Essooil

Hi,

I'm curious if anyone else who is thinking about buying a new Audi or who has recently bought one will miss the facility to upload custom POIs to the Sat Nav map (Audi calls these "Special Destinations").

All new Audis with touchscreens have the MIB2+ or MIB3 Media System which DO NOT have the facility to upload Special Destinations (POI’s).

I have added dozens of POIs to my 2017 S3 including speed cams, red light cams and specs as well as Premier Inns, Greggs Bakers, McDonald's etc. I mostly use POIBASE to do this.

When I first got my S3 in 2017 you could actually upload POIs from the My.Audi website which then uploaded the POI's to the vehicle via the Audi Connect service. This was super easy to do. However, in late 2018 Audi removed this facility from their website in the UK. Crazy! It was a brilliant feature.

In 2019 I contacted the 24hr Audi Digital team (who are great) to ask how I could upload POIs. The Digital Team confirmed the POI upload feature on the My.Audi website no longer worked in the UK (apparently it still worked in Germany). They said I would have to use the SD memory card slot in my S3 and follow instructions on the MMI to upload POIs. They told me how to do this and to be fair it works great. Like I say, to this day I still use POIBASE and a few other POI sites to upload POIs (SpecialDestinations) to my 2017 S3. All my custom POIs appear on the pop-up MMI map AND on the virtual cockpit map (so my custom POIs appear on two screens and are individually configurable).

I can't believe Audi have completely removed the facility to upload POIs!!

Okay, so I know there are a number of built-in points of interest on the map such as Schools, Parking Locations and Petrol Stations etc, and that these can be turned on or off on the MMI, but the facility for owners to create their own POI's was obviously very useful.

Q1: Am I the only person who found the facility to upload custom POI's useful?

Q2: Is there a work around?

Q3: What POI'S come as standard with the 2021 Audi MMI?

A few years ago Audi were highly rated for their in-car technology and innovation, especially regarding their MMI. This no longer seems to be the case.

I have even tried Android Auto, and whilst the voice guidance is excellent compared to the built-in Sat Nav, it's really difficult to add points of interest to the maps for Android Auto.

Any feedback, suggestions or comments (or solutions:-) would be very welcome.

superswiss

I have a feeling that hardly anybody used this. I myself didn't even know this was a feature in the past of some navigation systems (not only Audi), and I've yet to see what benefit this provides. Using Audi Connect and similar online features you can pretty much search and navigate to any POI. What exactly does seeing these POIs on the map do for you? I can kinda see the use of traffic cameras on the map, but w/o an audible warning for example as you are approaching one, what benefit does it provide unless you are constantly looking at the map instead of the road? I don't even really use the POIs on the maps as it is. As said if I need to visit a POI, I just say something like Navigate to "name of POI" to start route guidance. In my AMG that searches the online POIs along with any local data. In addition with the Send to car feature you can send any destination from your phone to the car to use for navigation later. I think you might be clinging to a feature that no longer makes sense in the connected world where you can simply start navigating to a POI with a voice command. I honestly have better things to do than scouring POIBASE and what not and upload my own POIs to the car and then have to do it all over again when I buy a new car. The beauty of cloud services is that little data lives on a device exclusively, so they can be easily replaced. Storing data locally is a relict of the past. These days data lives in the cloud and syncs to whatever devices you currently use, and if you replace any of them you can access the same data from your new devices w/o having to upload it all over again.

Essooil

You make some good points about online connectivity and POIs being online, but you can set an audiable and visual alert when you approach a POI. This might be useful for POIs such as Schools or low bridges etc. This means l do get an alert on the MMI when I approach a speed camera. Needless to say this is very useful. The only alternatives are Tom Tom or an app on my phone which means a cradle and cables which defeats the whole point of the Audi phone box facility.

I know keeping to the speed limit is another option, but it's nice to have the choice. We all know how easy it is to do 35 in a 30 zone and get caught out.

Forgetting speed cams for a moment, I prefer to stay at either Travel Lodge or Premiere Inn. Having the facility to upload all of these to my map as POIs is very useful to me. If I'm on a job and it overruns and I need an overnight stay I can just look for the closest one without having to send it to the vehicle as a destination. Whilst sending the hotel as a destination wouldn't be a chor, I do a lot of driving and not having all of the speed camera locations on BOTH screens with BOTH an audiable and visual alert when I approach them would be a big miss.

Having McDonald's and Starbucks with drive-throughs is also very useful. Not sure if online Audi POIs have specific brand named POIs?? Sometimes it just has a generic Hotel, Restaurant or Fastfood but doesn't tell you which it is.

Like you say, perhaps not many Audi owners knew you could upload POIs. That's fine, but why remove an existing feature that isn't cost related.

Tom Tom's made POIs useful in the 1990's and they are still very popular as they are a genuinely useful addition. Not just a feature for features sake.

Appreciate the reply.

superswiss

As a software developer I can tell you there's a cost attached to any feature. It has to be maintained, supported and tested. If nobody uses the feature, then it's not worth maintaining it and make sure it works. Yes, the POIs are branded, so you can essentially just say Navigate to McDonalds, or Navigate to Travel Lodge and it takes you to the next one. The MMI uses Google Local Search to find POIs and you can narrow it down to a specific town or even street by saying Navigate to Travel Lodge in "name of town". There's one thing at least with the older MMIs that bothered me is that you had to use a different voice command to search for online POIs. You had to say Online search <name of POI> or Google search <name of POI>, otherwise it would only search the local POIs stored in the the nav system, and that database is woefully out of date. They may have improved this in the latest MMIs. But this is something that I like much better about the system in my AMG. It has a universal search, so I don't have to differentiate between the local POIs and online POIs, addresses etc. I just say "Navigate to" followed by the name of a place or address. The MMI actually also has some little known voice commands. For example just say "I need coffee" and it will show you the nearest Starbucks etc. You can also say "I'm tired" and it will show you the nearest hotels. If there's a Travel Lodge or Premiere Inn nearby then just pick that.

Essooil

It is genuinely useful to know the online search facility does include branded points of interest such as McDonald's and Starbucks.

However, this does not address the loss of the speed camera POI facility at all:-

Red light cameras
Fixed Gatso
Specs (Inc temporary)
Known Mobile locations
Other "be ware" areas, including high-risk car parks notorious for car thefts and break ins.

With a massive online community updating these on a daily basis and it only taking 2 or 3 minutes to update the MMI once a week you might be surprised how accurate (and extremely useful) all of the above are when you are driving hundreds of miles each day.

What do you (or others) use for all of the above?

POIBase and the other POI websites have tens of thousands of subscribers so many drivers do still use POIs (although not in new Audis).

Also, you say you have an AMG. Without pointing out the obvious, that's not an Audi. Which Audi MMI are you familiar with?

superswiss

That is correct, I haven't mentioned speed cameras and the like because they hardly exist around here in the USA. Most members on this forum reside in the USA. In fact speed cameras are illegal here. To get a speeding ticket you have to be stopped by a cop who has to witness that you were speeding. To avoid that, I use a radar detector, which is legal except in the sate of Virginia. Red light cameras also barely exist, because they have also been deemed illegal so far in most jurisdiction. So yes, this is something I simply don't have to deal with at home.

I see now that you are in GB, so different story. I'm originally from Switzerland, so well aware of speed traps etc. My understanding is that apps etc. that warn you about speed cameras are illegal now in Europe, too, so that's perhaps why Audi no longer supports uploading POIs. Not sure what to tell you, though. I still frequently visit Europe as I have family there. In fact I picked up my last two cars, '13 RS5 and '19 C63S in Germany, and travelled around Europe for 1 and 2 months respectively. Drove 7000 miles in 2 months with the AMG for example, and about 4000 miles with the RS5 in 1 month. Grand touring is one of my passions. Basically, I stick to the speed limits mostly in Europe, don't blow through red lights and go to Germany to drive as fast as I want. I did get a couple of speeding tickets in Germany over the years, and 1 or 2 in Switzerland, but they were all for only a few kilometers over the limit.

As for my experience, I've driven Audis for more than 12 years before I got my current AMG. My last Audi I personally owned was a 2013 RS5 (see my signature), but I've extensively driven pretty much most recent Audis including the R8. I had access to a fleet of Audis for a while, so I pretty much know them in and out.

Essooil

Yes, I'm from North East England (Roman Forts / Hadrians Wall). I understand what you are saying. I didn't realise users of this website were mostly in the US.

UK no longer part of Europe of course (legislation wise) and speed cam POIs fully legal here (always have been).

Tom Tom Sat Navs have been huge gadget in UK over last 25 years. The built in Sat Navs in most new cars made Tom Tom's much less popular, but Tom Toms still used by people who like their own custom POIs.

Your reason why Audi no longer support POIs (speed cam POIs illegal in some parts of Europe) might be true. But that's a shame because there are many useful point of interests that you can download such as caravan sites, camping sites, historical attractions etc.

If the Google points of interest are as good as you say then this does make downloading your own POIs a little bit pointless.

I use a Snooper P-zero radar detector which also does GPS based speed camera alerts. The snooper is very good for detecting the radar, but there is no substitute for seeing all of the speed cameras on the two nice Audi screens.

I am going to do some research into the best dash mounted screen that will do the speed camera points of interest.

Thank you for your replies which are very much appreciated.

superswiss

Nowadays there is always Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to have your phone app of choice mirrored onto the car's display for navigation and what not. I understand many in the UK use Waze, and TomTom also has a phone app as far as I know that supports CarPlay and Android Auto. That's perhaps your best route. The 2021 MMI supports wireless CarPlay even, so you just need to have your phone in the car to project its UI onto the MMI display. No need to plug it in.

phowarth001

Frustrating to find that my new 2024 Q5 didn't include "safety" (speed) cameras in the navigation system
I can live without optional POI's but as it's legal in the UK to show cameras on such a system I cannot understand why Audi cannot offer a UK variant as standard - we pay enough for these systems and subscriptions.

There's plenty of YouTube videos demonstrating POI loading into the Audi MMI, with associated speed camera detail - but these are a non-starter for newer vehicles as the. MMI doesn't recognize any of the files and I've already wasted money on this route!

Meanwhile rather than invest in a separate device, I downloaded an app to my iPhone called "RadarAll"
You can actually set this up using the built in Shortcuts feature on the phone and create a shortcut that automatically launches RadarAll when you connect the phone to you Audi system via CarPlay
Note that you need to subscribe to the Pro version of the app to use CarPlay but it seems a reasonable annual cost, and it is constantly updated.

Now I can choose to use either Google or Apple maps via CarPlay, or the inbuilt Audi satnav system, and meanwhile have RadarAll running in the background (also via CarPlay) and warning me of approaching cameras via voice.
I agree it would be nice to be able to see these onscreen, but at least this provides some upfront warning - which given the constantly increasing numbers of cameras in the UK is an essential requirement.