Cool features of the Nav system

SeanE

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For what it's worth, I was in another brand of car that would pickup traffic and weather radar over HD radio for free and it worked quite well. No phone connected and no active Sirius/XM sub and yet it would always display traffic, weather, and radar.

The radar would take a few minutes to display when the car was first turned started. After reading the manual it said it was receiving the data free from HD radio depending on where the car was located. Maybe Ford is doing the same thing.

Never knew it was a thing, but it is...here's the link.
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SnBGC

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I wonder if it's using SiriusXM NavTraffic.

SiriusXM NavTraffic

It would be good to know since if it is, then at some point, there's going to be a fee.
I think you may be correct. I have this on my Focus Electric too (Sirius SM Traffic) and it works well.
I use it in the morning to know when the traffic is coming up (shows as a orange line (slower) or red line (parking lot) on the map. I then know it's time to move over to the left and get into the car pool lane. :)
 

SnBGC

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I noticed something interesting when using Nav. Looks like it will give some route suggestions. Sometimes I get 2 and sometimes I get 3 choices. I wonder if those correspond to Fastest, Shortest or Economical? They aren't labeled but you can figure it out I guess based on the distance and time shown in the little cards. Pretty cool. ?

Ford Mustang Mach-E Cool features of the Nav system 1615151824807


Ford Mustang Mach-E Cool features of the Nav system 1615151868211
 

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I think you may be correct. I have this on my Focus Electric too (Sirius SM Traffic) and it works well.
I use it in the morning to know when the traffic is coming up (shows as a orange line (slower) or red line (parking lot) on the map. I then know it's time to move over to the left and get into the car pool lane. :)
It seems unlikely. I don't think TomTom is associated with SiriusXM (but could be wrong). I expect TomTom is able to provide more granular results, I doubt SiriusXM can provide data on smaller roadways.
 

ClaudeMach-E

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Yeah cross posting another blog post:



Lets talk a little bit more about that Nav system, specifically two items in particular. I’ll first talk about how to get to them. We will start out on the main navigation screen. On the bottom left is an icon (I’ve probably mentioned it before) with some tools on it. Tapping it will open up the “toolbox”:

Ford Mustang Mach-E Cool features of the Nav system 1615151868211

The two items I’m going to highlight here are “Up Ahead” and “Exit Services”. These two features work by scanning the road ahead–in the case of Exit Services you must be on the highway for it to work properly.

Lets tap on “Up Ahead”: You’ll see a small window open up at bottom right listing points of interest ahead of you:

Ford Mustang Mach-E Cool features of the Nav system 1615151868211

The list will show you quick search results for four categories of your choosing. If nothing is found within a few miles or multiple items are found you’ll see the category name in the slot (“Charging Stations” in the image above). Otherwise you’ll see the closest item listed in the box (“Tim Hortons” above for restaurants). Tapping on the item will pop up the search results screen for that item (if its a single destination you’ll see that screen with the “Go” button on it, if its a category you’ll see the search results list for items in that category ahead of you). The list is dynamic changing as you drive to display the nearest items. If you don’t like the default four categories (Charge Stations, Restaurants, Banks?, and Parks) you can tap the pencil at top right and pick which category you want (on the edit screen you tap the slot and pick the new category you want to go there). This makes searching for places while on the road a lot quicker if they are always going on in front of you.

The other item of interest is “Exit Services”. Tapping on it will show a similar list to “Up Ahead” but the contents are a little different:

Ford Mustang Mach-E Cool features of the Nav system 1615151868211

This one will list out the exits ahead of you with the closest one at the top and further ones on down the list. The icon shows the services available at the exit (from what I’ve seen it would appear that if there are multiple different kinds of services available at an exit–for example an exit has both gas stations and restaurants–you’ll see multiple entries one for each service). Tapping on the entry will show the search results screen listing all the items in that category for that exit. A pretty handy way to search for the items with no need to tap where to and then find the category.

I’ve been using an app called iExit for years that essentially does the exact same thing “Exit Services” does. It tracks your location on the freeway and lists out what is at each exit in front of you. Its really nice to see something like this implemented in the car.

Both of these add a nice touch to the nav system that makes the Mach-E a pretty cool road tripping car (of course as Ford adds Sync 4a to other vehicles this will add to their road tripping skills as well).


Blog post is here but its the same text LOL:
https://spareelectrons.wordpress.com/2021/03/07/cool-features-of-sync4as-nav/
Can youn select what type of charging stations you are interested in like selecting L3 only chargers?
 


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JamieGeek

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Can youn select what type of charging stations you are interested in like selecting L3 only chargers?
Funny thing: I haven't really tried to mess with the search for chargers except for one time.

The one time it did lead us to an EA charger. Will have to play with that sometime.
 

Ixoye

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So is it also using crowd sourced data? Ford probably doesn’t want to add speed trap data.
I believe that they are getting their real time traffic data from HERE. Ford used to get it from INRIX where I worked previously. Now just parking and EV routing.
 

mattsaradan

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Has anyone figured out how to save destinations? There's a prompt to save home address, that was no problem. I can't figure out how to save my work address.
 

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I don't know where its getting its data but its been fairly accurate about traffic for me.
I know old Ford systems used Sirius traffic and weather but dont know if thats what they use now for traffic and weather
 

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Has anyone figured out how to save destinations? There's a prompt to save home address, that was no problem. I can't figure out how to save my work address.
Type an address and search it. Scroll up when it gives you the route options and there will be a star icon. Click it. Once it’s in your “saved” locations you can rename it.
 

mattsaradan

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Type an address and search it. Scroll up when it gives you the route options and there will be a star icon. Click it. Once it’s in your “saved” locations you can rename it.
Thanks - that worked! I keep forgetting to scroll - so many more options when you look for them :)
 

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Way back in the “old” days, when HD radio was introduced, in addition to allowing stations to have multiple “digital” channels (such as 94.1-2), the capability was put in place for stations to have “data channels”. These data channels would be used to broadcast data such as weather, streaming headlines (think a ticker), and traffic information. It was patterned after DAB in Europe where, I believe digital traffic information is provided over DAB by central traffic authorities. Here in the US, it never really took off. I think only a few markets even have digital traffic broadcasts. This is why SiriusXM with traffic, or Apple Maps are good. I believe they both rely on a combination of local private traffic services and smart highway information, where available.
 

JellyBelly

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Regarding Navigation -
I find that (seen this twice) when I set a route - drive a bit and stop on the way and turn off the MME; when I get back in, the navigation routing disappears as if the route has been canceled. I have to enter the destination again. Is this how its supposed to work? Or may be I am doing something wrong
 

SnBGC

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Regarding Navigation -
I find that (seen this twice) when I set a route - drive a bit and stop on the way and turn off the MME; when I get back in, the navigation routing disappears as if the route has been canceled. I have to enter the destination again. Is this how its supposed to work? Or may be I am doing something wrong
I haven't seen that yet. For me, It usually picks up where I left off. Sometimes if I forget to cancel the route when I arrive then when I leave it keeps trying to get me to turn around. :)
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