XV - SatNav and Colour part II
SATNAV: Is it useful? is it intuitive? Well "Sort off" is my take on both questions.
Firstly the screen is great and the way satnav is integrated to the Infotainment system is also superb.
But, but. the system does not recognize 50% of the One-Way streets, also certain road turnings are not known to the system and it at times asks ones to go further and turn back rather than take as straight right/U-turn, besides at times asking us to turn right into a no-entry street. Also at times it tends to suggest one goes below certain road flyovers rather then over it for some odd reason. Also there is no User Manual for all practical purposes. (The CD does come with what is called a user manual but it is not too useful.) It also does not know many of the older names and uses the current offical names for places.
Also lets say one stays in Mumbai then it has various listings within Mumbai itself and suburbs of Mumbai are detailed under Suburban Mumbai rather than Central Mumbai which needs to be selected for south mumbai so one needs to select the appropriate part of the city first.
It at times list the same road by all it's different names (that is both good and bad) like G. B. Road, Ghoadbunder Road, Ghodbunder Road, and a couple more names for the same road.
It does record / work in even far flung areas of Mumbai (Read Thane and even roads within) quite well. As well as in smaller towns like Vadadodra (Baroda).
It is quite messy if there is a recent diversion due to flyover construction work - and we do have a lot of that happening all over India.
That said, it is also very useful I have successfully trusted it blindly in areas where I did not know the route at all and it has always lead me quite close to the destination.
Yes India is a country with lots of small and very small streets which are not mapped perfectly, but then it is also a country with abundant population and a combination of asking a person for exact directions when very close to the destination and the sytem itself gets one to the address one seeks quite easily.
Other Positives:
1) It blows up the roundabouts and complex turnings to explain them in detail as one gets closer to it.
2) It gives advance warnings about turns so that one does not have to make abrubt direction changes.
3) There is guidance through Voice, and Screen both. The screen itself shows both direction and map position.
4) It gives a warning about SatNav safe usage each time one starts it. (It can get irritating after a while, like the warning while reversing, but it is a required safety measure.)
5) The CD packaging for SatNav does not at all convey that the car is made by an Indian Manufacturer. Of course it also lets out that global companies are as nutty as Indians.
Some tips:
1) Whenever one reaches a destination that one will go to frequently then within Navigation, within menu go to "Present location" option and then select save and give a suitable name to the location. These are all saved under the tab Dest. Mem (Destination Memory) and can be accessed faster when one visits the same place later.
2) If one knows half the route then go ahead and make that bit of the journey and then let Navigation give you the further route from that point. If there are multiple routes to the location and one already knows tentatively that a certain route is better but is not sure of the exact directions, then head off in that preferred route, the SatNav will automatically reroute bases the directions in which one has set off.
3) Suggest one keeps the screen in the dual mode with both directions and map being shown across - each across half the screen.
4) Suggest one keeps the map at scale of 1km for city driving and 5km for highway driving.
5) DO NOT FIDDLE WITH THE SCREEN WHILE DRIVING - I shot through a red signal while fiddling with the satnav once. (Stopped right in the middle of the crossroad when I realized what was happening. SatNav can be as distracting as the Phone, and we need to take care while using it.
There seems to be a lot more to the SatNav than all that is mentioned above and have not really been through all the options yet. The Letter received with the SatNav CD apologizing for the late delivery of the same and praising the Pride with the play of words of the model Pride and the Pride one gets out of owning it seemed a bit desi.
Overall it is Kida Great.
COLOUR: So what colour is my car?
"Night Shade Black..." What would anyone understand by this name? I need to figure out what to tell others who have not seen the car, or for that matter have seen it aswell. They say "Lovely colour, what colour is it?"
Just saying it's Black does not do justice to the colour or the car, the other "Quartz Black" that they have is actually like the conventional Black and it's not the one that's selling in large numbers. (By the way besides a "Sardinia Red" (Print and Hoarding Advt. and Brochure car colour) demo car - Maroonish car, all the other 3 Aria's that I have seen on the road have been Night Shade Black - so much for getting a unique and distinct colour - yes it's unique compared to the remaining cars, but among Aria's I get a feeling it's going to be real popular and common in the long run.)
The Pearl White that they have too looks very grand, and I get a feeling will be the one that will be sold in lesser numbers this time and remain unique. I can't figure why they bothered with the surf blue colour, do they actually think they will sell any?
Does every one want to stand out? Why do I not see any Sardinia Reds on the Road? did all the Aria buyers feel this though a nice colour will end up being too common, to the extent that very few went for this every popular colour? Wish we could get sales figures with colour breakups from the manufacturers.
Don't get me wrong, I am very happy with the colour, but how the h@#$ do I describe it to others?
Black at night and Purplish during the day is what I say currently. It also looks like a deep brown, blackish Maroon or Burgundy at times depending on the light condition.
Frankly have yet not figured out the best name (read description) for the colour - work in progress.
Second Service appointment taken for Monday - more updates then.