here!

[bimmr]

I read horrible posts regarding the X1 nav (outdated).

Then I also read other posts that the 2013-present X1 nav seems to be better? Is that true?