NHTSA Complaint #10010986 — 2003 ACURA MDX

THE MDX NAVIGATION SYSTEM GIVES VERBAL AND VISUAL DIRECTIONS. I TEND TO RELY ON THE VERBAL DIRECTIONS IN THE CITY. SOMETIMES THE SYSTEM CANNOT DETERMINE ITS POSITION BECAUSE IT CANNOT GET SUFFICIENT SATELLITE SIGNALS. IT GIVES NO VERBAL CLUE THIS IS HAPPENING, IT JUSTS GIVES DIRECTIONS AS IF IT KNEW WHERE IT WAS (PRESUMABLY VIA DEAD RECKONING). THERE IS A VISUAL CUE, BUT IT IS VERY HARD TO SEE DURING THE DAY. THE SMALL LETTERS "GPS" TURN WHITE WHEN THE SIGNAL IS WEAK. THIS HAPPENED TO ME FIRST WHILE IN BOSTON ON 22JAN2003. IT STARTED GIVING ME DIRECTIONS AS IF I WERE SEVERAL BLOCKS AWAY. FORTUNATELY I KNEW THE AREA WELL ENOUGH TO KNOW IT WAS LOST BEFORE MAKING LOTS OF WRONG TURNS, BUT A DRIVER RELYING ON THE GPS MIGHT HAVE FOUND HIMSELF DRIVING THE WRONG WAY DOWN A ONE WAY STREET. I KNOW THAT INCORRECT MAP DATA CAN CAUSE THE SAME PROBLEM AND I HAVE ACCEPTED THAT RISK, BUT IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO COMPOUND THAT RISK THROUGH POOR SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE PROBLEM COSTS ALMOST NOTHING TO CORRECT.