If my radio DOESNT have a GPS, then HOW does the TRAFFIC app work?

Gents, one of the things I was lamenting over a few weeks back was the absence of a GPS/NAV function on my new truck. Today, as I was driving home from Albany to Syracuse, I opened up the 'traffic' app, and lo and behold, there is a little blue dot that represents where I am on the map. Now........if there is something installed in that radio that can track me where I am in relation to a map.....then there HAS to be some kind of GPS installed. Which means there HAS to be some way to jailbreak the program! C'mon super smart computer guys! Help me out!

 

As your sig states, bigger hammer or more bullets.

 

Shooting or hammering my radio will probably not have the outcome I desire in this situation......

 

Nope. Your only fix is to get the nav unit. Much better traffic map also with scroll ability.

 

Or do as I do and use your smartphone. My radio is like yours, traffic (which I've found to be inaccurate and useless) but no Nav.

 

Can you post a picture of your map screen? I've never heard of or seen this on a non-navi head unit.

 

It is completely useless.

Mine rarely changes. It always shows the interstates as green even if it is gridlocked. It is useless. But it does get my location fairly close.


Even the non nav trucks have gps antenna from what I read.


But again. It freaking sucks.

 

Thats EXACTLY my point. There HAS to be a GPS unit in this non-nav package stereo. All I can assume is the GPS receiver is in there, but there is no active mapping programs. But the mere presence of the little moving blue dot on the screen means there is some kind of GPS activity. Knowing this, somebody has to know a way to hack it and download something. I agree with you totally, the 'traffic' function is pretty useless...but if you could zoom in, you could at least know your current position.
I know there are several other GPS options out there. We've established that. But Ive proven that there is a GPS receiver in there, which means several things.
1) 1/2 of the required software is already there.
2) The image shown changes, real time, as you drive. Its just a NAV unit with a real broad, state level view.
3) Couldnt this be used as a kind of 'stolen car' loactor? Each head unit has its own unique serial number
4) This means any time my car is on, I can be tracked?! Damn gubment conspiracies!

 

Here is a great deal for a Nav with XM included in the 2nd gen marketplace.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/oem-2014-entune-navigation-head-unit-with-xm-non-jbl.394250/

 

It doesn't need a GPS. There are traffic and weather sub-carriers on FM radio stations, so it picks up the data from the FM radio. Since terrestrial radio has limited broadcast ranges, it can know - vaguely - where you are. Of course, the "better" the range of the radio stations near you, the worse the precision is - I know several members here in flatter areas consistently get reports from the next county over rather than anything they actually care about.

For me, there are no enabled FM stations anywhere near where I live, so it was useless in that regard, too.

I haven't bothered looking into exactly what the entune uses but it's probably RDS/RDBS. It's the same way a standalone GPS unit (tomtom, etc) gets weather and traffic even though it has no connection like a cellphone.

 

Then it doesn't solve everything.

 

It would require me to buy a new, GPS enabled head unit. Problem solved. So there, Mr Funny pants.

 

Awaiting pics of old HU.