My X1 subscription services have expired now - I downloaded the most up to date map recently so dont have any immediate concerns there.
For £99 I can get Connected Package Plus which has
1. Remote Services from my smartphone (very very occasionally I have used this)
2. BMW Online (have never used this and no need to)
3. BMW Connected + (send routes to car which I have used up to now)
4. Online speech processing (which seems to be some sort of digital / voice recognition (dont think I will use this))
5. USB Map Update
6. Real Time Traffic Information (when I did have this I was never very confident of it especially on routes where I had better local information)
So all of the above for £99. Definitely not worth it though if in the car myself I find it easier to use the car satnav rather than google maps (maybe just never set my phone up properly but the car does have Heads Up Display with sat nav instructions). Probably even less worth it nowadays where travel is limited and I may end up working from home when I come off furlough!
But on the other hand, I don't see the point in having equipment and capability in my car that I can't use for the sake of £99!
Any thoughts from other BMW owners?
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I pay the 99
1/ Remote services & 3/ Connected plus. Use it a lot.
Send routes to car very useful, find your car in a big car park, very useful, (both by map and making the lights flash)
2/ Never use it - except spotify sometimes
4/Online speech processing? dunno I talk to the car and it does a few things
5/ USB map update, I do this 4 times a year. I use google maps, but Its good to have a backup in case signal disappears.
6/ RTI - I have compared it to google maps traffic, its nearly as good.
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Cheers interesting re RTI though to be fair I don't think I have ever sat down and fully understood all the processes involved with different diversions etc.
I might be driving down to visit my brother in Bishops Stortford next week once I cross check all the Covid rules and regulations between here and there - if I do, then I will most likely pay the £99!
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I was wondering who provided the real time traffic for my Skoda system. Then one day I actually bothered to click through the "info" settings and looked at the version numbers and small print. It says the traffic info comes from TomTom, so that's pretty reasonable.
Dunno if Tomtom have partnered with BMW as well though.
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I would be mildly surprised if the base mapping in a Volkswagen were provided by TomTom, though it's not impossible, and certainly there might well be an arrangement with TomTom for real-time information.
I'd be even more surprised in the case of a BMW, however, since they are part-owners of TomTom's main competitor in the mapping space, "Here".
HERE was Navteq, was bought out by Nokia and subsequently rebranded HERE, and then bought by a consortium of Audi (hence the question mark over VW), BMW and Daimler/Mercedes. There are now a few more companies in the consortium.
Given the ownership, I strongly suspect BMW Nav Data is supplied by HERE, and I'm pretty sure they have their own real-time traffic systems.
Incidentally, I believe Garmin uses largely HERE mapping.
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This is obviously a stupid question but is there anything more accurate than google maps? Especially with real time traffic info?
Do they not make this available to car makers?
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Our A3 e-tron used google earth for its mapping, but I can’t remember where the traffic info came from. Despite that being a 2014 car, with 2012 tech, the mapping imagery was far better than that in the 2016 2 series (which was unchanged from that in a 2012 5 series), the MINI (which also looks just like the 5 series) or the Merc. Not sure why more don’t use google earth/street view
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>> This is obviously a stupid question but is there anything more accurate than google maps?
>> Especially with real time traffic info?
The answer is no, there is nothing more accurate, by a very large margin, than google maps. And thats entirely because google is more or less tracking everyone (and hence their progress) with an android phone.
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From someone who works for Waze I understand that Google maps is about 30 minutes behind Waze in terms of real traffic information.
Three weeks ago I did a return trip to Grantham from Manchester. The A1 was shut northbound and only Waze knew this and redirected me, Google maps did not and was trying to direct me through the roadworks.
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Netsur, do you mean you/some one you know are an editor? I did that job as well, years ago when Waze didn't even have the roads around here and you got "prizes" for driving over them, and making the first map.
Anyway, do you know if the ghastly new feature of announcing a "railroad crossing" will be anglicised, so at least would say "level crossing" instead?
Last edited by: Crankcase on Sat 4 Jul 20 at 12:25
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>> Netsur, do you mean you/some one you know are an editor? I did that job
>> as well, years ago when Waze didn't even have the roads around here and you
>> got "prizes" for driving over them, and making the first map.
>>
>> Anyway, do you know if the ghastly new feature of announcing a "railroad crossing" will
>> be anglicised, so at least would say "level crossing" instead?
>>
Sorry CC, the person who told me was a lowly advertising person but the deal when google bought waze was that waze retained independence and its time lead ahead of google for traffic data. It is very much a US American language company but you can change the voice to UK English (I like Natalie...).
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Where does Waze get its info from?
Vast majority of cars have phones within them that Google are tracking.
What is more accurate than that?
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>> Where does Waze get its info from?
>> Vast majority of cars have phones within them that Google are tracking.
>> What is more accurate than that?
Google owns waze, the data is realtime shared between the two apps, the only difference is the graphical interpretation and the choices of what info you see.
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>>Google owns waze, the data is realtime shared between the two apps, the only difference is the graphical interpretation and the choices of what info you see.
Google does own Waze, but the experience is quite different.
In Chile the differences include;
Waze will find a road but it is rubbish at house numbers. And since a street here can easily run to 15,000 numbers, and flip through various one-way directions, that matters.
Google is far better, in pretty much every way, for map-based navigation but suffers on teh real time information.
Waze allows user input. Consequently one always knows where Carabinero road blocks and military check points are, for example. Also one knows very quickly where incidents and closures are. Thought there are sometimes false alarms - rare, but not unknown - but rare enough to be a price worth paying.
About a year ago Google announced they were releasing the same functionality on Google Maps, but as far as I can work out they have not actually done so.
p.s. Waze also sucks on battery consumption - which may well be related to the real-time information.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sat 4 Jul 20 at 23:39
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>> (I like Natalie)...
Blimey, you've only been away from home for a couple of days. Steady on man !
;-)
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sat 4 Jul 20 at 20:21
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...it's 'phone sex, but not as you know it!
;-)
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>>but you can change the voice to UK English (I like Natalie...).
Thanks. I was going to say i already do that but now remember I use the Australian female voice. It's the most natural sounding to me, if you want road names and numbers.
I'll experiment.
Since Waze took away the ability to report hazards by voice a few months ago it's less useful. The UK has just got Google Assistant integration, so you can navigate by voice again now, but still not report potholes etc.
Incidentally there's a website somewhere showing all the things Google has killed, often with little notice. A good reason not to pay them for any service without a backup plan, not that you pay directly for the satnavs. I slightly worry about Nest though.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Sun 5 Jul 20 at 07:50
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I think Google are in process of buying Fitbit.
I have a Fitbit that is linked to my Strava and MY Fitness Pal apps. So no point in worrying what Google might do in respect of my privacy!
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I wrote somewhere here about a middle of the night trip from Bristol Airport to Home which is pretty much through Bristol, M32, M4 and home.
Waze and SWMBOs Yaris (which we don;'t pay any sub for) both showed the M4 closed in multiple places due to works but Google maps had it completely open, even by the time we got home. This was less than 2 years ago. I prefer Waze anyway.
Last edited by: smokie on Sat 4 Jul 20 at 15:07
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I emailed BMW for more info:
Thanks for your email about ordering Connected Package Plus.
I’ll be happy to provide some information about Real Time Traffic Information.
RTTI uniquely combines information from a number of sources, including other BMWs, GPS devices in smartphones and vehicle fleets as well as the emergency services to accurately present the current traffic situation to an accuracy of a few hundred metres.
Traffic flows are displayed on the vehicle navigation screen using a colour coding scheme with data updates every three minutes. Intelligent route guidance constantly looks for time efficient alternatives and recommends potential detours.
The roads on and around your route are clearly colour coded indicating the relative speeds being reported from our data sources. Green indicates free flowing traffic, Orange shows traffic slightly slowing, Red is heavy traffic and you can expect delays and Black is a road closed indicator.
If you’re unhappy with how this works for any reason, you can get a refund within 14 days from date of purchase.
I think I’ll go ahead and order it anyway!
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BMW Sat Nav - who provides it? - Zero
