2015 A3 (with Nav) - few MMI questions

[aperry]

I'm about 3 weeks in with my 2015 Audi A3 (CPO) Premium Plus 2.0T. I love this car, even the Dakota Grey which wasn't my first choice! It has Nav, heated seats, rear view cam, side assist. I've already rented a VCDS cable and enabled a few of the common things like comfort close (with visual confirmation), mirror dipping, needle sweep, rain close, oil temp. Love this car!

I have a few questions related to MMI that maybe some of the experts can help with:

1) In the main Nav screen, if I select "Traffic" using the upper-right corner button, it does some crazy sorting and shows me traffic events that are over 100 miles away at the top of the (very long) list. It's totally useless like this. For the life of me I can't figure out how to change the sort order. I feel like I'm missing something totally obvious?

2) I loaded up a big SD card with about 70 gigs of MP3 music. It's nicely organized/tagged and has cover art. I really like the interface for browsing/selecting music. Is there any reason to import some of this music to the jukebox? I'm struggling to understand what the difference is, except maybe to free up an SD slot?

3) One Nav feature that I love is "send to car" from Google Maps (on a computer). However, most destinations that I do this with cause the Nav to complain that it's "not on a digitized street". It also doesn't show the actual address when I select it from my online destinations. It does seem to work pretty well, but it would be great if I can verify that it's the correct address. I guess it uses the Latitude/Longitude data instead of the address data. Is there any way to do this so that it uses the address? I think I can manually edit the address in the "my Audi" website, but that's too much trouble.

4) I had the car in service yesterday and they gave me a Q3 loaner (I think it was a 2016?). The Nav system was similar but with a few differences. Anyway, the default 3D map showed a really nice "topographical" overlay, basically shading areas where there are small hills and valleys. I really liked that. Is there any way to enable this on the A3 MMI system? I've tried selecting all of the POIs, but no luck. I'm also in the slow process of downloading the 2016 maps update, to see if that helps.

Thanks for any help!
Aaron

 

[RichardT]

I don't think there is any point in moving your music off the SD card. If you are tight forspace, just get a larger card. If you have the HD nav, then you have a spare slot as well, so you could have two cards.

 

[aperry]

I don't think there is any point in moving your music off the SD card. If you are tight forspace, just get a larger card. If you have the HD nav, then you have a spare slot as well, so you could have two cards.

Cool, thanks for confirming and saving me some time! I'll just keep running it from SD card.

 

[veeeight]

If you enter a destination on the Nav, it will show you traffic on your route at the top.

 

[aperry]

If you enter a destination on the Nav, it will show you traffic on your route at the top.

Excellent. Thank you! I had not noticed that. I think I've only tried selecting this with no route in progress (expecting it would show what's up ahead on the current road). Thanks!

 

[blodwen715]

If you enter a destination on the Nav, it will show you traffic on your route at the top.

I wish!! Several times I have checked when stuck in roadworks/heavy traffic and I still only get info on motorways about 100 miles away.

 

[veeeight]

Mine works flawlessly, and re-routes dynamically

 

[aperry]

Tested it out this morning with a destination/route. It seemed to work as described by veeeight. There was one road with construction on it about 10 miles away (along my route), and it popped up first in the list. After that one there were plenty of others listed that were 150+ miles away.

 

[MartinDov]

I've pressed Traffic multiple times in different locations but never get any info! 65 plate S3 with SD Nav and I'm up in Aberdeenshire! Maybe there just isn't any traffic... (Or I'm doing it wrong!)

 

[aperry]

Mine works flawlessly, and re-routes dynamically

Just out of curiosity, do you guys actually have the option to turn on "Dynamic Traffic Avoidance"? I see this option documented in the MMI operating manual, but for the life of me I cannot find it in the system. Apparently this should be listed in the "Route Criteria", but it is not there for me. I see other options like "avoid tolls", "avoid HOV", etc, but nothing about traffic.

I know my traffic service is working, and I'm actually quite impressed with how accurate it seems to be here in the Boston area. When I start a route, it often tells me that there are traffic problems along the route, but so far it has never re-routed me based on a traffic problem. It's possible I just need more time with it (only been about a month).

 

[veeeight]

Just out of curiosity, do you guys actually have the option to turn on "Dynamic Traffic Avoidance"?

Yes.

I do have Tech Pack, though.

 

[aperry]

Hmmmm.....maybe I need to take a closer look at the options inside MMI. I have the technology pack (at least I think I do?....touch dial MMI, high res screen, google earth view, hard drive for nav and music?).

 

[RichardT]

Yes - if you have high res screen and touch dial you have tech pack.

 

[aperry]

Am I looking in the right place for "Dynamic Traffic Avoidance"? Should I expect an option titled "Dynamic Traffic Avoidance" under the "Settings --> Route Criteria" screen? This is making me feel not very smart!

Main Nav Settings screen:

Route Criteria screen:

And, maybe my MMI firmware is too old? Looks like it's a 2014 version:

Thanks!!

 

[veeeight]

You're not in the EU?
That could be why.
No RDS-TMC ?

 

[aperry]

Thank you Veeeight! Indeed I am not in the EU. I'm sorry I neglected to mention this earlier. I believe my traffic data is served by Sirius, but even this is hard to determine conclusively because I don't see any mention of any named traffic services in the MMI interface. I know I'm getting live traffic, and I'm actually somewhat impressed with its accuracy here in Boston, MA USA.

So, perhaps "dynamic traffic avoidance" and "route options" are not user selectable options outside the EU? Bummer.

Thank you for taking the time with those screenshots. This helps me better understand what's going on here!

 

[veeeight]

Yes, I think NAR has Sirius XM traffic, but I'm not sure how this integrates with the Nav on MMI. Not sure if it actually does, think it may just give you info.

But from MY2015, you should have INRIX traffic anyway?
https://www.audiusa.com/newsroom/ne...rix-debut-online-traffic-services-at-ces-2015

 

[aperry]

Interesting, maybe you're right that it's actually INRIX! Reading that article, I have the INRIX services described (like nearby fuel prices and parking spots). I can't seem to find the words "INRIX" or "Sirius" anywhere in MMI, so it's hard to conclusively determine what the service is, but the features do seem to match INRIX.

I guess I underestimated the number of MMI variations between regions and model years, so the reviews and marketing materials that I read weeks/months ago may not apply to my car at all. It's no big deal to me. I'm fairly satisfied with the traffic features that are provided.

Thank you for your help!