I recently drove from Hampshire to Westbury in Wiltshire in quite thick at orange fog and sandy rain. It was sand blown from the Sahara apparently. I didn't realise, until then, that the SatNav actually shows fog. As as the day wore on and the fog cleared so the features on the SatNav appeared. During the drive the fog showed as a light grey with the route picked out in it. I've had a Skoda with SatNav for years and never knew it could do this. It's not particularly useful, but interesting.

 

I'm wondering if this came from a recent map update or has always been there and I just hadn't noticed it.

I rather suspect that the sand in the atmosphere was actually degrading the signal from the satellites resulting in the 'greyed out' area.  

7 minutes ago, Warrior193 said:

I rather suspect that the sand in the atmosphere was actually degrading the signal from the satellites resulting in the 'greyed out' area.  

 

Say what? 

 

The signal from the satellites only determines the vehicle position, if there is a degraded or missing signal, the car will show the last known location.

 

The map data is all stored in the headunit or on SD card and will be unaffected by atmospheric dust 

Just now, langers2k said:

 

Say what? 

 

The signal from the satellites only determines the vehicle position, if there is a degraded or missing signal, the car will show the last known location.

 

The map data is all stored in the headunit or on SD card and will be unaffected by atmospheric dust 

Yes - but could it not be possible that the greyed-out area is overlaid to indicate the signal degradation? So far as I know, weather radar uses very specialised frequencies.

22 minutes ago, Warrior193 said:

Yes - but could it not be possible that the greyed-out area is overlaid to indicate the signal degradation? So far as I know, weather radar uses very specialised frequencies.

 

I'd be amazed if the sand effected GPS reception by any significant amount, a quick google suggests various folk used GPS during sandstorms due to it's reliability in those conditions!

 

To be honest, I can't see any reference to the Columbus showing any kind of fog/mist effect. The only reference to grayed out area's seems to be newer hybrid vehicles to denote electric range...

 

edit:

The FM RDS-TMC data to show traffic info on the satnav is also capable of showing weather conditions. No direct reference to it being used in the UK but TMC certainly looks to support it - could be a plausible explanation.

Edited 31 March, 20224 yr by langers2k