Can you help? – The mysterious Saab 9-5 navigation icon
February 17, 2011 in Saabology
I got this question in from a friend in Sweden yesterday and it’s one that I can’t answer. I sent it on to another 9-5 owner and he can’t answer it either. Both have read their navigation manuals thoroughly but still there seems to be no answer to this question.
I tried an email to a contact at Saab but it bounced. I thought we might try to crowd-source this one before I try again.
Enclosed you will find two pictures, neither my boss (who owns the car) or the mechanic at his Saab workshop knows what the circled symbol with the little car means.
Sometimes it’s lit and sometimes it’s not….anyone that knows?
Here are the images. The first one shows the symbol (circled) in full context of the nav screen. The second shows a better angle so you can see the symbol lit up in green. I assume that sometimes it’s greyed out, like the ones to the right.
Any concrete knowledge as to what this one means would be welcome!
Yerrun said on February 17, 2011
Just an initial guess.. the car symbol on the navigation screen in our 9-3 is based on the TMC (traffic message channel). A green symbol means no traffic problems. A red means queing traffic. Could it have something to do with that?
Yerrun said on February 17, 2011
Just an initial guess.. the car symbol on the navigation screen in our 9-3 is based on the TMC (traffic message channel). A green symbol means no traffic problems. A red means queing traffic. Could it have something to do with that?
Christofer said on February 17, 2011
+1 That would be my guess too that it has something to do with TMC.
/Christofer
Ryan McLean said on February 17, 2011
That could make sense. I have a similar icon that comes up on my (Aftermaket) nav system. Mine downloads the traffic data off of FM radio stations (Embedded in their radio broadcast) and no car = no traffic info.
Steve C. said on February 17, 2011
Yerrun makes a great inference. Is there any mention if this is acting as an indicator or if someting happens when the symbol is pressed? I’m hoping they would have tried pressing the symbol to see what happened.
Jr. said on February 17, 2011
First of all; the GUI looks horrible. Not as bad as the satnav in my ’04 9-5, but really, hasn’t we come a bit further in those years?
Second; how can it not be stated in the manual what that icon stands for?
Chris Carrier said on February 18, 2011
It’s actually quite nice. There are many screens — that is but one.
Jörgen Trued - SUHRT said on February 17, 2011
Jr.
You are so right. Guess Saab has not had the resources to make their own GUI.
I would be more than interested to design the future screens. If http://www.foi.se can make it right in the Saab 39 Gripen Cockpit sure we can make it in a road going Saab…..
Thylmuc said on February 17, 2011
While a nice offer, I prefer maintaining my previous suggestion to completely switch to smartphone navigation. As a Dutch company, preferably TomTom
. These apps can be skinned too, so Saab specific colours/car symbols should be possible. Cooperate with the manufacturer to include into the mount a pathway for transmitting speed signals.
mcwill said on February 17, 2011
I think this just indicates if the satnav is active and connected. The Bluetooth symbol on the far right only lights up when your phone has an active connection to the car.
Nicola said on February 18, 2011
+1
Now it’s bed time here around (Italy)
I’ll try it tomorrow.
S.P. said on February 17, 2011
Could it an indicator that tells if navigation with directions is active?
Mikaik said on February 17, 2011
Since it only has two states (green/grey), I’d say it’s the gps signal indicator. The traffic info should have three states (the 9-3 one has green, yellow, red).
wilfried said on February 18, 2011
Creating your own aurora borealis around your 9-5 ?
Nicola said on February 18, 2011
’06 SatNav was having the option to automatically switch to “north up” if scale was 10km or bigger.
This was good to avoid a unuseful rotating map while travelling onto a off-town twisty road.
I miss it.
chunky said on February 18, 2011
tThe car icon is for TMC!
Nicola said on February 19, 2011
It’s not for GPS, I was in a tunnel, GPS signal was off, icon was still green.
Red J said on February 19, 2011
I’ve read the Chevy Equinox and the Cadillac SRX navigation system manual, and first of all those manuals are really bad.
My only conclusion after going through the manual is, that this symbol indicates if TMC (some countries in Europe) XMNavTraffic (US) is available.
When switching to the map view, a similar Icon can be seen in the lower left corner. that symbol has 3 states.
No symbol: no Traffic data available or no traffic events.
one car: Traffic data available but no event in your route
multiple cars: traffic event in your route