Navigation questions

[07EddyB]

I've searched through this section and not really seen anything since 2020 on the traffic capabilities of the navigation system. If it matters, we have the voice activated navigation on a 2022 with the smaller landscape screen.
In the manual it does mention Travel Link but apparently it requires a subscription.
So does the factory configuration include traffic alerts and congestion or is this an extra? And what has to be on for it to work? We have the wi-fi turned on but not the hotspot - I know it has cell service natively as we can use the connect app even outside the range of our wi-fi. Is this enough for traffic updates to reach the navigation unit if it even is available?
First long trip in this vehicle - only had it a few months. Before we used a nice TomTom that had a cell phone app that allowed you to use your cell phone to receive real time traffic updates and relay them to the GPS. The manual is very unclear on the nav capabilities - I'm basically looking for the same thing on the built in nav unit on the Ex but I don't see it being there.

 

[07EddyB]

I found this link which is interesting - not much luck on the Ford site.

Ford Trial Information

Infotainment Services
All properly equipped new vehicles with SYNC 3 navigation systems will also receive a 5-year2 trial subscription to SiriusXM Traffic or Traffic Plus and Travel Link. Eligible pre-owned vehicles include a 3-month trial subscription.

 

[Rick]

It's been ages since I set it up, but yes our 2020 does show construction and delays on the nav screen.

 

[07EddyB]

I hopped in the Ex a minute ago and it shows SUBSCRIBED for everything under Sirius. Even though I thought it only had a 3 month subscription to the music side. Very confusing - but during these times I guess it should be expected.

 

[07EddyB]

It's been ages since I set it up, but yes our 2020 does show construction and delays on the nav screen.

Good to know. I've been watching a few videos and they just show going to the Sirius screen and selecting the traffic info for a list. No one actually says it's active all the time and shows on the nav screen.
Still digging but it looks like I'll be updating the TomTom and we will go dual on the trip for a while at least. Heading for Florida for Fall Break - I65 South - it's not a question of if there will be wrecks and delays - it's a question of how many wrecks and delays there will be.

 

[Beargap]

I've searched through this section and not really seen anything since 2020 on the traffic capabilities of the navigation system. If it matters, we have the voice activated navigation on a 2022 with the smaller landscape screen.
In the manual it does mention Travel Link but apparently it requires a subscription.
So does the factory configuration include traffic alerts and congestion or is this an extra? And what has to be on for it to work? We have the wi-fi turned on but not the hotspot - I know it has cell service natively as we can use the connect app even outside the range of our wi-fi. Is this enough for traffic updates to reach the navigation unit if it even is available?
First long trip in this vehicle - only had it a few months. Before we used a nice TomTom that had a cell phone app that allowed you to use your cell phone to receive real time traffic updates and relay them to the GPS. The manual is very unclear on the nav capabilities - I'm basically looking for the same thing on the built in nav unit on the Ex but I don't see it being there.

Explorers with built-in Nav like yours should come with a 5 year subscription to Sirius Travel Link, but it is dealer activated and some just set it up for a 3 month audio-only subscription. However, Sirius can reset that if the car hasn't been titled before, which is what we had to do with ours. It uses the satellite receiver, so no cell nor WiFi nor Hotspot involved. That said, I am not sure how useful it is. We do get some red or green outlines on roads suggesting they are moving or stopped, but not all roads and often totally wrong. I knew a bridge was out for the next year on a trip to my son's house 2 1/2 hours away, but tested to see if it would route around it...nope! Took me right to the closed road and left me on my own to find a detour. I do see some construction symbols are shown on the map, but I don't know if they figure into routing. On a recent 6 hour trip, I did briefly see a message flash that we were rerouted for traffic delays after an hour on the road, but I couldn't tell when the rerouting happened. It was a different way than we went on the return, so maybe that was something useful.

The weather part of the Travel Link is pretty much useless. When a weather alert comes in for the county I am in or any within 100 miles it takes over the screen and repeats the message(s) (for each county) every few minutes and the only way to stop it is to disable the function, stop the car, turn the engine off, and open a door.

Frankly, I think the built in NAV is noticeably worse than what was installed before. The time to calculate a route is much longer, the time to resume routing after a gas stop is much longer, alerts for directions are often at the last minute or just after a turn, and the colors and graphics on the display are harder to read. On the Sony-supplied NAV units in the 2008 models we used before the routing was much faster and the displays were clearer and more intuitive. Navigating to a common destination was a button on the screen and not several menus down and side roads were visible without squinting and leaning in. Still, I prefer this to the cell phone navigation as we are out in the boonies and still find places with poor cell service, but the satellites are pretty reliable and the POIs seem to be much more plentiful in the new system.

 

[peterk9]

Good to know. I've been watching a few videos and they just show going to the Sirius screen and selecting the traffic info for a list. No one actually says it's active all the time and shows on the nav screen.
Still digging but it looks like I'll be updating the TomTom and we will go dual on the trip for a while at least. Heading for Florida for Fall Break - I65 South - it's not a question of if there will be wrecks and delays - it's a question of how many wrecks and delays there will be.

Welcome to the 6th gen Forum.
Looks like it's time to update your profile.

Peter

 

[07EddyB]

Welcome to the 6th gen Forum.
Looks like it's time to update your profile.

Peter

Both Explorers are in my sig - have been for a long time now. The 07 gets the place of honor as a nod of respect to the eldest. The Timberline gets demoted to the sig line befitting the young upstart that it is

 

[peterk9]

Both Explorers are in my sig - have been for a long time now. The 07 gets the place of honor as a nod of respect to the eldest. The Timberline gets demoted to the sig line befitting the young upstart that it is

Missed that Signature part. As an 'old dog', I'm used to looking at the margin profile.

Peter

 

[07EddyB]

So we returned from our trip yesterday - we used both the onboard nav and our TomTom (a GO 60 I think) and it was interesting.
Some of these points may be explained by me being unfamiliar with the settings but I went through them during the trip and couldn't work it out - YMMV.
The on board nav does report delays in a sense - it will randomly change your route without telling you why. Occasionally, it will show a red line on the map indicating a traffic issue - but what we noticed more often was that it would just reroute without telling us why. Suddenly our next waypoint would change to a side road off the interstate. When it shows a delay - it just tries to reroute without telling us what the delay is or how long the delay is.
Our old TomTom combined with the phone app will tell us where the delay is specifically and how long the delay will last. It isn't perfect - it's not always right but it gives us a sense on whether we should divert or not. It also suggests a divert route and shows the time compared to the expected delay and gives us the option to select the new route. We don't always divert - if it's reporting a 10 minute delay 30 miles ahead we will generally stay the course so it's useful having the details. Sometimes the delay is longer - sometimes it's shorter. But on average it's pretty accurate.
I also noticed that the on board was more aggressive about sending us on a different route on side roads rather than spending an extra mile or two on our current road. I tried the different settings and it didn't seem to change. We are familiar with the route we took and on several occasions we knew that staying on the current road would take us where we needed to intersect a road but the on board wanted us to make several different turns to hit the same road - usually at a very small savings in time or miles and usually much smaller roads.
It was interesting watching the two units disagree with each other on multiple occasions. The on board would certainly get us where we need to go but it's not as polished as our old stand alone unit - which is probably somewhere between 5 and 10 years old now. I'm not really surprised by that actually - it's our first built in and I've never really heard good things about them but for semi-local trips where heavy traffic isn't expected then it's good to have.
When problems and delays are expected, then we will continue to use our old unit.