how does the map get into the radio?

In a new car radio with GPS, how does the map get into the radio? Does it receive cellular data, wifi, or come already installed?

What if you want to install the next year's version?

My current 2005 toyota has a map on DVD, and it's not got all the roads, even the ones that existed then. A repacement DVD is 90+ dollars! but mine is good. OTOH, one for 2011 is only $20, but I'm guessing it won't work right??? And I don't know if it has many more roads or not. Maybe it only has more recent stores.

And I don't see anything newer than 2011, so I figure they don't use DVDs anymore. ??

I don't need navigation, only occasionally to know where I am.

If the GPS map on new radios isn't a lot better than what I have, I'd rather save a couple hundred dollars and get a radio withou it.

Reply to
micky
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That's why Nav on a car is a waste. Upgrades cost more than a good Tom_tom

Reply to
Clare Snyder

Micky, GPSs can't work miracles.

There are a confusing number of models but you can get a Garmin Nuvi for less than $100 with lifetime map updates. The updates are done with wifi. The ones with real time traffic updates are more expensive and may not be useful depending on where you live.

Digital maps have varying quality data. Urban areas are usually more up to date than rural.

Reply to
rbowman

A simple solution that will be shot down.

Reply to
ItsJoanNotJoann

Get the radio without it.

I don't know about the prices, but some of the new cars with navigation have a USB slot where you download the maps on a computer and then transfer them with a USB drive to the car.

As many said, just get a Garman or such with the lifetime updates for free.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

After owning both Garmin and Tom-Tom I'll never own another garmin.

The TomTom updates by connecting to a computer on the internet. On our recent (just got home yesterday) 9000km trip there was only one situationwhere the GPS got confused - in Coldwater Michigan where it had trouble finding the Quality Inn, hidden way back in behind the amusement park - where it tried to send us in through a campground.

Reply to
Clare Snyder

That would save money, and I'm more likely to find a radio with real buttons, which are easier to use when driving.

Thank you for answering my question!

I don't want another device. I just want a radio, which may or may not have GPS. In order to judge whether to get GPS, I need to know how much detail the map will have, but if the map is bad, that just means no GPS, not that I would buy an additional device to have a better map.

Thanks.

Reply to
micky

Is it a miracle to tell me where I am?

I don't want another device, just a radio which may or may not have GPS.

I hadn't thoughty about traffic updates, but that would definitely require a receiver and a higher price. There is pretty much only one route to take to work, so knowing about the traffic doesn't help.

In Chicago where the streets are on a grid, one can just take a parallel street if there is traffic, but not here.

This DVD does have more streets within Baltimore, but I have a paper atlas of Baltimore which has all that too, and more, and I rarely go some place I haven't been to 10 times. The DVD wasn't up to date on the rural areas even when the car was made. At least it doesn't have enough detail.

Reply to
micky

The maps are usually very close from one GPS to the next if they are updated.

I don't care too much for the radio, but do like being able to plug in a USB drive into the audio system to play songs of my choice. You do not need the GPS option for that.

I bought a 2017 Toyota and it came with sort of a GPS, but not really. From what I get out of it, it seems that it has a map that works off my cell phone. You start out with it and it calculates here you are and which way to turn. If you get off the given route it still thinks you are on it. So it is worthless. They do make a true GPS for that car,but it just was not on the one I bought.

I have a Garman with lifetime updates that I like to use and can move it between the car and truck as I need to. While not allways accurate it has a traffic warning for the traffic jams and backups.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

No question, just background:

A couple weeks ago I went to Harrisburg, Pa. and took the long way home to Baltimore because it's more interesting.

Along the east shore of the Susquehanna River. After a while I wanted to see where I was, largely because there are bridges over the river near Harrisburg and between Lancaster and York. And again on Route 1 and I-95.

But there is only one bridge in between those 2 areas.

Two years ago I had to ask for directions, and the first 4 people said they were visitors and didn't know! Turns out, the road to the bridge doesn't say it goes to the bridge! No signs.

The car's GPS was too vague, and you can only slide the map a little bit away from where I am now, and even then it bounces back. Zooming out takes away too much detail.

Because I'd driven this way once before, I'd forgotten to reload maps to the phone, google maps and maps.me, so google maps only had the map it comes with that that covers the whole US. Showed where I was, even though it didnt' show a road there. Almost enough, but not quite.

I ended up using my paper map of the entire state of Pennsylvania, that is 20 or 30 years old. Can't zoom in but it still had enough landmmarks and highway numbers that it worked. I carry maps for Md. and adjacent states in the car all the time.

If the car didn't have GPS, I wouldn't miss it, wouldn't want it, but it has a rudimentary form of it that tantalizes me.

Reply to
micky

Right. I do that too. But not from a port right in the radio. I have to plug something into the cigarette lighter. Despite that it works, that was another reason to get a new radio, but I twisted the thing 90 degrees and now I can see the buttons and it's pretty easy to replay a song or skip to the next song.

Clever. I didn't have a specific method in mind, but I thought there would be some 4th method by now. A shame it doesn't work better.

Yes. I often see things that make me turn off the route.

Reply to
micky

That's why I use my Android cell phone and Google Maps. It has live updating of the traffic conditions ahead, shows yellow or red on sections of roads with slow traffic and offers alternatives to go around, if it makes sense. It's great for walking directions in cities too. And no need to buy anything else, it's in even the cheap phones.

Reply to
trader_4

No cell phone? Google Maps works very well for me.

I just want a radio, which may or may not

Reply to
trader_4

Yeah, I have a phone. Like I said, if the car didn't have a mediocre one, I wouldn't want a better one. I wouldn't want anything. But I know myself, and I at least have to look into this.

Reply to
micky

That's one reason why I don't want another device. I already have a phone, but it would be nice if it displayed on the dashboard.

And the question in the subject line was of interest regardless.

Answers to questions like "how does the map get into the radio?" are not obvious from displays at Best Buy or ads on Amazon, and often not mentioned even in reviews.

Reply to
micky

I have a Garmin too with lifetime maps and traffic but had to fight with it yesterday having to route around a road closure when it kept trying to reroute me back to it. Not the first time I've either had to ignore it or turn it off.

Don't know about current Toyota's but a friend said it would cost $200 to have dealer put new maps in his Rav 4. Garmin maps may be updated as much as four times a year. It is not just road changes but new business openings and business addresses changing.

Reply to
Frank

Wow. I'd rather be lost than spend $200.

I mean, they found the Thai cavers. Surely someone would find me eventually.

Reply to
micky

Paper maps are FREE at any DMV. Thats all I need!!!!

Reply to
wokeuponwrongside

Its a real money make for them. Most cars are $100 to $200. My car has

3 years included or I'd not bother.
Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Get a dash holder for the phone.

Idk why the answer would be at best buy, did they build the car? I would expect it would be in the owners manual for the car. Or failing that a simple google search would find it.

Reply to
trader_4

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