Tmc System In The Multimedia Unit

GaryC · May 8, 2008

I had TMC (Traffic Message Centre) on my Mercedes COMAND sat nav and it was pants.

It only worked on motorways, was always out of date and inaccurate. Never any use at all.

The one in the Lexus is tops. It's shows loads of information and works on A roads as well - it seems faster as well to update.

One a journey home from work the other day on the A34 bypass it showed congestion on one of the roundabouts. Sure enough when I got there it was a bit congested.

Then going into work yesterday it showed a lane closed ahead and again it was.

I think the multimedia unit must have a separate tuner especially for TMC - it's brilliant !

The biggest surprise is it working on A roads. If the backend system is the same then it should have worked on my Mercedes COMAND but it didn't

Scarlet Pimpernell · May 8, 2008

It's fairly mixed in my experience. A few times I have ignored it and ther have been no holdups at all...I always back it up dialling AA roadwatch...

I think it all uses Traffic Master anyway, so it's only as good as. Sometimes it has asked me to leave a motorway, I gt to a roundabout, and then it re-calc's and asks me to get back on the same carriageway! And yes it does have a separate unit for TMC from hat I read. It's good overall...

BTW - it's been replaced already once (like many bits in my car).

Barry Lavin · May 8, 2008

Bring maps with you if you ever come to Ireland. Even the most up to date, update is rubbish and as for TMC, whats that? Obviously satellites dont fly over Ireland.

DJ Wozza · May 8, 2008

... Obviously satellites dont fly over Ireland.

To be sure, to be sure :winky:

I had a GS450h last week for 1 day, I had no idea the TMS was fitted, but it chirped in and recalculated a route

to avoid congestion. I carried on & ignored the advice.... :tsktsk:

It wasn't that bad, but when through the traffic I followed it's suggestions to my destination :D

Parthiban · May 8, 2008

Yep I'm guessing it's the same system as the one we have in our '07' prius and I've got to agree it's a pretty good system. Also agree that it would be great if it warned you of traffic in the direction you're headed even if you aren't using the navigation!

We haven't got it in our Merc as we need to upgrade the DVD to get it - after getting the Prius we were thinking of doing it as it's so good. I guess we won't bother anymore if the Merc system isn't any good

GaryC · May 8, 2008

Yep I'm guessing it's the same system as the one we have in our '07' prius and I've got to agree it's a pretty good system. Also agree that it would be great if it warned you of traffic in the direction you're headed even if you aren't using the navigation!
We haven't got it in our Merc as we need to upgrade the DVD to get it - after getting the Prius we were thinking of doing it as it's so good. I guess we won't bother anymore if the Merc system isn't any good

My Merc one was CD based. The DVD based one may be much better

Scarlet Pimpernell · May 9, 2008

The TMC, as DJWozza has intimated could be flawed anyway. It doesn't (as far as I can tell) work out if the re-routed suggestion will actually take longer than if you were to perservere and slow down for 5 minutes (if you know what I mean) - which is why I use Vodaphone 2222 to back it up.

That's the biggest problem...I think I read somewhere that the latest Garmin units do this...