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Big Dog Daddy
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- 2021 F150 Lariat 5.0 4x4 Ex Cab Antimatter Blue
If the truck has "built in navigation" then you will have navigation all of the time via, GPS. If it doesn't have built in navigation then the system is only relying on cellular connectivity.
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SumGuy
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- #3
I have the factory nav. 502a high build. But I went up a canyon a few weekends back and the nav went gray and said "no signal". Even when we were out and in an area with poor signal, the nav came back on but placed the truck hundreds of yards off the road.
Maybe I have a setting wrong somewhere. I will have to dig into I guess. Stupid that the truck doesnt come setup to use the navigation out of the box, so to speak.
SuvE
Well-known member
If you were in a canyon, chances are the GPS signal got blocked. That has happened to me before. A marginal signal later on probably affected the accuracy.
If it does this out in the open, then different story. Built in NAV does not require cellular service.
If it does this out in the open, then different story. Built in NAV does not require cellular service.
s.v.t.
Well-known member
NAV that does not utilize cellular service still requires the use of GPS satellites. Otherwise, how else would your NAV (cellular or hard drive based) know where to position you at any given time? Until we can use quantum accelerometers, you'll have issues when you do not have 'line-of-sight' signal from a GPS satellite.
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Tomatoboy
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Both systems use GPS to obtain the location. Cell phones have GPS receivers in them too, although they can also cheat some since if they know what cell they’re connected to in the network they already know their approximate location. (I suspect there’s a decent chance the “built-in” and “connected” systems are just using the GPS receiver built into the Sync 4/4a system‘s connectivity chipset)
If there’s a major difference, it’s that the connected system doesn’t appear have a permanent base map. The old nav systems, and the “built-in” nav have a pre installed base map like when you bought a Garmin and it had the map installed. The connected one seems to only get its base map via cell service. No cell service and if can’t download the map. It’s still using GPS for the location. The only thing I haven’t been able to figure out is how much of the map is cached by the connected system…as in, how long after you lose cell service and you keep driving can you expect to “run out” of map. I would expect it to be a fairly substantial amount, to avoid drop outs when cell service fades, but I’ve yet to see documentation on the map area/file sized cached.
I would echo that if the accuracy was bad even after, there’s a decent chance GPS signal was blocked by terrain in the above example. GPS is pretty easily blocked by terrain, I have had it happen many times when hiking, particularly during lousy moments in the satellites passes when they’re all mostly low to the horizon. The dead giveaway its coming or going is that my location starts jumping all over the place each refresh.
If there’s a major difference, it’s that the connected system doesn’t appear have a permanent base map. The old nav systems, and the “built-in” nav have a pre installed base map like when you bought a Garmin and it had the map installed. The connected one seems to only get its base map via cell service. No cell service and if can’t download the map. It’s still using GPS for the location. The only thing I haven’t been able to figure out is how much of the map is cached by the connected system…as in, how long after you lose cell service and you keep driving can you expect to “run out” of map. I would expect it to be a fairly substantial amount, to avoid drop outs when cell service fades, but I’ve yet to see documentation on the map area/file sized cached.
I would echo that if the accuracy was bad even after, there’s a decent chance GPS signal was blocked by terrain in the above example. GPS is pretty easily blocked by terrain, I have had it happen many times when hiking, particularly during lousy moments in the satellites passes when they’re all mostly low to the horizon. The dead giveaway its coming or going is that my location starts jumping all over the place each refresh.
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SumGuy
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- #7
I appreciate the replies.
I have driven this canyon many times in my 4runner and the factory Toyota gps stays true the entire time. When I took my truck up for the first time I lost signal for at least a half hour and then we we emerged and were out in the open with no obstructions the gps was useless as it was several hundred yards off.
perhaps it was a fluke. We will be traveling around the mountains a lot this summer and I’ll be sure to note when signal is lost. Perhaps the comment about needing cell service in order to have a cached map. If that is the case then the trucks memory is only caching a few miles of map, which is horrid. Maybe there is a way in forscan to increase this?
I find it very odd to have no issues in a 14 year vehicle and have issues in a new truck is all.
I have driven this canyon many times in my 4runner and the factory Toyota gps stays true the entire time. When I took my truck up for the first time I lost signal for at least a half hour and then we we emerged and were out in the open with no obstructions the gps was useless as it was several hundred yards off.
perhaps it was a fluke. We will be traveling around the mountains a lot this summer and I’ll be sure to note when signal is lost. Perhaps the comment about needing cell service in order to have a cached map. If that is the case then the trucks memory is only caching a few miles of map, which is horrid. Maybe there is a way in forscan to increase this?
I find it very odd to have no issues in a 14 year vehicle and have issues in a new truck is all.
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