How about an upgrade to the navigation system?

[Steve0512]

if Bill Ford wants to play Santa for us. How about offering us an optional upgrade to the nav. System? It is a well known industry fact that Ford installs the cheapest navigation software they can get in their cars. Why not offer us an option to upgrade that system to something better? I would be more than willing to pay for a site license to get Garmin software to run in my car.

 

[davideos]

Is this in reference to a $150 offer for a map upgrade? I just got a letter for this yesterday. Although I usually wouldn't do it, I'd consider it if I could preview the map first. A few new streets have been added near me, but they are so new, they will likely not be on any upgraded map. Perhaps I'll wait for the next upgrade.

 

[Steve0512]

No, I was speaking hypothetically. If you received an offer to pay $150 to update your map, the first thing I have to say is WOW! That is a ridiculous price. My Garmin Nuvi that I stick to my window gives me free upgrades for life. And free traffic too!

This feeds into what I was talking about. OEM navigation systems are usually subpar. Everyone I know who has a navigation system built into their car. Still goes out and buys a REAL GPS for $200 and sticks it to their window. If Ford can get away with charging $150 for a map upgrade. There is no way they will give us an option to ditch their junk and install some better software. Poof! There goes my dream.

 

[jmueller065]

Have you used the Nav system on the FFE yet?

What features of an external Nav system are you looking for that you think are absent from the Ford nav system? (other than the aforementioned map updates--they have got much cheaper! Before My Ford Touch map updates were almost the cost of a new radio..along the lines of $1000. By comparison $150 is a bargain! LOL).

Here is one that no 3rd party nav system will give you: The Nav in the FFE knows about the FFE. When you program in a destination it will tell you if you can make it there or not. You can program a route in with multiple stops informing the car if you'll be charging at any of the stops. The car will then coach you how to drive the route so you can conserve your energy to make it.

 

[EVA]

Steve - I get it you were dreaming and your dream bubble is burst for a new and better NAV system. That's sad.

Sorry - I have to disagree with you about "It is a well known industry fact that Ford installs the cheapest navigation software". When I think about what that software can do as JMueller described to you, along with multiple destinations - the software is pretty darn good. Routing is even pretty good. I'm a dyed in the wool Garmin fan - have had many of them. I don't feel like putting one in the FFE. I have three of them that I could install, haven't done it.

Then I compare the NAV system in other cars - the Ford is really darn good. And of course I would mention Tesla - their Nav sucks big time. If it wasn't for Google maps on the big screen, I would seriously hate it. But then again, that was free, with free updates.

 

[davideos]

Looking on e-bay, the A4 map is going for around $25. The new A5 can be had for $65 to $99. I think I'll just wait for the next update and by the A5 on e-bay for 1/6th the retail cost.

I did poke around, I could not find a site showing which streets are updated. I did see something similar on a Garmin update I was looking at several years back. And besides, the FFE is unlikely to travel 70 miles from my home; I don't really need all of the USA and Canada .

 

[ElSupreme]

The routing the FFE does is (in Atlanta) IMHO better than most. It has some weird preference for turning right, and turning at lights, but in general is better than my Model S (hybrid GarminNavigon/Google/Tesla routing). And probably better than the Model S was before 'traffic routing' messed everything up in the last update.

And the added knowledge of remaining range is really helpful for planning, and driving, out long trips/days.

Although the speed and UI could be a bit better on the Ford.

 

[hybridbear]

I don't care for the routing of the Ford navigation system. It tends to be overly heavily reliant on freeways, choosing to drive miles out of the way to take the freeway for a short distance through the city. It thinks that this is faster and it often shows the freeway route to be somewhere around 1-3 minutes faster, but many miles longer and more energy intensive. If I choose to deviate from its route because I am avoiding traffic or for some other reason it tends to keep trying to tell me turn around and make a U-turn to continue on its initial route. Sometimes I have to go miles down the road before it will give me a new route. This works fine around the city where I know where I'm going and only use the map for gauging my range and for the occasional confirmation of a section of a route that I'm unfamiliar with. If I were driving in an unfamiliar city its choice of routes would be very frustrating.

 

[jmueller065]

I don't care for the routing of the Ford navigation system. It tends to be overly heavily reliant on freeways, choosing to drive miles out of the way to take the freeway for a short distance through the city. It thinks that this is faster and it often shows the freeway route to be somewhere around 1-3 minutes faster, but many miles longer and more energy intensive. If I choose to deviate from its route because I am avoiding traffic or for some other reason it tends to keep trying to tell me turn around and make a U-turn to continue on its initial route. Sometimes I have to go miles down the road before it will give me a new route. This works fine around the city where I know where I'm going and only use the map for gauging my range and for the occasional confirmation of a section of a route that I'm unfamiliar with. If I were driving in an unfamiliar city its choice of routes would be very frustrating.

Have you tried the other options? You can select "Fastest route" (almost always highway), "Shortest route", or "most efficient route". For me the "green" route (most efficient) seems to always pick the side roads.

 

[Steve0512]

For those that are touting the ability of the nav system to base its navigation on the available battery power. Any third party vendor with a Bluetooth dongle plugged into the OBD port can do the same thing.

 

[jmueller065]

Any third party vendor with a Bluetooth dongle plugged into the OBD port can do the same thing.

That is doubtful, but not for the reasons you would suspect: Many of the OBD dongles available on the market will crash the FFE causing a "stop safely now" message on the dash.

In addition you're just spending more $$ just to duplicate functionality that the car already has.

 

[hybridbear]

I don't care for the routing of the Ford navigation system. It tends to be overly heavily reliant on freeways, choosing to drive miles out of the way to take the freeway for a short distance through the city. It thinks that this is faster and it often shows the freeway route to be somewhere around 1-3 minutes faster, but many miles longer and more energy intensive. If I choose to deviate from its route because I am avoiding traffic or for some other reason it tends to keep trying to tell me turn around and make a U-turn to continue on its initial route. Sometimes I have to go miles down the road before it will give me a new route. This works fine around the city where I know where I'm going and only use the map for gauging my range and for the occasional confirmation of a section of a route that I'm unfamiliar with. If I were driving in an unfamiliar city its choice of routes would be very frustrating.

Have you tried the other options? You can select "Fastest route" (almost always highway), "Shortest route", or "most efficient route". For me the "green" route (most efficient) seems to always pick the side roads.

The Eco route almost always picks a strange route with a thousand stop signs or traffic lights. I usually try to minimize stop signs & traffic lights. Or, it often is identical to the fastest route, including traveling extra miles to take the highway.

 

[michael]

As the owner of two Volts and the frequent driver of a RAV4-EV, I think the Ford unit is by far the best of the three.

RAV-4 EV provides no linkage between your route and your ability to reach it (although the RAV's battery size makes it far easier to reach). You have to look at miles remaining and miles to destination and keep track. No cup of energy or anything like that.

Volt is complex and has no linkage to battery (although you don't much care since there's always an engine). It does provide the ability to store favorite routes, not merely favorite destinations. And with Onstar, the voice recognition problem is solved...you get to talk to a real person.

But the Ford unit I find easy to use, easy to read, and quite capable...totally satisfactory.

 

[NightHawk]

As the owner of two Volts and the frequent driver of a RAV4-EV, I think the Ford unit is by far the best of the three.

RAV-4 EV provides no linkage between your route and your ability to reach it (although the RAV's battery size makes it far easier to reach). You have to look at miles remaining and miles to destination and keep track. No cup of energy or anything like that.

Volt is complex and has no linkage to battery (although you don't much care since there's always an engine). It does provide the ability to store favorite routes, not merely favorite destinations. And with Onstar, the voice recognition problem is solved...you get to talk to a real person.

But the Ford unit I find easy to use, easy to read, and quite capable...totally satisfactory.

Thanks for that excellent review and comparison based on personal experience.
I wonder how the other major lower cost electric vehicle (Nissan Leaf) compares in this area?

 

[jenjc]

I deeply appreciate the FFE nav system's ability to work with my car's software to give me "The Blue Budget Cup"; especially when I'm making multiple stops along the way. I also use the feature of downloading destinations from my computer to the car.

Yes, it is annoying when you go off route, it continues to insist you go back. I ignore it. The Blue Budget Cup is still accurate enough to help me manage my energy consumption. I also wish the nav system didn't have to think so hard every time I touch the screen.

That said... my car is a commuter car. In general, I'm pretty familiar with the area my car will reach and the various routes I might take given particular traffic conditions. If I need help getting to a specific address I've never been to before, the FFE nav is great for those last few miles.

For me, the link between the nav system and the energy software is an example of why I bought the FFE.... intelligent engineering that makes a difference to the user.

Jenny

 

[jmueller065]

As an aside: You can go into the navigation settings and setup the system so it will only give you quiet beeps at the prompts instead of having the sync lady blabber on and on--it makes it easier to ignore when going off route (and doesn't disrupt your music as much). I think you can turn off the audio prompting all together if you simply want it to shut up.

 

[NightHawk]

As an aside: You can go into the navigation settings and setup the system so it will only give you quiet beeps at the prompts instead of having the sync lady blabber on and on--it makes it easier to ignore when going off route (and doesn't disrupt your music as much). I think you can turn off the audio prompting all together if you simply want it to shut up.

Yep I did that on day one!
I only get the nav voice if I manually press the OK button with the nav display on the small right side screen if I want vocal direction only when I want it. But usually just reading the direction on the small right side display is enough.