I am wondering if Voice activated navigation provides equivalent/better/different functionality than an iPhone with CARPLAY. Will I miss big if I drop this option in my truck to be?

I will appreciate any comments

 

I don't like the factory nav. I use my Garmin. Standby for a mix bag of opinions.

 

I have a 2016 with Factory Nav w/ screen and Apple Car play works well and you can use Waze.
depends on your tires also BFG KO'2 are a little noisy so without Car Play Siri only picks up 70% of what I voice text thru the Sony Ford System.
You can always add an aftermarket head unit if you don't like the voice nav
Any aftermarket head unit is way better than anything Ford has out there.

 

 

Traveled 11,450 miles in just over 3 months from east coast to west coast and back; towing a camping trailer and visiting nearly every tourist attraction possible. Did not have any problems with my navigation. Found camp grounds, gas stations, restaurants and most anything else we were looking for. I could tell it addresses while driving, which was nice. I'm sure at some point I'll have to get it updated, but otherwise I'm glad I ordered my truck with it. Navigation was not something I originally planned on getting as I already had a couple of GPS's. But the truck I almost bought before I decided to order a truck exactly like I wanted, had navigation so I ordered mine with it. On our trip we took a GPS with us just in case, but never plugged it in. In almost 3 years and 53k miles I have had no problems with the navigation. But then again, I haven't had problems with things that others have had problems with. My 2 cents worth.

 

 

I think the factory nav is good most of the time - 80 to 90% or so. It's convenient, no plugging anything in, nothing sitting on dash or mounted to windshield.

The drawbacks: Maps are already old when you buy the vehicle. Sometimes 2 or 3 years old. Several neighborhoods within a few miles of where I live are not on the factory map. Also, after the initial Sirius trial period it no longer gets traffic data. It's not nearly as good at finding campgrounds, sights, other points of interest, etc, that are off the main roads.

I've used CarPlay and Waze,both are very good with traffic and being up to date, but I don't like having to connect my phone and then have the car take control of my phone. Also, if your phone does not get a cell signal, it may not work for navigation. Some apps like google let you download maps ahead of time, but this requires planning ahead and doesn't help if you decide to go exploring.

I'm considering getting a TomTom or Garmin as a back up to phone and factory nav. Sure would be nice to have a built-in one device that would do it all.

 

Currently no update is available for trucks 2016 and above. If and when available, it's about $150.00.

https://here.navigation.com/north-america/find-a-map-update

https://ford.navigation.com/product-list/Catalog/Catalog_Ford_F-150_2016/en_US/FordNA/USD

 

Yep, that my issue with the whole sync system, you have to know the exact command to get it to do anything, its like programming lol. Android auto with google assistant is much easier to use because it will figure out what you meant for the most part using plain english. I mostly use waze, but i have found its routing does some weird stuff. I sometimes use google maps with a previously defined route i made on the computer when we are going camping. Factory nav is great when you are in the middle of the woods with zero cell service and want to explorer, thats the big downside to waze and google maps.

 

Thank you all. No ford navigator it is!