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I usually use Waze but right now I'm fighting with Android Auto as the car keeps losing the connection so I did a 300 mile trip today using the built-in satnav. It's definitely a curate's egg: some bits are great, some bits abysmal.
Worst part were the directions as we headed up the M42 toward the M6 Toll. The junction has an A road going off to the left, a couple of lanes go straight on to the M42 North, and the three rightmost lanes go onto the M6 Toll. The satnav shows lane directions as use the right three lanes but says the road is signed "M42 N, The North" which is the sign for the wrong road. It doesn't mention M6 Toll at all until you are past the junction so anyone actually depending on the directions at that point are likely to get it badly wrong.
Is there anywhere you can report map errors? I think that junction really does need fixing.
The other bit that was both great and abysmal were motorway services. We changed drivers at Warwick services: the satnav showed the upcoming services under the turn directions and unlike other satnavs I've used instead of going into panic mode trying to direct us back onto the motorway it actually paused the directions when we entered the services and resumed when we left. Great. But then on the M6 toll:
![Cloud Vehicle Sky Radio Motor vehicle]()
The satnav thinks Stafford has the next services, no mention of the upcoming Norton Canes services. The Norton Canes services are marked on the map with the services symbol but when we turned in the satnav went into panic mode telling us to do a u-turn to get back on the motorway.
Has anyone else noticed this? I think it also didn't recognise the Cherwell services as existing so my guess is it ignores any services that aren't a glorified layby e.g. Norton Canes which serves both sides of the motorway.
Apart from those gripes the satnav did a pretty decent job, has the benefit of being full widescreen, let me set up multiple waypoints: Burton in Kendal is the waypoint in the above photo but at Norton Canes we decided we'd get there a bit late for lunch so I added MFG Crow Orchard as another waypoint and managed to figure out how to get the waypoints in the right order (drag and drop them but the exact drop position is a bit iffy).
Not satnav but was pleased at Crow Orchard my charge peaked at 79kW as shown by both charger and car. That was the only charge I did in the entire 300 mile trip to Scotland: Norton Canes had no free CCS connectors and we had a quick look at B-in-K but didn't need more charge. It has a bunch of shiny new high power chargers but the disabled one wasn't working (and the one next to it also had a cone though it was turned on).
![Sky Cloud Tree Road surface Motor vehicle]()
Now on a CPS 7kW post for an overnight charge before continuing north tomorrow. Had a nightmare getting the charge to start and if I hadn't had the RFID card would probably still have been wrestling the app.
Have I mentioned how impressed I am with the Kona? From Abingdon I could actually have driven at motorway speeds as far as Burton in Kendal for my charging stop, only a need for food stopped that.
Worst part were the directions as we headed up the M42 toward the M6 Toll. The junction has an A road going off to the left, a couple of lanes go straight on to the M42 North, and the three rightmost lanes go onto the M6 Toll. The satnav shows lane directions as use the right three lanes but says the road is signed "M42 N, The North" which is the sign for the wrong road. It doesn't mention M6 Toll at all until you are past the junction so anyone actually depending on the directions at that point are likely to get it badly wrong.
Is there anywhere you can report map errors? I think that junction really does need fixing.
The other bit that was both great and abysmal were motorway services. We changed drivers at Warwick services: the satnav showed the upcoming services under the turn directions and unlike other satnavs I've used instead of going into panic mode trying to direct us back onto the motorway it actually paused the directions when we entered the services and resumed when we left. Great. But then on the M6 toll:
The satnav thinks Stafford has the next services, no mention of the upcoming Norton Canes services. The Norton Canes services are marked on the map with the services symbol but when we turned in the satnav went into panic mode telling us to do a u-turn to get back on the motorway.
Has anyone else noticed this? I think it also didn't recognise the Cherwell services as existing so my guess is it ignores any services that aren't a glorified layby e.g. Norton Canes which serves both sides of the motorway.
Apart from those gripes the satnav did a pretty decent job, has the benefit of being full widescreen, let me set up multiple waypoints: Burton in Kendal is the waypoint in the above photo but at Norton Canes we decided we'd get there a bit late for lunch so I added MFG Crow Orchard as another waypoint and managed to figure out how to get the waypoints in the right order (drag and drop them but the exact drop position is a bit iffy).
Not satnav but was pleased at Crow Orchard my charge peaked at 79kW as shown by both charger and car. That was the only charge I did in the entire 300 mile trip to Scotland: Norton Canes had no free CCS connectors and we had a quick look at B-in-K but didn't need more charge. It has a bunch of shiny new high power chargers but the disabled one wasn't working (and the one next to it also had a cone though it was turned on).
Now on a CPS 7kW post for an overnight charge before continuing north tomorrow. Had a nightmare getting the charge to start and if I hadn't had the RFID card would probably still have been wrestling the app.
Have I mentioned how impressed I am with the Kona? From Abingdon I could actually have driven at motorway speeds as far as Burton in Kendal for my charging stop, only a need for food stopped that.
