And when do those maps become available to consumers?
We compile the map once a year and it will be available to customer on 2nd quarter for each year.
How does Nextar deal with construction detours?
We have "Detour" function on our GPS If a road is scheduled to be closed in advance for a long period of time, will the maps indicate this?
No. We got the mapping database from Navteq and what they been updating on mapping data including refreshing the POI ( Point of Interest), fixing incorrect address, expanding coverage, adding new addresses.
We wanted to go from our station in Philadelphia to the New Jersey State House. The system did not recognize the address so we headed to the center of Trenton, New Jersey and went from there. It never directed us to the State House but did recognize the road once we were on it. This should have been an user error. The address is 125 West State Street in Trenton, NJ (http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/legislativepub/directions.asp). User probably tried looking up West State Street first, couldn't find it, then selected West as the street name. The right street name is State. We were able to find the right address/location.
While on 95 in the City of Philadelphia, the system prompted us to get off the exit just a few moments before it came up. Usually the system prompts us at least 30 seconds beforehand. We need the starting point and destination to check the route and voice prompt. It may be special case problems since our system normally give users enough distance and time to react for exit or change of freeway.
The system did not always give us the most direct route. In fact, this team was usually the last team to arrive at a destination. The Nextar did not bring us on the highway instead directing us down a main road to get to our destination. What was the settings in Route Options? The most direct route is Shortest. If you have Quickest, it may route you on a "supposedly" faster but longer route. Also, having Reduced-Turns enabled may increase the route distance. Please provide the starting point and destination.
We also encountered a problem with recalculating. At one point, Nextar kept bringing us around an exit loop and could not recalculate to bring us to our main destination. Our route includes a starting block (5 mi radius), a destination block (5 mi radius), and connected by function class 1~3 roads (eg freeway and major roads). When you are not in the starting or destination blocks, route recalculation only uses freeway and major roads. If you are on a smaller street, it will direct you to a major road first. In downtown Philadelphia, the system lost the satellite on a few occasions and then would have to redirect the route because we missed turns. Most likely the signal was lost due to tall buildings like downtown area and it can happen when the car passing the viaduct or anything object shelter the GPS and affect the reception. we are using SIRF chipset which is the leading GPS technology company on chipset and receiver.
How do you suggest consumers avoid the problems we encountered and get the best results out of your system? >>>Address look up can be rather tricky, eg, is the street name West State or State. Consumer should not key in the suffix and prefix .
>>> Route quality can be improved. Suggesting consumer select "reduced turns" and use quickest if they prefer to use freeway most of the times.
>>> Updating the map once a year to ensure the map accuracy.
>>> Check out nextar.com support page from time to time for firmware update . We will post it online when we have new features for improvements.
>>> Most of Nextar new GPS featured with TTS ( Text To Speech ) Technology. The GPS actually spells out street names "Turn right on Main Street in 0.2 miles" instead of just "Turn right in 0.2 miles". It will help consumer to avoid looking at the screen too often and will be easy to tell when need to be turn when the GPS pronouncing the street name.
Is there a solution for the problems we encountered? We will improve the route quality issues. We would make special fixes since it only happens in certain areas.We are continue to work with GPS chipset company to get a better GPS receipting especially on high-rise building like downtown areas and we will consider adding another single sensor on high end model. Most of GPS in market only have one sensor ( for receiver only ) GPS satellite technology is all controlled by the same satellites set up by the government. Exactly what sets your system apart from the others on the market? In most situations, we have better routes and voice guidance and intuitive user interface.
What advice can we share with consumers that already own a Nextar system? Nextar continues to listen to customers' feedback and improving the software and map quality from time to time to ensure the accuracy and customer satisfaction meets.
Consumers can report the missing or incorrect map from our website which is: http://www.nextar.com/frontend/NAVTEQMapReporter.asp Nextar is pleased to announce its GPS Exchange Program. This program provides a great opportunity for owners of any Nextar GPS, even if it is malfunctioning, out of warranty, or has outdated maps, to exchange their current unit with the new GPS device with most updated map and more features included Visit our website for more info: http://www.nextar.com/frontend/exchangeprogram.asp
