**DONOTDELETE**
07-01-2000, 03:05 PM
About a month ago, I wrote a “First Look” review of the GPS navigation system on the Infiniti QX4. At that time, the dealer had not received the CD with the street navigation information for Nashville, TN, so I had to base my review on a physical examination of the navigation system and setup menus, plus a careful reading of the instruction manual and information available on various web pages. Since that was a lengthy article, I won’t repeat the information here. Suffice to say that I was very impressed with the design of the system and its potential as described in the manual. I will be happy to provide a copy of that review to anyone who requests it.
The dealer called me last week to let me know that they had received the CD with the Nashville data, and he invited me to drop by for a test drive today. I have just completed that drive, and I want to share my experience.
The navigation system lived up to my expectations: It is a very well designed system that is aesthetically pleasing, easy to use, useful and entertaining.
Before beginning the drive, I spent about 15 minutes in the car at the dealer’s lot getting familiar with the system setup and operation. When you first power it on, it displays a legal disclaimer apparently written by some lawyer who was afraid someone might follow the guidance into a ditch. You must press “OK” to advance to the main navigation screen and options.
The QX4 navigation system has a color touch screen so you can rapidly select options and enter alphabetical letters by touching the screen rather than having to use a joystick to scroll a cursor around through menus and graphical keyboards. This is a major advantage that the QX4 system has over its competitors. The screen is larger than those in most other cars and is positioned fairly high on the instrument panel. You can manually dim the display for night driving.
There are many setup options available (it has a scroll bar), but once you set them they are retained for future trips, so you don’t have to mess with setup every time. For example, you can chose fastest route or shortest route, avoid expressways, avoid toll roads and avoid ferries. I selected the fastest route and allowed all modes of travel (we don’t have many toll roads in the South, thank God). You can also chose whether the map display has North at the top or whether it should rotate to show your current direction at the top. Another screen shows information about the number and location of GPS satellites that are available for navigation. In addition, it provides your latitude, longitude and altitude. The latitude/longitude information could be useful if you broke down or got stuck in a snowdrift somewhere and were calling for assistance.
After I finished going through the setup options, I pressed the “Dest” button located next to the screen to call up the destination selection screen. There are quite a few ways to specify your destination: street address, address book, street intersections and point of interest -- gas station, ATM, Infiniti dealers, hospitals, universities, bowling allies, ice skating rinks (I kid you not), and many other categories. If your location can’t be found by any other means, you can use the “Map” option and identify your destination by positioning a cross hair to a location on the map; I believe this is the only time that you have to use a joystick to make a selection.
I used the street address destination option and entered the address of my office, which is about 12 miles away from the dealer’s location. I was able to enter the address quickly by pressing keys on a graphical keyboard shown on the touch screen. After entering the address, the computer took about 8 seconds to calculate a route. We pulled out of the dealer’s lot, and the navigation system told us to enter the interstate ramp to head north to Nashville.
The navigation system provides both visual and audible guidance. The audible guidance is essential for safe use of the system while driving on busy roads. The audible guidance is provided by a pleasing and clear synthesized female voice. I have heard many other synthesized computer “voices”, and I would rate this as one of the best. It is very easy to understand and does not have the pieced-together sound that I’ve heard from some other systems. (It doesn’t have a Japanese accent either.) I turned the radio up loud to see what would happen when the navigation system tried to provide guidance over the music. (Would the electronic woman start screaming at me?) I was pleased to learn that Infiniti had considered this situation: when it’s time for guidance, the radio sound drops to a low (but still audible) level, then about a second later the navigation message is heard, then about a second after that the music returns to its normal volume. Cool. You can set the volume for the navigation messages independent of the radio/CD volume. (By the way, the QX4 is very quiet when cruising at 75-80 on an interstate.) There is a “voice” button displayed on the touch-screen that you can press to have the system repeat the last message that it provided. When cruising on the interstate, the voice button causes it to say how far you are from your destination. It also tells you how far the next turn is either in miles, tenths of miles or feet depending on how close you are.
While cruising north on I65, we passed several interchanges. Each time, the navigation system audibly reminded us to “Continue north on I65”. I became a little concerned when we cruised by my usual exit without any instructions to exit. However, there are a number of viable routes from the interstate to my office, so I decided to wait and see what the computer had in mind. Shortly later, the computer advised me to get into the left lane and continue on I65 at a point where it splits with I40. After that, we were advised to take the next exit. Guidance instructions are provided in plenty of time to allow you to change lanes and get ready to exit.
I then realized the route the computer had chosen: it was a good route and possibly even a minute faster than my usual route depending on traffic and the timing of traffic lights; however, unbeknownst to the computer, some of the roads between our location and my office are undergoing major construction and are closed. One of the setup options allows you to tell the system whether you want it to recalculate automatically the best route from your present position even if your have deviated from the originally calculated route. If you don’t turn on the reroute option, it will guide you back to the original route if you get off it. I had engaged the automatic reroute option, so I looked forward to throwing it a curve by turning on a side street to bypass the construction area.
The system didn’t reprimand me for deviating from the route, but immediately suggested that I turn right at the next corner, which would normally have been the best choice given where we were. However, that road was also under construction, so we proceeded on. The computer advised me to turn right at the next corner, which was possible, and I complied. Because of the detour, we then had to go away from my office for a short distance on a one-way street. I was pleased to see that the computer knew that it was a one-way street and did not ask me to turn onto the street going the wrong way (potential errors in the database like this are probably why they show the disclaimer when you turn it on).
After a few more correct turns, we were cruising down the street to my office. The navigation voice confidently announced that we had arrived at our destination when we still had about 300 feet to go. I don’t know if the premature announcement was to give us time to find a parking place, or whether its database of street addresses may be off by 300 feet, or whether there were GPS inaccuracies. In any case, I successfully found my office.
The navigation display has two modes: “Birdview” and planar. The planar view is just like looking a flat map: streets are shown with the planned route and your current location. This is the only type of view available on other car navigation systems. As far as I know, the “Birdview” system is unique to Infiniti (and Xanavi, a company partially owned by Nissan that makes the system). The Birdview display is shown from a perspective position located several hundred feet above and behind the car (i.e., like a bird or angel flying behind you). You see the road and routes extending into the distance and you see the car on the route in the foreground. Because of the natural perspective effect, roads close to your position are larger and have more detail. For an example image, go to http://www.xanavi.co.jp/en/nav/index.html or http://www.infiniti.com/docs/fr_qx4.html Their example shows major buildings as three-dimensional objects extending up from the ground. I didn’t notice this as we were driving into Nashville, but it may have been there. The Birdview display is very useful because it lets you see where you are and what lies ahead in the distance. I used it consistently while cruising on the interstate.
When you approach an intersection, the navigation display switches automatically from Birdview to a zoomed-in planar map showing details about the intersection and your route through it. To avoid trying to make the synthesized voice pronounce all the local street names, it simply instructs you to turn left or right at the next street. The name of the street that it wants you to turn onto is displayed at the top of the map. It does know how to say “Interstate 65 north”.
At present, the navigation databases only have detailed street information for a relatively small number of major cities. For example, in Tennessee, Nashville and Knoxville have been mapped, but Memphis and Chattanooga have not. Satellite towns outside the Nashville city limits also have not been mapped yet. For these unmapped areas, only interstates and major roads are shown on the map, and you cannot use the street address selection to set a destination.
Since the dealer is located in a satellite town south of Nashville (Franklin, TN), we were not able to use a street address to set our return destination. Instead, we used the Map option with the cross hair to identify our destination on the map. I noticed that a small flag with the letter “S” (start?) on it was shown at our starting point, so I centered the cross hair on it.
When we were a few miles south of the Nashville boundary, I tried to throw the navigation system a curve by telling it that we needed to detour around a mile of interstate. You do this by touching the screen, selecting “Detour” from a popup menu, then selecting 1, 5, 10 or 20 miles for the length of your route that you must detour around. After thinking about it for about 10 seconds, the computer announced that it was unable to find a feasible detour. I believe this happened because we were outside the detailed Nashville street area, and it did not know about side streets that it could have used for the detour. The rest of the trip back was uneventful, but it did not tell us to exit from the interstate -- presumably because it did not have the detailed street information to know how to get from the interstate to the point we marked on the map. It did announce that we had arrived at our destination just as we turned into the dealer’s lot.
I have only a couple of complaints: First, I would like the map display to appear automatically when you turn on the ignition without having to acknowledge their legal disclaimer every time. Second, the navigation map and the climate control system share the right portion of the touch screen. The climate control information (inside/outside temperature, vents activated, automatic/manual mode, etc.) is shown whenever you adjust the climate control settings, causing the map to shrink into the left half of the screen. However, when switching between the Birdview and planar displays when going through intersections, the screen sometimes reverted to showing the climate control information even though I had not adjusted the climate. It’s easy to expand the map to full screen by touching it, but I would prefer to never see the climate control information unless I made some adjustments to it. Third, the areas where detailed street maps are available are very limited. If I spend $40k for a car with a $2k navigation option, it would be nice if it could at least navigate through Memphis and guide me home to the suburbs. However, I should point out that the mapping data for all current car systems seems to come from one company, Navtech (http://www.navtech.com), so all brands of navigation systems have the same database limitations. Navtech says they are working hard to extend the mapping.
I enjoyed the test drive and plan to order a navigation system on my QX4 when I decide that I’m ready to spend $40k. I have looked at navigation systems on Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar and Alpine (aftermarket). I believe the Infinity system is state of the art: the touch panel and Birdview display are important advantages over its competitors. The color display is large and positioned high on the instrument panel making it easy to glance at while driving. The audible guidance is clear and easy to follow. The routing appears to do a good job as long as you are in an area for which detailed street information is available. The automatic reroute system is extremely valuable and works well and effortlessly. I found the system to be very user friendly and easy to operate.
Phil Sherrod
The dealer called me last week to let me know that they had received the CD with the Nashville data, and he invited me to drop by for a test drive today. I have just completed that drive, and I want to share my experience.
The navigation system lived up to my expectations: It is a very well designed system that is aesthetically pleasing, easy to use, useful and entertaining.
Before beginning the drive, I spent about 15 minutes in the car at the dealer’s lot getting familiar with the system setup and operation. When you first power it on, it displays a legal disclaimer apparently written by some lawyer who was afraid someone might follow the guidance into a ditch. You must press “OK” to advance to the main navigation screen and options.
The QX4 navigation system has a color touch screen so you can rapidly select options and enter alphabetical letters by touching the screen rather than having to use a joystick to scroll a cursor around through menus and graphical keyboards. This is a major advantage that the QX4 system has over its competitors. The screen is larger than those in most other cars and is positioned fairly high on the instrument panel. You can manually dim the display for night driving.
There are many setup options available (it has a scroll bar), but once you set them they are retained for future trips, so you don’t have to mess with setup every time. For example, you can chose fastest route or shortest route, avoid expressways, avoid toll roads and avoid ferries. I selected the fastest route and allowed all modes of travel (we don’t have many toll roads in the South, thank God). You can also chose whether the map display has North at the top or whether it should rotate to show your current direction at the top. Another screen shows information about the number and location of GPS satellites that are available for navigation. In addition, it provides your latitude, longitude and altitude. The latitude/longitude information could be useful if you broke down or got stuck in a snowdrift somewhere and were calling for assistance.
After I finished going through the setup options, I pressed the “Dest” button located next to the screen to call up the destination selection screen. There are quite a few ways to specify your destination: street address, address book, street intersections and point of interest -- gas station, ATM, Infiniti dealers, hospitals, universities, bowling allies, ice skating rinks (I kid you not), and many other categories. If your location can’t be found by any other means, you can use the “Map” option and identify your destination by positioning a cross hair to a location on the map; I believe this is the only time that you have to use a joystick to make a selection.
I used the street address destination option and entered the address of my office, which is about 12 miles away from the dealer’s location. I was able to enter the address quickly by pressing keys on a graphical keyboard shown on the touch screen. After entering the address, the computer took about 8 seconds to calculate a route. We pulled out of the dealer’s lot, and the navigation system told us to enter the interstate ramp to head north to Nashville.
The navigation system provides both visual and audible guidance. The audible guidance is essential for safe use of the system while driving on busy roads. The audible guidance is provided by a pleasing and clear synthesized female voice. I have heard many other synthesized computer “voices”, and I would rate this as one of the best. It is very easy to understand and does not have the pieced-together sound that I’ve heard from some other systems. (It doesn’t have a Japanese accent either.) I turned the radio up loud to see what would happen when the navigation system tried to provide guidance over the music. (Would the electronic woman start screaming at me?) I was pleased to learn that Infiniti had considered this situation: when it’s time for guidance, the radio sound drops to a low (but still audible) level, then about a second later the navigation message is heard, then about a second after that the music returns to its normal volume. Cool. You can set the volume for the navigation messages independent of the radio/CD volume. (By the way, the QX4 is very quiet when cruising at 75-80 on an interstate.) There is a “voice” button displayed on the touch-screen that you can press to have the system repeat the last message that it provided. When cruising on the interstate, the voice button causes it to say how far you are from your destination. It also tells you how far the next turn is either in miles, tenths of miles or feet depending on how close you are.
While cruising north on I65, we passed several interchanges. Each time, the navigation system audibly reminded us to “Continue north on I65”. I became a little concerned when we cruised by my usual exit without any instructions to exit. However, there are a number of viable routes from the interstate to my office, so I decided to wait and see what the computer had in mind. Shortly later, the computer advised me to get into the left lane and continue on I65 at a point where it splits with I40. After that, we were advised to take the next exit. Guidance instructions are provided in plenty of time to allow you to change lanes and get ready to exit.
I then realized the route the computer had chosen: it was a good route and possibly even a minute faster than my usual route depending on traffic and the timing of traffic lights; however, unbeknownst to the computer, some of the roads between our location and my office are undergoing major construction and are closed. One of the setup options allows you to tell the system whether you want it to recalculate automatically the best route from your present position even if your have deviated from the originally calculated route. If you don’t turn on the reroute option, it will guide you back to the original route if you get off it. I had engaged the automatic reroute option, so I looked forward to throwing it a curve by turning on a side street to bypass the construction area.
The system didn’t reprimand me for deviating from the route, but immediately suggested that I turn right at the next corner, which would normally have been the best choice given where we were. However, that road was also under construction, so we proceeded on. The computer advised me to turn right at the next corner, which was possible, and I complied. Because of the detour, we then had to go away from my office for a short distance on a one-way street. I was pleased to see that the computer knew that it was a one-way street and did not ask me to turn onto the street going the wrong way (potential errors in the database like this are probably why they show the disclaimer when you turn it on).
After a few more correct turns, we were cruising down the street to my office. The navigation voice confidently announced that we had arrived at our destination when we still had about 300 feet to go. I don’t know if the premature announcement was to give us time to find a parking place, or whether its database of street addresses may be off by 300 feet, or whether there were GPS inaccuracies. In any case, I successfully found my office.
The navigation display has two modes: “Birdview” and planar. The planar view is just like looking a flat map: streets are shown with the planned route and your current location. This is the only type of view available on other car navigation systems. As far as I know, the “Birdview” system is unique to Infiniti (and Xanavi, a company partially owned by Nissan that makes the system). The Birdview display is shown from a perspective position located several hundred feet above and behind the car (i.e., like a bird or angel flying behind you). You see the road and routes extending into the distance and you see the car on the route in the foreground. Because of the natural perspective effect, roads close to your position are larger and have more detail. For an example image, go to http://www.xanavi.co.jp/en/nav/index.html or http://www.infiniti.com/docs/fr_qx4.html Their example shows major buildings as three-dimensional objects extending up from the ground. I didn’t notice this as we were driving into Nashville, but it may have been there. The Birdview display is very useful because it lets you see where you are and what lies ahead in the distance. I used it consistently while cruising on the interstate.
When you approach an intersection, the navigation display switches automatically from Birdview to a zoomed-in planar map showing details about the intersection and your route through it. To avoid trying to make the synthesized voice pronounce all the local street names, it simply instructs you to turn left or right at the next street. The name of the street that it wants you to turn onto is displayed at the top of the map. It does know how to say “Interstate 65 north”.
At present, the navigation databases only have detailed street information for a relatively small number of major cities. For example, in Tennessee, Nashville and Knoxville have been mapped, but Memphis and Chattanooga have not. Satellite towns outside the Nashville city limits also have not been mapped yet. For these unmapped areas, only interstates and major roads are shown on the map, and you cannot use the street address selection to set a destination.
Since the dealer is located in a satellite town south of Nashville (Franklin, TN), we were not able to use a street address to set our return destination. Instead, we used the Map option with the cross hair to identify our destination on the map. I noticed that a small flag with the letter “S” (start?) on it was shown at our starting point, so I centered the cross hair on it.
When we were a few miles south of the Nashville boundary, I tried to throw the navigation system a curve by telling it that we needed to detour around a mile of interstate. You do this by touching the screen, selecting “Detour” from a popup menu, then selecting 1, 5, 10 or 20 miles for the length of your route that you must detour around. After thinking about it for about 10 seconds, the computer announced that it was unable to find a feasible detour. I believe this happened because we were outside the detailed Nashville street area, and it did not know about side streets that it could have used for the detour. The rest of the trip back was uneventful, but it did not tell us to exit from the interstate -- presumably because it did not have the detailed street information to know how to get from the interstate to the point we marked on the map. It did announce that we had arrived at our destination just as we turned into the dealer’s lot.
I have only a couple of complaints: First, I would like the map display to appear automatically when you turn on the ignition without having to acknowledge their legal disclaimer every time. Second, the navigation map and the climate control system share the right portion of the touch screen. The climate control information (inside/outside temperature, vents activated, automatic/manual mode, etc.) is shown whenever you adjust the climate control settings, causing the map to shrink into the left half of the screen. However, when switching between the Birdview and planar displays when going through intersections, the screen sometimes reverted to showing the climate control information even though I had not adjusted the climate. It’s easy to expand the map to full screen by touching it, but I would prefer to never see the climate control information unless I made some adjustments to it. Third, the areas where detailed street maps are available are very limited. If I spend $40k for a car with a $2k navigation option, it would be nice if it could at least navigate through Memphis and guide me home to the suburbs. However, I should point out that the mapping data for all current car systems seems to come from one company, Navtech (http://www.navtech.com), so all brands of navigation systems have the same database limitations. Navtech says they are working hard to extend the mapping.
I enjoyed the test drive and plan to order a navigation system on my QX4 when I decide that I’m ready to spend $40k. I have looked at navigation systems on Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar and Alpine (aftermarket). I believe the Infinity system is state of the art: the touch panel and Birdview display are important advantages over its competitors. The color display is large and positioned high on the instrument panel making it easy to glance at while driving. The audible guidance is clear and easy to follow. The routing appears to do a good job as long as you are in an area for which detailed street information is available. The automatic reroute system is extremely valuable and works well and effortlessly. I found the system to be very user friendly and easy to operate.
Phil Sherrod