Re:

[Brian ///M Kennedy <kennedy@xxxxxx>]

Eric Wilson wrote:
> 
> I have heard positive review regarding BMW's navigation system and I was
> wonder what any of you on the digest have to say about it. I'm mainly
> concerned about its accuracy and ease of use.

I like it.  It could be a lot better (I'm a software architect, so I almost
always think that -- you should hear me rant about Windoze ;^).  
But I still like it a _lot_.

As for accuracy, it is remarkably good.  The military induces about 50-100 ft
of error into the GPS signals.  Thus, sometimes it will be a little off.  No
surprise there.  But the system also taps into wheel speed sensors and some
inertial stuff to enhance accuracy substantially.  It will typically quickly
correct itself such that it knows within a foot or two of where it is.  For
example, when it tells you to exit a ramp, it will put up a little bar 
indicating how far you are from it.  Almost always, that bar goes to zero
within a few feet of the point where the left white line of the ramp meets
the right white line of the road.  When it tells you to turn at an intersection,
the bar goes to zero within a few feet of the corner where the roads come 
together.  Pretty cool.

The digital maps are only updated every six months -- so in a rapid growth area,
you may find some roads missing.  And the whole US is not yet digitized in full
detail.  All the major highways are there; but they are adding cities one at
a time in full detail.  It knows where almost every road, every address, 
every restaurant, every gas station, every point of interest, etc., in the 
Dallas/Fort Worth metorplex.  But it can't tell you where the Tyler Rose Garden
is (though it can certainly get you to Tyler).  So, you may want to check whether
the cities you care about are fully digitized yet.

Ease of use -- well, entering in a street name can be a bit tedious -- they 
help by narrowing the list as you enter each letter -- but a touch-screen
would be much nicer -- or even better, a voice-activated system.  But it
will keep track of all addresses you've done recently and you can save off
important ones to make it easy to select addresses used repeatedly.

The routing software will always get you there in reasonable efficiency -- 
sometimes it has shown me much better ways to get places -- but often it
selects somewhat less than optimal routes (extra lights; slower speeds;
etc.).  But, you can direct it to re-route avoiding segments it has selected,
so you can usually get what you want.

Note that it can be useful in some ways you may not have thought of.  Consider
some places you know how to get to -- but you're not really that familiar with
the route so you're not always sure "Do I need to get over yet?  How much 
further?  Where's that fork?"  Let the navigation system "guide" you and it
will constantly display how many miles (to the tenth) you are from each 
turn/merge/fork/etc.  No more guessing.  No more hunting for exit signs.

Another would be detouring due to bad traffic.  You can experiment with 
different places to get off, look through the path it selects, and decide
if you think its better or worse than what you're doing.

But of course, it is most useful when either you don't know where you're going,
or you don't know where you are.  


For the Bubba's:  Ever wonder, "Where's the nearest Hooters?"
Get the navigation system, and your BMW will know!  You can ask it to list
them in order of nearest first -- select one and it will route you right to it.
What could be better?


Brian
98 M3/4 with BMW Nav System

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End of bmw-digest V9 #372
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