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2019+ BMW 3 AND 4-SERIES FORUMS (G2x Generation) Local Forums UK UK Sat Nav Woes

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      05-05-2021, 12:08 PM   #1
MD707
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UK Sat Nav Woes

I'm just back from a weekend down in deepest Devon. As always, the car was a joy, eating the miles. However, the satnav is driving me mad.

It's German efficiency seems to insist if I can save 0.2 of a mile by taking a farm track that isn't a road at all, lined with scratchy hedges and low rock walls designed purely to destroy my alloys, it will. The number of times I had to negotiate what was basically a walking path, slowly creeping around a 90 degree turn whilst a mad Devonian in a Transit barrels towards me at 60MPH was beyond ridiculous.

I cannot seem to find a setting that allows me to 'avoid roads that are not roads.' Instead, I just ignored it every time it tried to send me down a mountain bike track, when I am already on a clearly marked B road.

I used to live down there and don't remember it being this bad in previous BMWs. Am I missing a setting somwhere to make it behave sensibly?

Last edited by MD707; 05-05-2021 at 03:15 PM..
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      05-05-2021, 01:04 PM   #2
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Set to fastest route as opposed to shortest?
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      05-05-2021, 01:05 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by xenon View Post
Set to fastest route as opposed to shortest?
Nope, set to fastest.....maybe 'most efficient'?
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      05-05-2021, 02:04 PM   #4
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First BMW for me and I have already dropped the sat-nav in favour of either Apple Maps or Google, but this does assume you have an iPhone.

I can't understand the routes the SatNav suggests, for all my journeys it hasn't found the way I go once, but using Apple/Google they do.

I only use it now to tie in the Hybrid Eco Pro mode and a I know where I am going!
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      05-05-2021, 02:42 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by G21-M340i View Post
Nope, set to fastest.....maybe 'most efficient'?
You'd think fastest would be the best to set to to avoid the piddly small country roads.
Efficient would maybe however favour the A and B roads. Who knows?
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      05-05-2021, 03:14 PM   #6
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I think the car just likes to wind me up.

“Let’s see what he does when I head for this 90 degree bend towards a wooden bridge with holes in it”.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Noodle944s3 View Post
First BMW for me and I have already dropped the sat-nav in favour of either Apple Maps or Google, but this does assume you have an iPhone!
I do, but just don’t like CarPlay. Feels a bit basic somehow but might compare the routing via Googlemaps! Good shout
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      05-05-2021, 04:16 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by G21-M340i View Post
It's German efficiency seems to insist if I can save 0.2 of a mile by taking a farm track that isn't a road at all, lined with scratchy hedges and low rock walls...
I was going across to Aberdeen and due to an accident, I reluctantly decided to follow the 'suggested' Sat Nav route around it. We realised it was getting a bit out of the way and was pleased when we were directed back in what appeared the right direction.... until it was clear we were heading for a farmyard. What the Sat Nav didn't know, the 'track' from the other side of the farmyard, to the main road, wasn't suitable for traffic. Tractors maybe, but not cars.
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      05-06-2021, 06:12 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by G21-M340i View Post
I'm just back from a weekend down in deepest Devon. As always, the car was a joy, eating the miles. However, the satnav is driving me mad.

It's German efficiency seems to insist if I can save 0.2 of a mile by taking a farm track that isn't a road at all, lined with scratchy hedges and low rock walls designed purely to destroy my alloys, it will. The number of times I had to negotiate what was basically a walking path, slowly creeping around a 90 degree turn whilst a mad Devonian in a Transit barrels towards me at 60MPH was beyond ridiculous.

I cannot seem to find a setting that allows me to 'avoid roads that are not roads.' Instead, I just ignored it every time it tried to send me down a mountain bike track, when I am already on a clearly marked B road.

I used to live down there and don't remember it being this bad in previous BMWs. Am I missing a setting somwhere to make it behave sensibly?
I feel your pain, took me down this road (called a footpath where I'm from) at 10:30 at night right up near Snowdon!!
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      05-06-2021, 10:31 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith_C View Post
I feel your pain, took me down this road (called a footpath where I'm from) at 10:30 at night right up near Snowdon!!
Exactly!! That's not what you want in the dark
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      05-06-2021, 11:40 AM   #10
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My past two cars (Audi) have had the same issue with their dodgy maps.

Come off this 50mph dual carriageway to take this "shortcut" which is essentially a dirt road, only to rejoin the same damn dual carriageway. Time lost not saved there!

I was hoping my soon to be built 3-Series would be an improvement. I'll be sticking with waze then!
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      05-06-2021, 01:59 PM   #11
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I bet BMW and Audi buy their mapping data and software from the same supplier!
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      05-07-2021, 01:59 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by G21-M340i View Post
Exactly!! That's not what you want in the dark
I heard words from the Mrs I'd never heard before, but to be fair, she does think there's a serial killer around every bend on a narrow, unlit road in the dark, so this place certainly got her spooked!!
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      05-08-2021, 07:23 AM   #13
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Hehe could to see bmw nav is as good as ever. I never use it unless local and always stick to waze via android auto. I think my favourite was when my f31 told me to come off a motorway junction only to go round the roundabout and get straight back on again for no apparent reason.
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      05-08-2021, 04:42 PM   #14
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Pretty sure the mapping data and traffic info is supplied by TomTom, which is high quality.

It's the garbage bmw nav routing engine that is the issue. Always has been with bmw nav.

I have TomTom in CarPlay and idrive nav running simultaneously, and TomTom gets the optimum route the majority of the time whereas idrive is usually different and slower.
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      05-09-2021, 05:09 AM   #15
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As BMW use HERE Technology for their Safety camera data, then maybe their mapping data comes from there also? If they used TomTom maps then surely they would have taken their routing software as well?
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      05-09-2021, 06:09 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by danorman777 View Post
As BMW use HERE Technology for their Safety camera data
And the map overlays in myBMW app.
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      05-09-2021, 08:25 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by danorman777 View Post
As BMW use HERE Technology for their Safety camera data, then maybe their mapping data comes from there also? If they used TomTom maps then surely they would have taken their routing software as well?
Maybe they have now they are using the online maps for newer i-step.

This was announced back in 2018: https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/man...bmw-group-cars

A little confusing as I'm not sure how they can provide online routes if they don't also provide the local maps.
The 2 nav systems definitely don't offer the same routes in my car, although I can see the traffic status updating within a few minutes of each other with the same data
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      08-24-2021, 11:44 AM   #18
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I've had problems, like others, where the satnav takes you off down unsuitable narrow country lanes. It is set to take the quickest route.

Now I can't programme a route using the touch screen. I can't get beyond the request to set the country - already set for UK. It will accept verbal navigation instructions though. Has anyone else had this problem and found a solution please? This in a 420i coupe G22.
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      08-24-2021, 12:12 PM   #19
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Hi All. I don't get my BMW until Oct so can't comment on the mapping and nav directions, however there has been the odd occasion my iPhone with Apple maps has taken me down some dodgy country lanes.

That said it's also taken me through some amazing villages and given me views I would never have seen if I had stuck to main roads / motorways. I love driving through new places and villages, just as long as the road is, well, a road and not a "track" of sorts.

Current Ford nav does the same thing.

I wonder if phones learn routes better with all their extra wizardry!
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      08-24-2021, 02:06 PM   #20
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Unless there’s an actual road closure I follow the original route as I’ve often found the detour is slower as lots of other vehicles have been sent on the same alternative route. Plus as other people have said, you can find yourself travelling on less than adequate roads.
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      08-24-2021, 02:38 PM   #21
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Not just BMW satnav that do strange things... I have had a Seat Exeo, a Skoda Rapid and a Skoda Superb and they all told me to turn left when approaching a motorway junction in Goole...

If you look at this map I come up the A614 to join the M62 ... when i get to the blue line they all said turn left at the next junction.... errr dont think I fancy going the wrong way up a motorway ....

Think it means go round the roundabout and turn left, but some people follow these word for word...
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      08-24-2021, 02:39 PM   #22
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I actually really like the nav and the way it does traffic and re-routes. Saved me a fair bit of time, and its a lot better than BM nav of old. Shame it doesn't have the Waze live cameras/police etc.
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