Comand v Waze

[AMGeed]

Having recently taken a longish trip from Poole to Center Parcs in Suffolk, I found the latest Comand map V19 in my E63 just as useless as the maps from 2004 I had in my last car.
It sends you on the wrong route and in one instance directed me to turn into a private lane through Elveden forest with an electronic key pad to gain entry to the locked gate! How can it be so wrong?

How much better is Waze?
A thousand times better. No route errors, timely warnings of obstructions on the hard shoulder, speed camera warnings and a clear concise map.
I've had it with Comand for routing to destinations I've not been to before. Too many errors and if followed, miles of unnecessary driving.

 

[EmilysDad]

I had COMAND in my 14 plate car updated from factory when I bought it 2 & half years back. There are loads of roads that it does not know that have been open for years.
And WAZE knows what's happening on the road now.

 

[sonic]

Just what I have been saying for years, my 2011 212 still has the 2011 mapping. £100 PA for map updates =£1,000.
I run Waze on our SLC via ApplePlay, & a TomTom 5200 Live on the 212. Not much difference between the two, but Waze has the edge in city traffic.

 

[Wearsafoxhat]

I, we have been using Waze for a few years now and find it very good. You have to trust it when it directs you away from where you think is best and just enjoy the detour.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[M80]

I, we have been using Waze for a few years now and find it very good. You have to trust it when it directs you away from where you think is best and just enjoy the detour.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I might be giving Waze a go again. I got tired of the warnings others felt they need to put into the system. They were too flippin' finger happy warning of pot holes every few yards and broken down cars that were on the hard shoulder.
The advertising wasn't ott but a bit annoying.

But TomTom is silly nowadays. It hangs on to it's initially decided route and will try to get me to return to it for miles when I have taken a detour knowing about traffic ahead. It is often very late to inform of hold ups so I end up sat in them. Like o/h motorway signs it seems to forget to remove congestion warnings that have cleared.

They are all better than nowt when in unfamiliar territory but I find it useful to test 'em when I am familiar. But as TT continually fails on the Live Traffic front it becomes less useful.

 

[Taffy7hfa]

Waze is very good, it has saved my bacon more than once when roads are congested or closed.

 

[Rory]

Mad, isnt it - we've got to the point where nav is pretty well standard on cars now (think it was a £2500 option on my car) and it's become useless. I've updated the maps with eBay DVDs from time to time and I'd say mine (NTG2) works pretty well.

It's certainly better than the nav in wife's Tiguan - I swerved a cheap lease deal a while ago on a Passat as the VW nav is so bad. I use Waze in her car but unfortunately it just pre-dates the ability to have CarPlay.

 

[A.J.]

So often you find yourself up roads that are barely wide enough for the car and you meet someone coming the other way

 

[flowrider]

I have been using Waze for years. The app has got better but it sometimes has an annoying preference of sending you down windy, narrow shortcuts when there is a perfectly suitable A road nearby just to save a few minutes of driving time. Another good app is ViaMichelin which has a very good "discover" routing option.

 

[Noddy 99]

I've been using Google Maps for the last two years; very impressed. Traffic updates in real time - the route switched to red the other day just as a tailback was starting to form in front of me.

 

[Frontstep]

Like Waze too used it this morning for a trip into Liverpool and got me round some big hold ups.

 

[LostKiwi]

I just don't get on with Waze. Don't like the graphics and all too frequent non-existent hazards.
Historically I've used a standalone TomTom or Google maps but since getting the 251 I'm happy using Comand in it (NTG2.5).
So far no bum steers or impossible roads.

 

[Botus]

Having recently taken a longish trip from Poole to Center Parcs in Suffolk, I found the latest Comand map V19 in my E63 just as useless as the maps from 2004 I had in my last car.
It sends you on the wrong route

I find her in the passenger seat giving away our privacy to google is often not as good as the 20 min lag traffc on my Merc. She screams, google screams, "get of the M25 the world ended... " I look at mine, zoom out on the comand knob and see there's nothing wrong and save 45 mins by staying put

note: google will redirect if the other route is <1 metre shorter or 10 seconds faster.... yet might be 1000% more effort and waste 3 gallons of petrol !!!

 

[Botus]

the other point have you got your comand unit set on shortest route, rather than fastest ? and with Traffic set to redirect when the world really has ended ?

 

[LostKiwi]

I find her in the passenger seat giving away our privacy to google is often not as good as the 20 min lag traffc on my Merc. She screams, google screams, "get of the M25 the world ended... " I look at mine, zoom out on the comand knob and see there's nothing wrong and save 45 mins by staying put

note: google will redirect if the other route is <1 metre shorter or 10 seconds faster.... yet might be 1000% more effort and waste 3 gallons of petrol !!!

I had an instance the other week of Google maps giving me a route, then changing it due to traffic conditions, then changing it back due to new traffic conditions, then changing it back to the alternative. If I hadn't ignored it I'd have zig zagged my way down country wasting loads of time and fuel.

 

[Rob7seven]

I might be giving Waze a go again. I got tired of the warnings others felt they need to put into the system. They were too flippin' finger happy warning of pot holes every few yards and broken down cars that were on the hard shoulder.
The advertising wasn't ott but a bit annoying.

But TomTom is silly nowadays. It hangs on to it's initially decided route and will try to get me to return to it for miles when I have taken a detour knowing about traffic ahead. It is often very late to inform of hold ups so I end up sat in them. Like o/h motorway signs it seems to forget to remove congestion warnings that have cleared.

They are all better than nowt when in unfamiliar territory but I find it useful to test 'em when I am familiar. But as TT continually fails on the Live Traffic front it becomes less useful.

Agree absolutely about TomTom, it was factory installed in my previous car, an Alfa Romeo Giulia, and I hated the stupid thing with a passion. I bought the car new, and in the first year, the thing didn't know about a French Autoroute that had clearly been there for years, and several times it directed me down farm tracks. It often wanted me to go down narrow single track roads with grass growing along the centre, when there was a proper two lane and more direct route that I eventually found my way back to, and don't mention their 'alternative routes' feature. If that was a state-of-the art TomTom, it's time that they gave up. It may not be perfect, but Comand is pretty good in my experience, though I haven't been far from home so far in my C300, maybe I'd feel less enthusiastic after longer foreign trips.

 

[Botus]

my car has never tried to take strange routes or dirt tracks

can those that find their NAV system does, confirm they have taken it off SHORTEST route *which will take unusual routes as in DISTANCE they are shorter ?
and that if they just want to get on with it, they have it set to take the FASTEST route ?
and that no one told it to avoid motorways, and especially for abroad to avoid toll roads or such (as they all have, in even harder to find menus)

this applies is you have a tomtom, garmin or comand system - they only ever do as they are ASKED - but many operators never looked or knew of this

 

[A.J.]

my car has never tried to take strange routes or dirt tracks

can those that find their NAV system does, confirm they have taken it off SHORTEST route *which will take unusual routes as in DISTANCE they are shorter ?
and that if they just want to get on with it, they have it set to take the FASTEST route ?
and that no one told it to avoid motorways, and especially for abroad to avoid toll roads or such (at they all have, in even harder to find menus)

this applies is you have a tomtom, garmin or comand system - they only ever do as they are ASKED - but many operators never looked or knew of this

I have my Garmin set on fastest route and it still takes me up roads barely wide enough for the car. It's a shame there isn't a setting for 'A' roads primarily which I wouldn't have thought would be too difficult to implement

 

[Blobcat]

I have my Garmin set on fastest route and it still takes me up roads barely wide enough for the car. It's a shame there isn't a setting for 'A' roads primarily which I wouldn't have thought would be too difficult to implement

There are settings to avoid A roads and main roads on my Garmin. It also has twisty roads as a preference

 

[Rob7seven]

I have my Garmin set on fastest route and it still takes me up roads barely wide enough for the car. It's a shame there isn't a setting for 'A' roads primarily which I wouldn't have thought would be too difficult to implement

I've had Garmin, Becker, TomTom and Comand in recent cars, and overall I've found Comand to be the best by some margin. I have my current one set for 'fastest route', and I did the same with previous systems, but that doesn't always work. When heading northwards from home, there's a long sweeping left hand curve on the M3 near the turn-off for Winchester. Comand copes with this no problem and keeps me on the motorway, but all the previous ones wanted me to go further left down a slip road to a roundabout under the M3, straight across, and up the slip road on the other side to rejoin the M3. Maybe the distance was a metre or two shorter, and it could indeed be fractionally faster, but if only it was possible to maintain 70mph on both slip roads and over the roundabout. You have to think ahead with any system, they can't drive the car for you. The only consistent minor Comand problem I've found is that it sometimes misses the number of roundabout exits, or can add additional ones. Not infrequently it's missed foreign, mostly French roundabouts altogether, but overall I'm happy with mine.