(VAG) RNS 510 Navigation and TMC

After many years of using navigations on smartphones, I got an opportunity to use some radio/navigation system built in car. In today’s review I will introduce RNS 510 – it is touch screen radio/navigation system offered primary in VAG concern (VW, Škoda, Seat …).
One of the first things to check when you are interested in buying some tech product is usually price. And RNS 510 is very expensive – over 2000 EUR should be prepared in your pocket. High expectations are normal if you pay so much.
RNS 510 is developed by Continental. It offers very good radio reception, DVD player, 30 GB hard disk drive and SD card reader from where RNS 510 can produce exceptional sound. This multimedia system can play video from DVDs on brilliant image on 6.5 inch display.
But let’s talk about navigation part of this system.

+ Show accurate current GPS location. It uses a connected GPS antenna hidden under the dash in your car.
+ Excellent integration with other systems in the car (radio, phone, GPS, park sensors …).
+ User interface is good. Usually you will quick find the feature you are looking for. The number of features are quite limited, but it has all of the most important.
+ Hardware button for Traffic information. It is available if you don’t using a navigation at the moment and can be quite useful to quick check if something is happen on the road where you don’t need a navigation. + Shows Slovenian characters in addresses (even in MFI).
+ Beside main navigation screen, it shows next maneuver also on MFI (MFA), so driver don’t need to look to the middle console of his car.
+ Voice control of navigation can be quite useful.
– When you approaching the turning point, you will get only a “changing blind information” in MFI instead of showing distance (in meters) like is normally on other systems. Look at picture – do you know how far is it to turn?

– Touch screen isn’t responsive as you would expect after using your smartphone’s screen. You have to press quite strong and be careful when sliding with fingers, otherwise system won’t recognize your wishes.
– Route calculation is slow (I have installed the latest firmware, but it changed only a little). If you look at official description, where it is written “Extremely quick route calculation”, then all I can say is – misleading. After see route calculation in Google Maps, IGO, Sygic and similar solutions, we simply can’t say that it is fast. It is slow.
– Speedcams can be shown only as POIs and without notification (check my previous article).
– System is starting quite long time. Radio is available almost immediately after you switch the car, but you will have to wait to get other features (including navigation of course).
– RNS 510 uses maps from Navteq (now Here, but it looks that latest version V13 is still with name Navteq). And all who already read my previous GPS articles know that I don’t like Here (Navteq) maps – at least in our part of Europe. There are many mistakes, bad routes suggestions, recalculations, unnecessary shown maneuvers, wrong decisions… It simply isn’t on pair with TomTom. And not just that, in my opinion Navteq/Here maps isn’t so clear to look.
– 3D look is 3D only on paper and can’t be compared with other (top) navigations.
– If you want to use TMC (Traffic Message Chanel) in Slovenia, you will be disappointed. I get an official information from Slovenian Traffic Information Centre. Because it is quite complex and concern especially users in Slovenia, I will show their answer in original (Slovenian) language at the end of this post. By the way – DarsTraffic is nice application for your smartphone with really time traffic information from Slovenian roads:

After reading some webpages I found some comments that TMC works well on highways, but isn’t very good on other roads. I have just come from a longer trip over the European Alps where I used IGO on my phone and data roaming on. Traffic information comes from internet (not from Text Message like in TMC) and works really very good – I save many long waitings in traffic jams.

My suggestion for using navigation on RNS 510 is, that you select split display (map with route on one side and maneuver list on the other side of display). Map with route will show you a preview and make a feeling of where you go. Maneuver list will show next maneuvers.

If you have navigation selected in MFA display, there will be a navigation symbol for next maneuver.

Conclusion: RNS 510 is very good device if you look at it from multimedia view. It has brilliant sound and tuner. It has hard disk and can use SD card and DVDs. It can display video if you want. Its navigation is user friendly. But – navigation in nut is very poor, especially because Navteq maps aren’t on high level. And this is very important in navigation.

Rating: 5/10 (check whole ratings table)

Odgovor Prometno-informacijskega centra o sistemu TMC v Sloveniji (avgust 2016):
Navigacijske naprave prejemajo signal prek RDS-a posamezne radijske postaje. Trenutno v Sloveniji deluje komercialni servis, ki ga upravlja madžarsko podjetje TrafficNav. Tudi mi smo sodelovali pri vzpostavitvi tega servisa, saj je bil takrat edini. Vendar težava je v tem, ker mora TrafficNav tudi nekaj zaslužiti, zato ponudnikom navigacijskih naprav (Garmin, TomTom, avtomobilski proizvajalci) tega servisa ne more dati zastonj. Zato ga vse naprave nimajo in ga verjetno nikoli ne bodo imele. Pomembno je tudi, prek katerih frekvenc se signal oddaja, saj to določa pokritost cestnega omrežja s prometnimi informacijami. Nimamo podatka, kako pokrit je ta servis.

Že ves čas pa smo si v PIC-u prizadevali, da bi v Sloveniji vzpostavili javni RDS TMC servis, ki bi bil brezplačno dostopen vsem navigacijskim napravam. Letos nam je uspelo tak servis vzpostaviti, in sicer z denarno podporo Darsa in pomočjo RTV SLO pri oddajanju signala. Dosegli smo tudi skoraj 100% pokritost, saj se informacije oddajajo prek oddajniške mreže 1. in 2. nacionalnega radijskega programa.

Zakaj torej teh informacij oz. tega javnega servisa še nikjer ni?

Če hočemo to razumeti, moramo prej razumeti tole:
Da bi servis dejansko prišel do voznika oz. da bi mu jo njegova navigacijska naprava pravilno prikazala, se morata oddajna in sprejemna stran razumeti (govoriti isti jezik). Prevede in kodira se celotna mednarodno usklajena tabela dogodkov. Lokacijsko se kodira cestno omrežje, ki ga želimo pokriti. To so lokacijske tabele. Navigacijski napravi povejo točno lokacijo dogodka.

Kode dogodkov so enake za ves svet, različni so samo prevodi. Tako ni težav pri prenosu v navigacijsko napravo. Tabele lokacij pa so za vsako cesto na svetu drugačne. Zato jih je potrebno posebej izdelati ter po kar zapletenem postopku overiti pri pristojnih evropskih institucijah. Tako je zagotovljena njihova tehnična ustreznost in homogenost.

Vse našteto smo uredili. Zakaj za hudiča teh informacij oz. tega javnega servisa še nikjer ni?

Vsaka navigacijska naprava ima vgrajen zemljevid, ki zna geografsko določiti vsako informacijo, ki jo prejme. Če želi tvoja navigacijska naprava geografsko postaviti dogodek, ki ga mi oddamo prek RTV SLO, na pravo mesto na pravi cesti, mora imeti v svojem zemljevidu vgrajeno našo lokacijsko tabelo. Ključni so torej ponudniki zemljevidov. Praktično ves trg na tem segmentu zasedata Here (po naši oceni več kot 70%) in Tom Tom (bivši TeleAtlas). Kolikor se nelogično sliši – Here in Tom Tom nimata neposrednega interesa vgraditi naših lokacijskih tabel. Zato smo v fazi lobiranja prek državnih in evropskih institucij in pogajanj z obema ponudnikoma zamljevidov, da bi to storila. Smo kar na dobri poti, vendar se bojimo, da nam vsem dostopnega RDS TMC servisa za Slovenijo ne bo uspelo vzpostaviti prej kot v letu ali dveh. Nekaj je sicer še možnosti do konca tega leta, vendar ne bi rad dajal prevelikega upanja.

Še o VW:
VW je v skupini, ki je delni lastnik podjetja Here. Smo v dogovoru z njimi in tudi oni so prek slovenskih predstavnikov sprožili akcijo. Bi bila pa dobrodošla spodbuda v obliki kakšnega kratkega pisma njihovega uporabnika.

Odgovor podjetja Volkswagen Slovenija (avgust 2016):
Trenutno smo v fazi dogovarjanja s tovarno, kako bi lahko omogočili podporo TMC obvestil za vsa nova vozila, ki bodo v prihodnjih letih prišla na trg.
Ali bo možno podporo ponuditi tudi obstoječim Volkswagnovim modelov s starejšimi multimedijskimi napravami, pa žal še ne vemo.