Amundsen postcode problem

[Stratton]

I am trying to adjust to and master the Amundsen Navigation in my 2021 Kodiaq SE.  Entering an address is simple enough but there are times when only a postcode is available.  I have been able to enter postcodes for the unit to find but all it tells me is that the location is "Off road" and the co-ordinates.   I had an Amundsen in my 2019 Fabia Estate and when entering a postcode it was reassuring to see the town and post code shown, you at least knew you were headed in the right direction.  If I check back to the map the marker only seems to be in the general area of the location.  One would hope that in a couple of years, if there were to be changes they would be improvements.  Do other peoples units work in the same way or am I not inputting things correctly?

[BoxerBoy]

A post code alone will often land in a field rather than your intended destination. It’s a Feature.

 

My own post code lands in a dead end street a couple of hundred yards away from my house, but half a mile to drive to the right place.

In these instances, you simple adjust the target on the screen to land closer to your destination.

 

I find typing in the whole of the normal address, with or without post code, normally gets me on target.

 

And once you’ve arrived at your destination, save it for future use if needed.

 

[Stratton]

22 hours ago, BoxerBoy said:

A post code alone will often land in a field rather than your intended destination. It’s a Feature.

 

My own post code lands in a dead end street a couple of hundred yards away from my house, but half a mile to drive to the right place.

In these instances, you simple adjust the target on the screen to land closer to your destination.

 

I find typing in the whole of the normal address, with or without post code, normally gets me on target.

 

And once you’ve arrived at your destination, save it for future use if needed.

 

"It's a Feature"!!   Skoda's words or yours?  As I said previously, my old Amundsen at least confirmed you were in the right direction by offering up the town.  To just tell you that you are off road is a retrograde step.  I have a old Garmin which when you put in a post code then asks for the house number and will take you right to the door step.  Surely it's not much to ask for Skoda to provide us with something similar 10 years on.  Perhaps they would do well to employ someone from one of the "proper" Satnav manufacturers.

[shyVRS245]

We have the Amundsen in our 2018 Karoq and 2020 Superb and I find it easier to press voice control and say "Navigation" then "Postcode" and it works most times for me. However I haven't got a strong Scouser or Geordie accent. 

[BoxerBoy]

I also use a stick on Garmin all the time for “proper” navigation with far more functionality than the built in device.

 

On 2 wheels and 4.

 

ps - “It’s a Feature” became a standing joke in working days gone by, normally referring to software systems that didn’t behave in the way we real world users expected it to do. Still applies today to anything that doesn’t behave as it should.

Edited 5 March, 2021 by BoxerBoy

[DaveMiller]

I’m surprised at the disgruntled comments about the built-in nav system.  Perhaps I don’t push mine as hard as some do, but I find it very clever when I can suddenly decide to press one button (on the steering wheel) and say “home” and magically it just gets on with it.  I've never had a handheld that can do that (and they all would need to be remembered, brought along, plugged in, turned on, and tuned to satellites, before I’d get any response at all!).  The inbuilt system (in my experience) does much better, too, when fuel gets low in the car. It notices, for a start, and gives smart choices for filling station. Does a handheld even know your fuel level, or the brand and current price at the nearby stations?

 

i think any nav system will give you only one point for just a postcode. It may or may not be usable, depending on the shape and size of the postcode - and that’s more about the design of postcode areas than nav systems.  If it’s a country area and you’ve been given no more than the postcode, then blame the giver. If you’ve been given the full address, then use it?

Edited 5 March, 2021 by DaveMiller

[SinglePointSafety]

In my experience of trying the navigation software in my Columbus MY20 Kodiaq, is that it fails the most important test - producing sensible routes. Tried it yesterday to navigate from a nearby Skoda dealer to my home, it suggested some very, very strange routing, for no good reason. In contrast, nav apps on my phone, such as TomTom GO or Google navigation, are nearly always reliable and have certainly never exhibited some of the crazy routing I experienced yesterday. I also much prefer their guidance eg variable zoom level, clear display of next junction etc

 

As for Skoda Connect - perhaps I'm doing something wrong, but I simply cannot get it to work ie register my car, so have given up.

[DaveMiller]

Er ... my Skoda DOES have variable zoom level. And (when the zoom is set to “auto”) zooms in when approaching a junction.

 

I’ve only once in three years had a downright ridiculous route suggested, and that’s about as often as I’ve had them with handhelds.  Often, though, the Skoda suggests a route that I wouldn’t normally have chosen.  I’ve assumed that that’s because of the way that live traffic has been taken into account - it will select something odd but half a second shorter, perhaps.

 

One thing I would change is the way that, once you’ve told it where you want to go, it asks whether you want to go there.  Answering “yes” without sarcasm is difficult (why the hell would I have asked it to navigate there if I didn't want that?) and a sarcastic “ye-es ...” is not understood ...

[MrTrilby]

17 hours ago, DaveMiller said:

I’m surprised at the disgruntled comments about the built-in nav system.  Perhaps I don’t push mine as hard as some do, but I find it very clever when I can suddenly decide to press one button (on the steering wheel) and say “home” and magically it just gets on with it.  I've never had a handheld that can do that (and they all would need to be remembered, brought along, plugged in, turned on, and tuned to satellites, before I’d get any response at all!).  

I think most who have negative things to say about the built in in nav are comparing it to phones rather than old fashioned dedicated plug in things. 
When I get in my car in the morning, my phone automatically offers to navigate to work - I just need to tap “go” to start. And because I know the way to work it also offers to just show me the ETA, so I can anticipate any traffic issues and go a different route if I need. 
When I get in the car in the evening, my phones offers to navigate me home. Again a single press on the dash to start it off. 
If I’m heading of for an appointment that’s in my phone’s calendar, it offers that as an option too - so if I do nothing, I can remind myself which address I’m going to, and I can choose to use nav if I want without keying in the address. 
 

The car system cannot do any of that. 
 

The car system definitely picks slower and odd routes for me - it’s utterly allergic to using anything other than major A roads unless it really has no choice, and then it seems completely unable to differentiate between a B road and an unmade track. 
 

And finally the car system will only have up to date maps and take account of traffic conditions to route around them if you have the expensive annual Skoda subscription. I know it can also use the free TMC data for traffic but the level of detail and timeliness of that data is truly awful compared to Google/Apple/Waze. 
 

True I have to plug my phone in to use it in my 2018 car, but it’s wireless in the most recent ones. For the price of a map subscription form Skoda I could buy a 3rd party wireless dongle to make it wireless in my car too. 

[DaveMiller]

Gosh.  I lead a simpler life, obviously!

[SinglePointSafety]

DaveMiller, yes, you're right, the Columbus built-in nav does have variable zoom level, but it doesn't seem to be as intelligent as, say, TTGO, or as versatile in its zoom level. It's just altogether an unreliable navigation tool: on my last trial it tried to take me down unsuitable and unnecessary diversions, and it was on roads I know well, so i know that the suggested route was non-optimum by whatever standards would be applied. And nearer home, the map is just plain wrong (it doesn't acknowledge that two roads join up - roads that have been there for 20 years or more). MY21 cars with MIB3 might, just might, be an improvement, but as MrTrilby rightfully points out, without an expensive subscription, there is effectively no useful traffic data away from Motorways or some A-roads.

 

Indeed, I'd rather Skoda not bothered installing any navigation and made it an option, thus saving me a few £££.

 

Smartphones and their navigation apps have rapidly improved, and with Android Auto or Apple Carplay, you have a highly-accurate, high-powered ecosystem. And I believe soon there will be a dongle available which will facilitate wireless AA/Carplay for non-MIB3 cars. Job done.

[DaveMiller]

Thank you, SinglePoint.  I can now see advantages in using the phone’s capability. I’ve never done so, as I’ve never yet had wireless Carplay!

 

[Stratton]

7 hours ago, MrTrilby said:

The car system cannot do any of that. 

I pick up on what you say and ask the question.  "WHY NOT"?  How can Skoda have obviously redeveloped the Amundsen unit in the last couple of years and be fitting a unit which is not as good as it's predecessor in some ways?  There are some features where they have improved it but it is little to ask for it to be an improvement on a 10 year old Garmin.  I live in hopes that someone at a senior level within Skoda monitors this Forum and can therefore see the areas where we, the customers, would like to see improvements.  

[SinglePointSafety]

The problem that manufacturers face is the 'supertanker legacy' infotainment systems, with an enormous amount of sunk cost in their development so that changing course is difficult and expensive. And they often start from the wrong place anyway....software which is counter-intuitive for the end-user, lacks options, some features are difficult to use, awful map update experience etc etc. Contrast this with smartphone apps, capable of rapid improvement and cognisant of user feedback. Thus I regard the sat nav in my car as a fallback in case my phone self-destructs.

 

IMHO, the realistic way forward for car manufacturers is to do what Volvo (and Polestar) and some others have done or are planning to do shortly: admit defeat and install Android Automotive

[MrTrilby]

16 hours ago, Stratton said:

I pick up on what you say and ask the question.  "WHY NOT"?   

Because they’re a car company who is good at designing and building cars. They can’t really expect to compete with software companies who are good at designing and building software. The operating system and maps software on my phone get updates every few months for free. My phone knows far more about me than the car ever will, because my phone gets used for much more than my car. So it can be cleverer. 
 

And arguably Skoda are more forward thinking than many of their rivals. We just bought a second hand Fabia for my daughter because Skoda embraced CarPlay far earlier than Ford and others. So despite being a few years old, her car now has the latest in navigation with live traffic updates, voice control and streaming media like Spotify. Just by hooking up her phone. Makes things like the Fiesta from the same era with just a radio look pretty primitive. 

[SinglePointSafety]

+1 What MrTrilby says.... and in answer to Stratton (Why not?) because, deep down, Skoda knows that the built-in navigation is a dinosaur and it's simply not worth spending too much money making it better when it will soon(ish) become extinct.

 

I would hypothesise that most car buyers are not at all bothered by the performance of the built-in sat nav: if they need to use it it's likely that their demands are modest and expectations low, so it will suffice. But for the rest of us who have moved on from such low-standard software, we demand reliable navigation, and with all the useful extra stuff that modern smartphone apps can offer.