# Sat nav...issues



## Number86 (Oct 20, 2017)

Hey.

Recently acquired a used tt, and love it! However, I have been getting to grips with the VC and nav, and have come across a couple of issues which could, imo, render the nav useless dash glitter.

1) with a full confirmed data connection, excluding the first time I enabled it in the menu, alternative routes are not displayed. It only shows the top blue one.

2)which brings me on to problem 2...irrespective of the pretty Google earth maps and real-time detailed knowledge of surrounding traffic, the route planning is shite, and as tested, didn't match what Google on my phone was saying. Which I payed the price for, by following it down a moronic route, which added 30 needless minutes to an 50 minute journey. I continued giving the nav a chance 9n various routes, but it was wrong every time.

So I'd appreciate hearing others experiences, and if there is a way to combat this. The vc nav with real-time traffic and intelligent routing using Google data was a big draw for me. But it seems it's just shit. :-|

Thanks!


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## F1SpaceMonkey (Nov 21, 2015)

Its crap. iPhone is better. Had similar experiences.


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## Toshiba (Jul 8, 2004)

Mines great... [smiley=dude.gif]


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## ZephyR2 (Feb 20, 2013)

You need to tweak a few settings to enable things like route alternatives, automatic traffic diversions and ensure you have a live data connection. Mine works very well although it doesn't tend to find short cuts down side roads like Waze.


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## Number86 (Oct 20, 2017)

Ok, so what do I need to tweak?

I have it set to alternative routes and adapt to traffic, with live connection.

As a side note, the satnav appears to be being very effective at route planning if you want the standard route, that doesn't take into traffic. But otherwise, it has no idea.


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## keithS (Jun 20, 2016)

Number86 said:


> 2)which brings me on to problem 2...irrespective of the pretty Google earth maps and real-time detailed knowledge of surrounding traffic, the route planning is shite, and as tested, didn't match what Google on my phone was saying. Which I payed the price for, by following it down a moronic route, which added 30 needless minutes to an 50 minute journey. I continued giving the nav a chance 9n various routes, but it was wrong every time.


Yes the Audi Satnaff is pure shite compared to Google/TomTom/Waze. It often wants to avoid a normal route completely and takes you a much longer one, when if you ignore it the route was actually fine. It has a nasty habit of taking you through a busy town centre if it thinks there's even a couple of minutes delay on a better route, as its knowledge of actual traffic delays is very poor.


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## Number86 (Oct 20, 2017)

Ah hah! That's exactly it. It sent me through Marlow, which is nice little town in bucks. However, I don't want a walk down the Thames, and it has dual carriage way next to it, to avoid traffic cutting through the town. But, as can happen, I assumed the dualy was rammed...15 minutes into my Marlow traffic jam, I did a u turn, and went up the dualy without any delay.

Fecking Audi.


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## ZephyR2 (Feb 20, 2013)

Number86 said:


> Ok, so what do I need to tweak?
> 
> I have it set to alternative routes and adapt to traffic, with live connection.
> 
> As a side note, the satnav appears to be being very effective at route planning if you want the standard route, that doesn't take into traffic. But otherwise, it has no idea.


If you are only getting the Blue route option then it is not set to show alternative routes. 
Do get announcements telling you that the route has been changed due to traffic conditions?
Pages 176 & 177 in my manual covers these settings.

At the bottom left of the map screen does is say TCMPro or Online ?

Whatever tho, it will never be as clever as the Google maps app on your phone. Which is not surprising really as Google has invested billions in mapping technology.


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## GoodThunder (Jul 19, 2016)

Are you sure you have live data connection? 
Mine equipped with data SIM always shows alternative routes and generally very much on par with Google / Tom-Tom. But turns shite when SIM tariff expires


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## Number86 (Oct 20, 2017)

I've had it tethered to my phone, but got a sim from 3 yesterday. Upon initial testing it only showed the top route.

It's definitely online as connect services work, and the map says online, as opposed to tmcpro. I also double checked the always show alternative routes box.

I'm guessing there's a fault if it's not functioning?


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## keithS (Jun 20, 2016)

Number86 said:


> I'm guessing there's a fault if it's not functioning?


It sometimes takes a while to come up with all 3 routes.

I rate its route advice on a par with the now defunct Microsoft Autoroute. Planning a trip from Plymouth to Brighton, it decided the best way was via the Isle of Wight.


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## Venom7000 (Jul 23, 2017)

Dear OP,
Yes the SatNAV in the TT is surprisingly bad (let me remind you that this is 1500 EUR feature). Take a 100 EUR Garmin nav and it will school this system any day.
However the way it 're-routes" you due to traffic and congestions on the road depends on few factors in my experience:
1. Is your TMC active? (in some rural/remote areas my TMC is not available which can limit how the navigation can re-route you due to road conditions

2. Do you have TMC or TMC pro?? (I drove through more than few countries and TMC v TMC pro is more than obvious for me). Ofc whether you have TMC or TMC pro depends on the country. For example TMC pro is available in Germany and it works very well.

3. Quality of your countries TMC. (some countries have very bad TMC feeding system. Meaning they either have bad equipment or don't bother uploading data to TMC waves that frequently). Most countries in Eastern Europe dont use TMC that much since 90% of the cars still don't have navigation.

4. Is your SIM data active. (no doubt that "enable online data" in navigations settings can help). The data that AudiConnect collects for your navigation is from no one other than GOOGLE! And in my experience it works pretty well. Saved me couple of times from sleeping in a 1h traffic.

Hope this helps to clear some things a bit but still out of all cars that I have used TT's nav is TERRIBLE (my SLK R171's nav from 2009 database is better no joke) :lol:


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## Venom7000 (Jul 23, 2017)

P.s- OP just because you have the SIM card inserted and it shows confirmation in the form of signal bar strength. Doesn't mean that it is enabled to be used in navigation.

Did you go to------> Navigation (Maps)------> Right click----> Online traffic data ??? (its bellow the Map, Navigation and Voice guidance settings)

You need to have this enabled otherwise the navigation will not consider using the SIM card data to enrich its traffic data.
Best of luck


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## keithS (Jun 20, 2016)

This might be useful, a brief description of where the TMC data comes from. The main reason why Google, Waze etc are more accurate is they get data via a crowdsourcing approach, I.e each individual user is constantly sending position info to them so they can get a good idea of traffic, rather than using traffic cameras.

Question:
DOES THE SAT NAV FEATURE TMC OR TMC PRO? WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

Answer:
The sat nav features the TMC function (Traffic Message Channel). The TMC data is transmitted by the FM band as an RDS signal (Radio Data Signal).
The information in this data is similar to the traffic reports of the radio stations.
This data is included into the route calculations and allows the by-pass of traffic jams.

The TMC Pro function also includes the data of sensors, mounted under bridges, on motorway signs and on lanes, about the traffic density.


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## Magpie10 (Oct 22, 2015)

Yep ....experienced all the above dramas

Question: Does Audi use the same sat navigation across all car lines? Or does TT have something unique?


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## Mark Pred (Feb 1, 2017)

Toshiba said:


> Mines great... [smiley=dude.gif]


Mine too. Zero issues with my sat nav. Suspect most issues people have are due to the settings and/or user error :wink:


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## Venom7000 (Jul 23, 2017)

Magpie10 said:


> Yep ....experienced all the above dramas
> 
> Question: Does Audi use the same sat navigation across all car lines? Or does TT have something unique?


My mothers A1 uses the same satnav interface. I would guess that Yes they all use the same sat nav (maybe the hardware is different but the software platform is the same).


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## Venom7000 (Jul 23, 2017)

Mark Pred said:


> Toshiba said:
> 
> 
> > Mines great... [smiley=dude.gif]
> ...


I tend to agree with you 90% however it depends really where you use the navigation. Im sure that if you drive and live in a smaller more "dispersed" town you wouldn't see much of navigations problems since I operates in less information "stressful" "congested" environment. Im sure that you will notice more of the kinks and faults if you use it in big busy cities with lots of back alleys and traffic.


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## Mark Pred (Feb 1, 2017)

Venom7000 said:


> Mark Pred said:
> 
> 
> > Toshiba said:
> ...


I use mine commuting into and then out of central London and sometimes Docklands about 3 or 4 times a week depending on which office I am working from, that's probably as good as it gets if you want to talk about a big, congested inner city environment... seems to cope just fine with it


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