Last Update: 4/28/06
UPDATE: Well, it has been a while since I have posted and I have logged hundreds of hours with the AVIC-D1. Now that the D2 is out (which is an software updated D1) I am not sure coming back to this post is relevant but I have received several e-mails asking that I do.
Not much of my opinion has changed. I have discovered some new annoying defects though. They include periodically losing XM reception for no apparent reason and only being able to fix this by turning the car off and "re-booting" the D1. I have also found that while turning onto a new off-ramp in San Francisco that was not in the map database the map suddenly switched to the city of Los Angeles. I got back on the main freeway and drove 5 more miles but eventually I had to pull over, and manually change my location back to San Francisco.
The "keep left ahead!" mantra has reached an all time irritation point for me and my passengers. Some of them say that they would rather get lost than hear the stupid reminder every five miles. I recently discovered that the Magellan systems are now infected with this trait. This must have something to do with the providers of the map data so I am not entirely sure I can blame the D1 on this.
O.K., so I stated before that one of the reasons I went with Pioneer was due to the NavTraffic feature. Remember last year when Pioneer said they would mail out an update disc to fix the NavTraffic? Well, they didn't. Today I sent the following e-mail to Pioneer Corporate Relations:
To whom it may concern:
I am a Pioneer AVIC D1 owner. In 2005 I reported the issue documented in Solution F15727. At that time the Pioneer representative stated that "MAP DISC VERSION 1.2 WILL RESOLVE THIS PROBLEM. THIS SHOULD BE RELEASED SOON. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE REGISTERED YOUR UNIT, THE UPDATE WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE SENT TO YOU."
My AVIC D1 unit was properly registered in 2005 and as of today's date (4/28/2006) no update disk has been received by me. I consider the issue, described in my original complaint, to be a material defect in the product. California law requires that the manufacturer (Pioneer Electronics, Inc.) take steps, in a reasonable amount of time, to "repair or replace the product". Since the AVIC D2 and with it map disc version 1.2 was released at the beginning of this year I find that a reasonable amount of time has elapsed for Pioneer to remedy this situation and distribute the update disk.
At this time I formally request that Pioneer state what steps it has taken to fulfill its contractual obligation in regards to both the implied and express warranty of this AVIC D1 product. If you are unable to answer this question please escalate this request for information to the appropriate person or department.
Respectfully,
XXXXXX X. XXXXX
Now that Pioneer has settled thier last Class Action Law Suit I am hoping they will have time to respond to me... ;-)
So that’s it for the update. Keep the questions coming and I will do my best to answer them.
Take care, and if you own a D1, Good Luck!
-SpectraBlueMica
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Disclaimer:
“Let me start this review by stating, up front, that I am one unhappy Pioneer customer. This means that I am not put into a particularly good mood when people ask me about my AVIC-D1 and I have a difficult time thinking of something positive to say. I will try, however, to be as "fair" as I can. Remember that everything below is my opinion and you know what they say about opinions...
My D1 is just that…My D1. I don’t know what hardware version or map revision number you have or for that matter what changes have been made since mine was manufactured (May 2005). So, I am only speaking about the performance of my AVIC-D1, paired with a GEX-P10XMT, unaltered by me from the way it was made and sold by Pioneer.
Although I have only spent two weeks using my D1 I am not a navigation novice. I have owned Magellan, Eclipse (Lexus Navigation Edition) and Garmin navigation systems and have been using one model or the other for the last 7 years. Also let me say, in Pioneer’s defense, that they do have a long history of responding to customer complaints and have already updated one open “Solution” based on my feedback. Since most issues I outline below are software as opposed to hardware related it is possible that the concerns will be addressed in a future update. I plan to return to this review as my experience with the D1 grows.”
Review:
I. The Positive (This is going to be short)
1. The route calculation times are fast! And I mean REALLY fast. At least 10 times faster than the top-of-the-line Garmin or Magellan.
2. The screen resolution far exceeds that of its competitors. The fonts are razor sharp and very easy to read. The rendering of the on screen graphics and buttons is flawless. I have yet to play a DVD on the unit as I did not purchase an optional player but I can imagine the picture is well beyond acceptable.
3. The response time of the touch screen is instantaneous with no lag even during multiple simultaneous operations (XM Tuner or CD player running with route calculation and vehicle movement being tracked all at the same time.)
4. The “enhanced graphical” XM display is really cool. XM Channels are represented by large color logos. This makes it very easy to pick your favorites when in the “list” mode.
5. The idea of the branded POI (Points of Interest) icons is great. In theory instead of seeing a generic gas pump to mark a gas station on the map you will see a small brand icon instead. For example, as you pass a Union 76 gas station you will see the famous orange 76 ball representing the station on the map.
II. The Negative
1.“XM UPDATING” Shortly after having my AVIC-D1 and the matching GEX-P10XMT (XM NavTraffic™ Digital Satellite Tuner) installed I tried out the navigation function. When I switched to map view I was confronted with an annoying dialog box that covered the entire map that said “XM Updating….Please Wait”. It was accompanied with a loud “DING!” I pressed the “OK” button and 2 seconds later “DING!”… It appeared again. I pressed OK about 15 more times and the stupid thing kept popping up. I looked in the manual to figure out what was going on. There wasn’t really a good explanation only a single line saying the system was “updating the XM encryption key”. I figured it would clear up in a day or two. Two days later, still unable to see the map, I went to the knowledgebase section on the Pioneer USA website. I found there that Pioneer was, in fact, aware of the issue. They had issued Solution F15727 which stated essentially that the screen was normal in areas where XM NavTraffic was not available (like my area) and that the solution was to disconnect the data cable. So, I went back to where the unit was installed and had the data cable disconnected. Immediately the “XM Updating” message stopped. Just as immediately the stock quotes and sports scores under the “Info” screen I had been readily enjoying disappeared. I called Pioneer and told them that in my mind disconnecting the data cable was NOT a solution but rather a work-around. I further told them it was completely unacceptable to tell people to disconnect a cable that resulted in the XM customer losing part of what their subscription pays for. The troubleshooting representative told me that he did not know of any plans to modify the solution but he would pass on my comments to Management who in turn would update the solution in 24 hours. 24 hours later Solution F15727 was changed to:
“IF YOU HAVE CONNECTED THE GEX-P10XM, TO THE AVIC-N1, AVIC-N2, OR THE AVIC-D1, YOU MAY RECEIVE A NOTICE CALLED "UPDATING".
THIS IS NORMAL AS THE UNIT IS TRYING TO RETRIEVE INFORMATION FROM XM RADIO.
WHEN YOU SIGN UP FOR ONLY ONE SERVICE, XM RADIO OR NAV TRAFFIC, THE SOFTWARE HAS PROBLEM UNDERSTANDING THIS.
IF YOU DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO NAVTRAFFIC, DO NOT CONNECT THE "DATA" CABLE. THIS WILL STOP THE UNIT FROM TRYING TO UPDATE THE NAVTRAFFIC DATA.
THIS IS A TEMPORARY SOLUTION.
MAP DISC VERSION 1.2 WILL RESOLVE THIS PROBLEM”
So, it looks like this issue will be addressed in the next map release (whenever that is). So, minus one point to Pioneer for selling units with this issue but add one point to Pioneer for quickly agreeing to fix it in the next map release. But minus one more big point from Pioneer since the map discs retail for close to $275.00. Apparently $1600.00 of my money was not enough for a working product.
2.“MAP VIEW MODES” One of the advances I have really enjoyed seeing in navigation units in the last few years is the addition of a 3D driver’s perspective view of the road ahead. I find this view the most practical and easiest to follow. Prior to my purchase of the D1 I checked out the Pioneer web site. I was most interested in the page labeled Navigation Display View Modes. On that page I found the following statement: “Pioneer Navigation Systems all include 4 standard view modes: Driver's View, Guide View, Map View and Route View.” I checked out the “Driver’s View” and found that it was exactly what I was looking for. Cool, I thought, ALL Pioneer Navigation Systems include driver’s view. WRONG! All systems include this view EXCEPT the D1! I called Pioneer and the conversation went something like this: “Me: Yes, I am calling to bring to your attention that your web site states that all Pioneer Navigation Systems include 4 standard view modes and that is completely incorrect as the “Driver’s View” is missing on the D1. Pioneer guy: Um….Yep, the driver’s view is missing on the D1. Me: So when are you going to remedy that? Pioneer Guy: Um…Well the D1 does not have Driver’s View. ME: Exactly! Pioneer Guy: Exactly!”
3.“VOICE GUIDENCE” With the XM updating screen gone and my questions about the view modes somewhat answered I was ready to do some semi-serious navigating. I had heard nothing but good things about Pioneer’s navigation systems. Pioneer itself boasts that “Pioneer leads the way with In-Car Navigation”. I set a simple route down a major freeway and set off on my journey. I expected the voice guidance to be excellent and sadly I was disappointed (to say the least) to find that the voice guidance did not perform as well as the Eclipse or worse yet my old Garmin Street Pilot III on the simplest of routes. The whole point of voice guidance is supposedly to allow you to keep your eyes off the map and on the road, thus increasing the safety of you, your passengers, and other motorists. With the D1 I found myself constantly looking at the map. First, on the Eclipse when the route calculation is done the unit prompts you to “Proceed to the highlighted route and route guidance will begin”. As soon as you get to the beginning of the route the system voices the first direction. On the Street Pilot III it only shows the highlighted route once calculation is complete but after you reach the start point it immediately voices the first direction. On the Pioneer it only shows the highlighted route. No “proceed to…” messages and when you get to the beginning of the route it again does nothing. The first direction is given as you approach the first maneuver. So, if you set a 100 mile route while stopped on the side of the freeway (more later on being stopped on the side of the road) you quite literally will not hear anything from the unit until 99 miles later when it tells you to exit the freeway. (Well that would be the case if it did not tell you to “Keep Left” every 5 miles but more on that in the next section.) Once I was off the freeway and onto city streets I was again disappointed by the voice guidance. With the StreetPilot it immediately tells you after the completion of the last maneuver what the next maneuver will be. This is very helpful in making sure you stay in the correct lane. The StreetPilot then warns you to “In 400 feet turn left” and then at the turn it plays a special tone to let you know you should be doing something RIGHT NOW. The Pioneer only warns you once (in limited cases twice) that a “Left turn is ahead” at set distance from the turn. With no driver’s view available and no tone telling me that I should be turning at that moment I find myself missing quite a few turns. Once the maneuver is complete the D1 does not give you the next maneuver until you are, again, at a set distance from it. I also do not like that on the D1 the guidance voice volume does not automatically adjust to the audio volume (getting louder with higher volume music for example) and when in attenuation mode the attenuation level (or percent) is not manually adjustable.
4.“KEEP LEFT AHEAD” So… in number 3 above I made a reference to a “Keep Left Ahead” voice guidance messages every 5 miles. What I was referring to was that when you are on the freeway and you are approaching an exit where the exit lane is two lanes rather than the more traditional one lane the D1 warns you to “Keep Left Ahead” and then as you are passing the exit it says “Keep Left”. This is VERY annoying. If you are on a 6 lane highway and all the exits every 5 miles are two lane exits you will probably hear this message every 5 miles even if you’re driving in the fast lane as far from the exit as possible. (I say probably because in fairness I found that this is usually but not always the case.) It makes sense it would do this if the freeway divides (for example Interstate 80 becomes I-80 and Business Loop 80) but it makes no sense to do this at an exit onto a city street. Unfortunately the D1 has trouble seeing the difference. Garmin, Magellan, and Eclipse all seem to handle this task with ease. Once again I called Pioneer and complained and this time the representative actually had the nerve to laugh at me. He said the unit was functioning perfectly fine. I asked him if had owned a D1 himself and he declined to answer. I told him that the manual says that on most highways the D1 will tell you which lane to be in to ensure you do not miss your exit. I reasoned that if it was smart enough to know which lane you are in surely it is smart enough to NOT warn you every 5 minutes to avoid cutting across 5 lanes of traffic at 70 miles an hour to exit onto a city street because you are “confused” as to which way you should be going. The rep again laughed and stated that the D1 can not tell which lane you are in and will correctly warn you at every two lane exit. Again this is not entirely true as I have found this glitch is really hit or miss, but mostly hit.
5.“STOPPED ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD”. Never, ever, have I seen such a misplaced attempt to protect the consumer from themselves as I have seen with the D1. As with the Pioneer AVIC-N2 if the parking brake is not applied and/or the vehicle is in motion 90% of the D1 navigation functions are disabled. You (or more correctly your passenger) can’t find the nearest gas station or hospital in an emergency or change your route to anything but “HOME” or your one “FAVORITE” pre-set location. So, in the dead of night in the worst neighborhood, the worst traffic and worst weather you have to pull the car over and apply the parking brake. (As a side note: On a new Chevy truck with power locks putting the vehicle in “Park” unlocks the doors….Yikes!) You would think that with the interlock in place you would at least not need to acknowledge the stupid (but standard on most navigation systems) “Using this system while driving is dangerous” message at every start-up…but you would be wrong. By the way, have you tried re-entering the freeway in California from the shoulder? This is VERY DANGEROUS and NOT RECCOMMENDED, but necessary after in-route changes with the D1. (On the Garmin and Magellan units you can disable this feature so your passenger can input commands while the vehicle is in motion).
6.“THOSE COOL BRANDED POI ICONS” I made mention earlier of Pioneer’s great concept of replacing generic POI icons with the actual logo of the business. In theory it is a great idea. However, the only two icons I have seen in two weeks of driving are Union 76 gas stations and Subway sandwich shops. I am not sure, but I suspect, the POI icon database on the map disk is not as useful on the West Coast as it is on the East. I have no way to test this but maybe someone from the East will confirm or rebut my assumption. If someone does I will post that information here.
7.“THE DIMMER” Pioneer says that the dimmer is “intelligent”. Really? Hmmm. Well you tell me…In ILLUMI mode the dimming functions the same as on many radios. When the vehicle headlights are turned on the display slightly dims. On my vehicle adjusting the dash illumination dial does not change the brightness of the D1. When in AUTO mode the D1 relies on a photocell mounted on the bottom right corner of the face plate. When the surrounding light level drops the screen automatically adjusts darker. When the light level raises the screen gets brighter. Sounds cool right? Well it is except that with both navigation and audio screens some touch screen keys are located near the sensor and when you press them with your finger the light from the screen reflects off your finger into the photocell and in dark surroundings this causes the screen to go to full brightness (which is rather blinding during night driving.)
8.“BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!” For some inexplicable reason the voice guidance volume and beep volume are somewhat linked. The beep volume refers to the tone the touch screen makes when you press an on-screen key and when one of the hard buttons on the left or right are pressed such as volume up and down. Even though there are separate controls for both the voice and beep volumes if you prefer a loud voice volume and a soft beep the actual beep volume is louder (even when set on the minimum setting) if the voice volume is set high. The beep for the on-screen keys in my opinion is really useful since the pressure required to activate a key takes some time to get used to and every successful press is rewarded with a beep and an accidental press of two keys at once results in a deep error tone. I don’t, however, like listening to forty or so beeps to turn up the radio volume. Every volume increase is one beep. If you hold down the button its BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! until you let the button go. Since I have my voice volume high the beep is rather loud (even though the beep volume is set at a minimum level). I wish I could turn off the volume up and down beeps separately from everything else. I prefer rotary volume control anyway and frankly I could do without the big up and down button with its plethora of volume steps.
9.“REPEAT THAT TRACK” When playing a CD the display changes to one that lists the tracks on the CD (With the track name if it has CD TEXT) and standard forward/FF and back/REW buttons. What is missing is a simple repeat button. The D1 always defaults to Disc Repeat which is cool to me, you may not like that. The problem is that to change between disc repeat and track repeat you have to first push in the joystick (straight in without pushing to the left or right or the track will change. Not as easy as it sounds.) This takes you to the menu. Next you need to push the function key. Finally push the repeat key to toggle between disc and track repeat. Simple, right? It seems it would be a heck of a lot easier to put the repeat button on the CD screen as there is plenty of room.
10.“WHERE’S THE DVD AND VOICE COMMAND?” Unlike the AVIC-N2 there is no built-in DVD player in the D1. This really didn’t bother me because I don’t have rear seat LCD screens and since the D1 disables the main screen from displaying moving images while the vehicle is in motion I could not imagine myself sitting stationary in my car for a two hour movie. An optional DVD changer/player is available and you may choose to add that at some point. By the way there is also no voice recognition on the D1 like there is on the N2. This also does not really upset me since I have never seen voice command work perfectly in a moving vehicle.
In conclusion I want to reiterate that these are my initial observations of my AVIC-D1 and I am sure my experience with grow as I spend time using the unit and navigating the screens. If there is one thing to glean from my review it is that you absolutely should test the heck out of the D1 (or any navigation system) in the store BEFORE you buy to make sure it is right for you. If it is stuck behind Plexiglas in the display demand the salesperson remove it so you can touch and use the D1 before you lay down your hard earned money.
If you already own a D1 pressure Pioneer to make the most critical fixes now by making your voice as a consumer be heard at: http://www.pioneerusa.com/pna/contact/us/0,,2076_138787615,00.html
Tell them to create a software update FREE OF CHARGE to registered owners that will address these flaws that should have been caught by quality control NOT the end-user.
UPDATE: Well, it has been a while since I have posted and I have logged hundreds of hours with the AVIC-D1. Now that the D2 is out (which is an software updated D1) I am not sure coming back to this post is relevant but I have received several e-mails asking that I do.
Not much of my opinion has changed. I have discovered some new annoying defects though. They include periodically losing XM reception for no apparent reason and only being able to fix this by turning the car off and "re-booting" the D1. I have also found that while turning onto a new off-ramp in San Francisco that was not in the map database the map suddenly switched to the city of Los Angeles. I got back on the main freeway and drove 5 more miles but eventually I had to pull over, and manually change my location back to San Francisco.
The "keep left ahead!" mantra has reached an all time irritation point for me and my passengers. Some of them say that they would rather get lost than hear the stupid reminder every five miles. I recently discovered that the Magellan systems are now infected with this trait. This must have something to do with the providers of the map data so I am not entirely sure I can blame the D1 on this.
O.K., so I stated before that one of the reasons I went with Pioneer was due to the NavTraffic feature. Remember last year when Pioneer said they would mail out an update disc to fix the NavTraffic? Well, they didn't. Today I sent the following e-mail to Pioneer Corporate Relations:
To whom it may concern:
I am a Pioneer AVIC D1 owner. In 2005 I reported the issue documented in Solution F15727. At that time the Pioneer representative stated that "MAP DISC VERSION 1.2 WILL RESOLVE THIS PROBLEM. THIS SHOULD BE RELEASED SOON. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE REGISTERED YOUR UNIT, THE UPDATE WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE SENT TO YOU."
My AVIC D1 unit was properly registered in 2005 and as of today's date (4/28/2006) no update disk has been received by me. I consider the issue, described in my original complaint, to be a material defect in the product. California law requires that the manufacturer (Pioneer Electronics, Inc.) take steps, in a reasonable amount of time, to "repair or replace the product". Since the AVIC D2 and with it map disc version 1.2 was released at the beginning of this year I find that a reasonable amount of time has elapsed for Pioneer to remedy this situation and distribute the update disk.
At this time I formally request that Pioneer state what steps it has taken to fulfill its contractual obligation in regards to both the implied and express warranty of this AVIC D1 product. If you are unable to answer this question please escalate this request for information to the appropriate person or department.
Respectfully,
XXXXXX X. XXXXX
Now that Pioneer has settled thier last Class Action Law Suit I am hoping they will have time to respond to me... ;-)
So that’s it for the update. Keep the questions coming and I will do my best to answer them.
Take care, and if you own a D1, Good Luck!
-SpectraBlueMica
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Disclaimer:
“Let me start this review by stating, up front, that I am one unhappy Pioneer customer. This means that I am not put into a particularly good mood when people ask me about my AVIC-D1 and I have a difficult time thinking of something positive to say. I will try, however, to be as "fair" as I can. Remember that everything below is my opinion and you know what they say about opinions...
My D1 is just that…My D1. I don’t know what hardware version or map revision number you have or for that matter what changes have been made since mine was manufactured (May 2005). So, I am only speaking about the performance of my AVIC-D1, paired with a GEX-P10XMT, unaltered by me from the way it was made and sold by Pioneer.
Although I have only spent two weeks using my D1 I am not a navigation novice. I have owned Magellan, Eclipse (Lexus Navigation Edition) and Garmin navigation systems and have been using one model or the other for the last 7 years. Also let me say, in Pioneer’s defense, that they do have a long history of responding to customer complaints and have already updated one open “Solution” based on my feedback. Since most issues I outline below are software as opposed to hardware related it is possible that the concerns will be addressed in a future update. I plan to return to this review as my experience with the D1 grows.”
Review:
I. The Positive (This is going to be short)
1. The route calculation times are fast! And I mean REALLY fast. At least 10 times faster than the top-of-the-line Garmin or Magellan.
2. The screen resolution far exceeds that of its competitors. The fonts are razor sharp and very easy to read. The rendering of the on screen graphics and buttons is flawless. I have yet to play a DVD on the unit as I did not purchase an optional player but I can imagine the picture is well beyond acceptable.
3. The response time of the touch screen is instantaneous with no lag even during multiple simultaneous operations (XM Tuner or CD player running with route calculation and vehicle movement being tracked all at the same time.)
4. The “enhanced graphical” XM display is really cool. XM Channels are represented by large color logos. This makes it very easy to pick your favorites when in the “list” mode.
5. The idea of the branded POI (Points of Interest) icons is great. In theory instead of seeing a generic gas pump to mark a gas station on the map you will see a small brand icon instead. For example, as you pass a Union 76 gas station you will see the famous orange 76 ball representing the station on the map.
II. The Negative
1.“XM UPDATING” Shortly after having my AVIC-D1 and the matching GEX-P10XMT (XM NavTraffic™ Digital Satellite Tuner) installed I tried out the navigation function. When I switched to map view I was confronted with an annoying dialog box that covered the entire map that said “XM Updating….Please Wait”. It was accompanied with a loud “DING!” I pressed the “OK” button and 2 seconds later “DING!”… It appeared again. I pressed OK about 15 more times and the stupid thing kept popping up. I looked in the manual to figure out what was going on. There wasn’t really a good explanation only a single line saying the system was “updating the XM encryption key”. I figured it would clear up in a day or two. Two days later, still unable to see the map, I went to the knowledgebase section on the Pioneer USA website. I found there that Pioneer was, in fact, aware of the issue. They had issued Solution F15727 which stated essentially that the screen was normal in areas where XM NavTraffic was not available (like my area) and that the solution was to disconnect the data cable. So, I went back to where the unit was installed and had the data cable disconnected. Immediately the “XM Updating” message stopped. Just as immediately the stock quotes and sports scores under the “Info” screen I had been readily enjoying disappeared. I called Pioneer and told them that in my mind disconnecting the data cable was NOT a solution but rather a work-around. I further told them it was completely unacceptable to tell people to disconnect a cable that resulted in the XM customer losing part of what their subscription pays for. The troubleshooting representative told me that he did not know of any plans to modify the solution but he would pass on my comments to Management who in turn would update the solution in 24 hours. 24 hours later Solution F15727 was changed to:
“IF YOU HAVE CONNECTED THE GEX-P10XM, TO THE AVIC-N1, AVIC-N2, OR THE AVIC-D1, YOU MAY RECEIVE A NOTICE CALLED "UPDATING".
THIS IS NORMAL AS THE UNIT IS TRYING TO RETRIEVE INFORMATION FROM XM RADIO.
WHEN YOU SIGN UP FOR ONLY ONE SERVICE, XM RADIO OR NAV TRAFFIC, THE SOFTWARE HAS PROBLEM UNDERSTANDING THIS.
IF YOU DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO NAVTRAFFIC, DO NOT CONNECT THE "DATA" CABLE. THIS WILL STOP THE UNIT FROM TRYING TO UPDATE THE NAVTRAFFIC DATA.
THIS IS A TEMPORARY SOLUTION.
MAP DISC VERSION 1.2 WILL RESOLVE THIS PROBLEM”
So, it looks like this issue will be addressed in the next map release (whenever that is). So, minus one point to Pioneer for selling units with this issue but add one point to Pioneer for quickly agreeing to fix it in the next map release. But minus one more big point from Pioneer since the map discs retail for close to $275.00. Apparently $1600.00 of my money was not enough for a working product.
2.“MAP VIEW MODES” One of the advances I have really enjoyed seeing in navigation units in the last few years is the addition of a 3D driver’s perspective view of the road ahead. I find this view the most practical and easiest to follow. Prior to my purchase of the D1 I checked out the Pioneer web site. I was most interested in the page labeled Navigation Display View Modes. On that page I found the following statement: “Pioneer Navigation Systems all include 4 standard view modes: Driver's View, Guide View, Map View and Route View.” I checked out the “Driver’s View” and found that it was exactly what I was looking for. Cool, I thought, ALL Pioneer Navigation Systems include driver’s view. WRONG! All systems include this view EXCEPT the D1! I called Pioneer and the conversation went something like this: “Me: Yes, I am calling to bring to your attention that your web site states that all Pioneer Navigation Systems include 4 standard view modes and that is completely incorrect as the “Driver’s View” is missing on the D1. Pioneer guy: Um….Yep, the driver’s view is missing on the D1. Me: So when are you going to remedy that? Pioneer Guy: Um…Well the D1 does not have Driver’s View. ME: Exactly! Pioneer Guy: Exactly!”
3.“VOICE GUIDENCE” With the XM updating screen gone and my questions about the view modes somewhat answered I was ready to do some semi-serious navigating. I had heard nothing but good things about Pioneer’s navigation systems. Pioneer itself boasts that “Pioneer leads the way with In-Car Navigation”. I set a simple route down a major freeway and set off on my journey. I expected the voice guidance to be excellent and sadly I was disappointed (to say the least) to find that the voice guidance did not perform as well as the Eclipse or worse yet my old Garmin Street Pilot III on the simplest of routes. The whole point of voice guidance is supposedly to allow you to keep your eyes off the map and on the road, thus increasing the safety of you, your passengers, and other motorists. With the D1 I found myself constantly looking at the map. First, on the Eclipse when the route calculation is done the unit prompts you to “Proceed to the highlighted route and route guidance will begin”. As soon as you get to the beginning of the route the system voices the first direction. On the Street Pilot III it only shows the highlighted route once calculation is complete but after you reach the start point it immediately voices the first direction. On the Pioneer it only shows the highlighted route. No “proceed to…” messages and when you get to the beginning of the route it again does nothing. The first direction is given as you approach the first maneuver. So, if you set a 100 mile route while stopped on the side of the freeway (more later on being stopped on the side of the road) you quite literally will not hear anything from the unit until 99 miles later when it tells you to exit the freeway. (Well that would be the case if it did not tell you to “Keep Left” every 5 miles but more on that in the next section.) Once I was off the freeway and onto city streets I was again disappointed by the voice guidance. With the StreetPilot it immediately tells you after the completion of the last maneuver what the next maneuver will be. This is very helpful in making sure you stay in the correct lane. The StreetPilot then warns you to “In 400 feet turn left” and then at the turn it plays a special tone to let you know you should be doing something RIGHT NOW. The Pioneer only warns you once (in limited cases twice) that a “Left turn is ahead” at set distance from the turn. With no driver’s view available and no tone telling me that I should be turning at that moment I find myself missing quite a few turns. Once the maneuver is complete the D1 does not give you the next maneuver until you are, again, at a set distance from it. I also do not like that on the D1 the guidance voice volume does not automatically adjust to the audio volume (getting louder with higher volume music for example) and when in attenuation mode the attenuation level (or percent) is not manually adjustable.
4.“KEEP LEFT AHEAD” So… in number 3 above I made a reference to a “Keep Left Ahead” voice guidance messages every 5 miles. What I was referring to was that when you are on the freeway and you are approaching an exit where the exit lane is two lanes rather than the more traditional one lane the D1 warns you to “Keep Left Ahead” and then as you are passing the exit it says “Keep Left”. This is VERY annoying. If you are on a 6 lane highway and all the exits every 5 miles are two lane exits you will probably hear this message every 5 miles even if you’re driving in the fast lane as far from the exit as possible. (I say probably because in fairness I found that this is usually but not always the case.) It makes sense it would do this if the freeway divides (for example Interstate 80 becomes I-80 and Business Loop 80) but it makes no sense to do this at an exit onto a city street. Unfortunately the D1 has trouble seeing the difference. Garmin, Magellan, and Eclipse all seem to handle this task with ease. Once again I called Pioneer and complained and this time the representative actually had the nerve to laugh at me. He said the unit was functioning perfectly fine. I asked him if had owned a D1 himself and he declined to answer. I told him that the manual says that on most highways the D1 will tell you which lane to be in to ensure you do not miss your exit. I reasoned that if it was smart enough to know which lane you are in surely it is smart enough to NOT warn you every 5 minutes to avoid cutting across 5 lanes of traffic at 70 miles an hour to exit onto a city street because you are “confused” as to which way you should be going. The rep again laughed and stated that the D1 can not tell which lane you are in and will correctly warn you at every two lane exit. Again this is not entirely true as I have found this glitch is really hit or miss, but mostly hit.
5.“STOPPED ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD”. Never, ever, have I seen such a misplaced attempt to protect the consumer from themselves as I have seen with the D1. As with the Pioneer AVIC-N2 if the parking brake is not applied and/or the vehicle is in motion 90% of the D1 navigation functions are disabled. You (or more correctly your passenger) can’t find the nearest gas station or hospital in an emergency or change your route to anything but “HOME” or your one “FAVORITE” pre-set location. So, in the dead of night in the worst neighborhood, the worst traffic and worst weather you have to pull the car over and apply the parking brake. (As a side note: On a new Chevy truck with power locks putting the vehicle in “Park” unlocks the doors….Yikes!) You would think that with the interlock in place you would at least not need to acknowledge the stupid (but standard on most navigation systems) “Using this system while driving is dangerous” message at every start-up…but you would be wrong. By the way, have you tried re-entering the freeway in California from the shoulder? This is VERY DANGEROUS and NOT RECCOMMENDED, but necessary after in-route changes with the D1. (On the Garmin and Magellan units you can disable this feature so your passenger can input commands while the vehicle is in motion).
6.“THOSE COOL BRANDED POI ICONS” I made mention earlier of Pioneer’s great concept of replacing generic POI icons with the actual logo of the business. In theory it is a great idea. However, the only two icons I have seen in two weeks of driving are Union 76 gas stations and Subway sandwich shops. I am not sure, but I suspect, the POI icon database on the map disk is not as useful on the West Coast as it is on the East. I have no way to test this but maybe someone from the East will confirm or rebut my assumption. If someone does I will post that information here.
7.“THE DIMMER” Pioneer says that the dimmer is “intelligent”. Really? Hmmm. Well you tell me…In ILLUMI mode the dimming functions the same as on many radios. When the vehicle headlights are turned on the display slightly dims. On my vehicle adjusting the dash illumination dial does not change the brightness of the D1. When in AUTO mode the D1 relies on a photocell mounted on the bottom right corner of the face plate. When the surrounding light level drops the screen automatically adjusts darker. When the light level raises the screen gets brighter. Sounds cool right? Well it is except that with both navigation and audio screens some touch screen keys are located near the sensor and when you press them with your finger the light from the screen reflects off your finger into the photocell and in dark surroundings this causes the screen to go to full brightness (which is rather blinding during night driving.)
8.“BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!” For some inexplicable reason the voice guidance volume and beep volume are somewhat linked. The beep volume refers to the tone the touch screen makes when you press an on-screen key and when one of the hard buttons on the left or right are pressed such as volume up and down. Even though there are separate controls for both the voice and beep volumes if you prefer a loud voice volume and a soft beep the actual beep volume is louder (even when set on the minimum setting) if the voice volume is set high. The beep for the on-screen keys in my opinion is really useful since the pressure required to activate a key takes some time to get used to and every successful press is rewarded with a beep and an accidental press of two keys at once results in a deep error tone. I don’t, however, like listening to forty or so beeps to turn up the radio volume. Every volume increase is one beep. If you hold down the button its BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! until you let the button go. Since I have my voice volume high the beep is rather loud (even though the beep volume is set at a minimum level). I wish I could turn off the volume up and down beeps separately from everything else. I prefer rotary volume control anyway and frankly I could do without the big up and down button with its plethora of volume steps.
9.“REPEAT THAT TRACK” When playing a CD the display changes to one that lists the tracks on the CD (With the track name if it has CD TEXT) and standard forward/FF and back/REW buttons. What is missing is a simple repeat button. The D1 always defaults to Disc Repeat which is cool to me, you may not like that. The problem is that to change between disc repeat and track repeat you have to first push in the joystick (straight in without pushing to the left or right or the track will change. Not as easy as it sounds.) This takes you to the menu. Next you need to push the function key. Finally push the repeat key to toggle between disc and track repeat. Simple, right? It seems it would be a heck of a lot easier to put the repeat button on the CD screen as there is plenty of room.
10.“WHERE’S THE DVD AND VOICE COMMAND?” Unlike the AVIC-N2 there is no built-in DVD player in the D1. This really didn’t bother me because I don’t have rear seat LCD screens and since the D1 disables the main screen from displaying moving images while the vehicle is in motion I could not imagine myself sitting stationary in my car for a two hour movie. An optional DVD changer/player is available and you may choose to add that at some point. By the way there is also no voice recognition on the D1 like there is on the N2. This also does not really upset me since I have never seen voice command work perfectly in a moving vehicle.
In conclusion I want to reiterate that these are my initial observations of my AVIC-D1 and I am sure my experience with grow as I spend time using the unit and navigating the screens. If there is one thing to glean from my review it is that you absolutely should test the heck out of the D1 (or any navigation system) in the store BEFORE you buy to make sure it is right for you. If it is stuck behind Plexiglas in the display demand the salesperson remove it so you can touch and use the D1 before you lay down your hard earned money.
If you already own a D1 pressure Pioneer to make the most critical fixes now by making your voice as a consumer be heard at: http://www.pioneerusa.com/pna/contact/us/0,,2076_138787615,00.html
Tell them to create a software update FREE OF CHARGE to registered owners that will address these flaws that should have been caught by quality control NOT the end-user.