Quote:
Originally Posted by ToeJoe
Curious as to why you guys like BMW Maps so much. I think it's a piece of junk myself. The only thing it had going for it was (a) native to iDrive (b) showed HUD turn by turn directions.
Why I think it sucks:
- Voice recognition accuracy is poor. I'd give it 60% accuracy at best (I'm native Australian accent).
- Very poor or non-existent location knowledge, eg. "Hey BMW, navigate to [some restaurant]" will very rarely produce a result.
- Excessive insistence on specificity for addresses. Sometimes I just want to navigate to a suburb in general ("Hey BMW, navigate to Auburn") because I know my way around there so I don't have a specific address or I don't know it. You cannot do that with BMW Maps, she loses her sh*t and starts offering addresses in other countries and stuff.
- On that note, is it such a big ask to restrict addresses to Australia? I think 0.00000000000001% of Aussie BMW owners would ever take their cars overseas, and the elimination of other countries would increase accuracy considerably.
- Dubious RTTI and other best-route intelligence. I have no proof, not having done a side by side comparison with Apple or Google, but if you're getting such infrequent map updates that's already a bad start.
Apple Maps and Google Maps are superior by a country mile to BMW Maps in my view. While Google Maps to me is the best mapping app out there in every way, at least Apple Maps via Carplay offers turn by turn on HUD now, is pretty good in general, and can be voice activated just like BMW Maps. I use Apple Maps exclusively now.
Why would you want BMW Maps?
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Well I certainly don't have anything to complain about with BMW Navi. BMW is a bit hesitant learning Maori names in NZ..so I would expect it to be the same learning Aboriginal names in Australia. But if the Personal Assistant is set to learn, it definitely improves over time. And I can't really expect BMW to have a NZ English and a Maori language option.
I've also found that with Android Auto, Hey Google doesn't give any better results. I used Android Auto for a week.or so after the upgrade 07.2020.60 upgrade, but never use it now ..the BMW native system does everything better imho. (The only thing Android Auto gave me was album art on Spotify...which doesn't really matter..I still get album and artist details just using my phone on Bluetooth.)
The RTTI seems to be very good in NZ, and I have never had any issues with Hey BMW not being able to find a cafe or petrol station or any other place.
I've also never ever had BMW Navi direct me anywhere overseas. As far as I know, the maps are restricted to Australia and NZ, or at least they are on my car. So I can't really see how that can happen, as you set the default to whichever country you are in.
But I've never tried looking for Auburn or Castle Hill, or saying Hey BMW, take me to Castle Hill, when I'm in New Zealand. I can say "Hey BMW take me to Auckland" and it will just show me a central city address so I just select that.
That being said, there are plenty of ex Australia cars in NZ and ex NZ cars in Australia. So your .1% to about 14 decimal points of BMW owners moving cars overseas might not be so accurate.
I took.my 530i to to Sydney in 2004, and we brought my wife's 120i with Navi back from Sydney in 2013. So it was easy to select NZ as the default and saved having to buy a new map CD.
And there are plenty of ex Australia cars for sale here in NZ. ( some of which are repaired hail damaged write offs, which is a separate and rather long story )
If I don't know how to get to the destination I'm looking for, I often look on the Connected Drive App before I leave and send the destination to the car. The App uses Google Maps so in effect you get the best of both worlds...
So you have 3 methods of using BMW Navi ..in car voice activated, in car touch or controller access, plus send from Connected Drive App..
overall..I have nothing to complain about..BMW Navi and Maps are fine, and are easier to use imho than Google Maps on Android Auto