No Satnav Traffic Announcements

duncand · February 9, 2017

When I first got my car in June, I use to get satnav traffic announcements; delay, slow traffic, etc. Having played around with the settings, I stopped getting them. I've obviously changed some setting(s) which is not enabling announcements. Does anyone have ideas about how to get back the announcements? I've attached photos of settings. I use to have a Prius and it was so much easier to set up and I always got announcements when there were traffic issues.

Appreciate any advice.

Verbout · February 9, 2017

Is there a TA button on the centre console?

NemesisUK · February 9, 2017

Perhaps a reset would bring back the original settings and the announcements?

Steve44 · February 9, 2017

Is it Lexus Nav or Premium Nav?

Have you checked the Voice settings and volume, it needs to be on and turned up to at least 1 or you get no announcements at all.

RDS traffic announcements are only if you are tuned to a RDS enabled FM station, BBC radio or Classic FM should do it and then are listening to FM or USB or CD. If you are on DAB you won't get them.

NemesisUK · February 9, 2017

So, the Lexus Media system doesn't have dual tuners? In the Mercedes COMAND system there are two tuners.

Steve44 · February 9, 2017

Dunno, but when listening to DAB I've never had an FM RDS traffic announcement. On FM, IPod, Bluetooth, CD you get plenty. My guess is it does have 2 tuners but it doesn't break into DAB programme if it gets one. This is the premium Nav version.

it will be interesting to see if the Gen2 system in the new IS facelift has this or not, quite a few other things that are new/different with it.

Steve44 · February 9, 2017

Duncand also check in the radio settings that FM info is turned on. The pics you have in op are for Nav traffic info display using RDS data.

duncand · February 9, 2017

Thanks all.

Steve44 I think you've got it. I listen to DAB all the time, but when I collected the car it was set to FM and it wasn't until a few days later that I tuned into DAB. I'll try FM tomorrow.

So what happens when FM gets switched off?

Martin F · February 10, 2017

8 hours ago, duncand said:

So what happens when FM gets switched off?

Unlikely you will be driving this car by that point.

ISJason · February 10, 2017

On the first screenshot, I think the Avoid Traffic Events should be turned on.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

olliesgrandad · February 11, 2017

I have the settings set to give traffic announcements on my premium system but don't receive traffic info when using DAB.

royoftherovers · February 11, 2017

4 minutes ago, olliesgrandad said:

I have the settings set to give traffic announcements on my premium system but don't receive traffic info when using DAB.

Bet you receive them on FM though ?

See what the Handbook says Les.

Regards

John

NemesisUK · February 11, 2017

The Premium Nav handbook for the 2016 RC shows TA settings for both DAB and FM. One can set each independently.

duncand · February 11, 2017

I tried listening to FM yesterday, but didn't get any traffic announcements, even though traffic was it's normal slow pace. I'll keep trying and see if/when it gives announcements. I remember the Prius satnav (upgraded) was good. Used to get announcements of slow traffic and 3 years free updates.

My IS has standard satnva for Exec Edition.

Steve44 · February 13, 2017

On 11/02/2017 at 4:28 PM, NemesisUK said:

The Premium Nav handbook for the 2016 RC shows TA settings for both DAB and FM. One can set each independently.

So does the IS version, but I've never had the DAB traffic info. Either stations don't broadcast it (I think this is the reason), or its a bug in the system!

My previous car got traffic interrupts when listening to DAB, but it was FM station signals, not DAB.

duncand · February 15, 2017

Okay, changed radio channel to FM, Traffic Announcement enabled on sat nav, voice on, route home tonight and bang, straight into <20mph traffic on 70mph dual-carriageway and no traffic announcements all the way home!

So there's either something not set or the standard satnav TA doesn't work. Can someone confirm that their standard 2016 IS satnav works by giving TAs?

Steve44 · February 16, 2017

Which FM channel? Only certain ones give traffic report using RDS TMC. Classic FM does, as do most local BBC ones.

the sat Nav announcements are dependent on recieving either a RDS TMC message via FM, or an internet download via a tethered mobile phone and registered connected services account, though this is I think a premium Nav feature only. Can someone confirm?

If you run into an issue but the radio station or ITIS isn't aware of it you won't get announcements.

most reliable method is via a connected services tethered mobile on either Bluetooth or wifi.

NemesisUK · February 16, 2017

Again the handbook says as soon as TA is set On the unit starts searching for a station broadcasting TA

duncand · February 16, 2017

Thanks all.

RDS TMC is on. The only station that appears below this is Classic, whether set to Auto or Manual. On Manual and doing a search, only Classic appears in the menu. I tend to listen to BBC Scotland, a "local" BBC station, which does give TA announcements. So it appears that I'm not getting Traffic Announcements because I'm not listening to Classic, but the only station that appears in the menu is Classic, when clearly it's not the only station in Scotland broadcasting RDS-TMC!!! Is this a problem with the Satnav then?

duncand · February 16, 2017

Okay so I listen to Classic FM on the way home, with traffic slow (<30mph) on a 70mph dual-carriageway, no warnings or announcements on the satnav (I used to get them in the Prius). Get home and decide to see if I can find another RDS station at home by manual search. It finds Clyde FM only, not Classic? Strange since I live in Edinburgh (East Scotland) and Clyde is broadcast from Glasgow (West Scotland). I think a visit to dealer is due.

Steve44 · February 17, 2017

On longish trip from Scotland back to Northumberland tonight, had Traffic info on, updated using mobile phone on Bluetooth and connected services on Premium nav. Turned voice on. Was seeing traffic info on Nav, colours next to roads, signs where there are roadworks, accident info etc etc, plus getting announcements for slow traffic from Nav on breakdowns, incidents etc too. Also getting FM traffic reports from local BBC radio stations breaking into IPod music.

i then turned off the connected services bit for traffic in the Nav settings, forced it to RDS TMC and Classic FM. I lost all the traffic flow graphics, any signs on the screen and didn't get anymore announcements from the Nav system for traffic events. FM traffic reports on the radio still worked fine. Re enabled the connected services bit and all came back again.

my car is on latest firmware for the Nav system. Can only conclude either it is a bug in the system or Classic FM doesn't transmit any useful info for the Nav to decode.

duncand · February 18, 2017

I would have expected a manual search of RDS FM stations to list more than Classic FM or Clyde and so there must be something wrong. I'll try and make a visit to the dealer, but I'm surprised more people haven't experienced the same issue.

NemesisUK · February 23, 2017

Just coming back to this as have discovered a mass of settings regarding RDS and traffic info under Menu-Setup-Info and then either Traffic or Parking.

Then drill down through the various menu options. e.g. RDS-TMC station, Live updates, Traffic source

duncand · February 24, 2017

Thanks Nemesis, but my car doesn't have the Traffic or Parking options that you have. Perhaps those are on the Premium satnav.

I emailed Lexus CS and they said to connect my mobile and use it as a hotspot and they never answered why I can only get one RDS-TMC station. Here's their second response when I said I wasn't happy using my mobile data allowance.

"The car uses 3 data sources:
FM - this pulls in from RDS the Motorways every 15 minutes
DAB - this pulls in from TMC / RDS the A-Roads & Motorways every 15 minutes
Internet - this pulls in from the national database, average road speed sensors in signs / service stations / road sensors, traffic hot spots, predictions, etc for B,A and motorways continuously. The internet data connection, if used for 1 hour morning and night, 2 hours per day, 5 days a week for a month would use less than 6MB of data. There is no bug on FM, but it only looks every 15 minutes for a signal for traffic announcements (TA) on the chosen carrier signal (classic) if none are picked up it wont pull the data in, this is why tethering a phone will give more information, more often."

The implication is that we should get announcements on FM and DAB, but I don't get it on either!!

This was their first response:

"In regards to me previous email I have spoken with our Technical Team and they have advised that you check the following: Hotspot is turned on on the phone / phone is paired for internet data usage / You will need to be signed into your mylexus account."

duncand · February 27, 2017

Alright, finally getting pi**ed off with the inability of the standard satnav to give any traffic announcements and I thought I'd try and tether my mobile, as per Lexus's advice. However Connected Services, that enables tethering, is only available on Premium satnav. So dead end.