Went on a trip down south over the weekend which confirmed what I knew already - that the pronunciation of the female satnav voice on the Columbus is seriously awry. Annecy came out as Arnasi. Lyon, Lee-yawn. Nice, Knees. But the clincher was Albertville which somehow became Alberiot, which could be downright misleading if you were somewhere completely new. Is there any way of opting for a different voice? There was on a Garmin I used to have but I failed to find a way on the device itself in the Superb, meanwhile I am still awaiting a manual with information on the Columbus (was given the wrong one when I got the car) and I can't find any information in the MySkoda emanual.

 

In the Garmin I had at least the mispronunciation was consistent - along the lines of how an English speaker might mispronounce names. In the case of the Columbus the pronunciation seems totally random. No such problem with the cheaper Amundsen system that we had in our Yeti.

I always turn off the voice and rely on the directions shown in the MaxiDOT. Correct or not, the voice annoys me.

Whilst on the subject of sat nav, ours keeps telling me to take "half left" but I am yet to work out what on earth it means. The last time it used that phrase was as I was approaching a double mini roundabout. I ended up taking the wrong left. What does half left actually mean?

Pronunciation on my Amundsen is pretty lousy, too.

 

Also, why do the directions have to be so long-winded?  Not to mention road numbers - "...turn left onto the A one-thousand two hundred and forty seven", whereas my old Navman would have said A-1-2-4-7.

I get frustrated with the way instructions are given on my Columbus. The Mk 2 Superb Columbus that I had before was succinct with its instructions. They were largely brief and to the point and therefore very useful.

The MK 3 Superb Columbus seems to go out of its way to make the instructions long winded and in some cases down right confusing. By prefacing things with 'please' for example, it simply delays getting the message over in a timely way. As noted by @Stree the term 'Half Left' is confusing and often causes a wrong turn.

I found the MK 2 voice instructions useful in urban traffic, I find the Mk 3 voice instructions, with so many superfluous words, to long and badly timed to help out in these conditions.

I suspect that Skoda have tried to make the voice instructions more like a politically correct dialog. Don't they realize that what you really need are  brief and accurate instructions rather than a politically correct and polite dialogue?

6 hours ago, STREE said:

Whilst on the subject of sat nav, ours keeps telling me to take "half left" but I am yet to work out what on earth it means. The last time it used that phrase was as I was approaching a double mini roundabout. I ended up taking the wrong left. What does half left actually mean?

 

Half left normally denotes taking a slip road.

4 minutes ago, Prykey said:

 

Half left normally denotes taking a slip road.

 

Even more confusing then as none of the situations where it has said half left have had a slip road as an option. I think it's always been on roundabouts.

1 hour ago, STREE said:

 

Even more confusing then as none of the situations where it has said half left have had a slip road as an option. I think it's always been on roundabouts.

 

Thats blown that out of the water then 

21 hours ago, The Wanderer said:

Went on a trip down south over the weekend which confirmed what I knew already - that the pronunciation of the female satnav voice on the Columbus is seriously awry. Annecy came out as Arnasi. Lyon, Lee-yawn. Nice, Knees. But the clincher was Albertville which somehow became Alberiot, which could be downright misleading if you were somewhere completely new. Is there any way of opting for a different voice? There was on a Garmin I used to have but I failed to find a way on the device itself in the Superb, meanwhile I am still awaiting a manual with information on the Columbus (was given the wrong one when I got the car) and I can't find any information in the MySkoda emanual.

 

In the Garmin I had at least the mispronunciation was consistent - along the lines of how an English speaker might mispronounce names. In the case of the Columbus the pronunciation seems totally random. No such problem with the cheaper Amundsen system that we had in our Yeti.

 

You should hear it say "Wolverhampton"

18 hours ago, Caspian said:

The MK 3 Superb Columbus seems to go out of its way to make the instructions long winded and in some cases down right confusing. 

While mispronunciation is frustrating, this ^^^ is my biggest bugbear. Not sure if it is just me, but it also seems to mute the radio / media more than my SII did, making it even more obtrusive. I know that you can turn the muting off, but I don't like to miss instructions if I am going somewhere new. I'd worry if I turned the voice off altogether that I might spend more time with my eyes on the maxi-dot rather than the road - especially in an unfamiliar town / city.

On ‎14‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 16:58, Caspian said:

I get frustrated with the way instructions are given on my Columbus. The Mk 2 Superb Columbus that I had before was succinct with its instructions. They were largely brief and to the point and therefore very useful.

The MK 3 Superb Columbus seems to go out of its way to make the instructions long winded and in some cases down right confusing. By prefacing things with 'please' for example, it simply delays getting the message over in a timely way. As noted by @Stree the term 'Half Left' is confusing and often causes a wrong turn.

I found the MK 2 voice instructions useful in urban traffic, I find the Mk 3 voice instructions, with so many superfluous words, to long and badly timed to help out in these conditions.

I suspect that Skoda have tried to make the voice instructions more like a politically correct dialog. Don't they realize that what you really need are  brief and accurate instructions rather than a politically correct and polite dialogue?

Just to update this in case anyone missed it in the other thread. I managed to solve this one. In Nav settings there is an option to turn the instructions from "comprehensive" to "brief". It's brilliant - just like my SII was, but more accurate. I also reduced the amount it mutes radio / music when the announcements are there. Now I can happily live with it.

On 15/02/2018 at 07:50, IJWS15 said:

 

You should hear it say "Wolverhampton"

 

Even the locals struggle with that..... 

I am pleased that @BriskodaJeff has found a solution that satisfies him. To be honest I switched to the brief announcements some time ago, but still find them a pain, and not as good as the S11 version.