Do we put too much faith in our TomTom's?

[SignumGPS]

This is a blog based thought i have had.
As the title suggests, what faith do we put in a sat nav?

This is derived from a few trips I have made recently. Now on a few occasions the live HD Traffic has been awesome, heading down the A12 it suddenly comes up with traffic on J28 where the A12 meets the M25, those that travel it will know its notorious for traffic, so my TT kindly take me off around Brentwood A130 i think, and then pops me back on just before the Queen Elizabeth bridge, thank you very much, 40minutes saved that i could have consumed sitting in traffic.

....but lets look at the other end of the spectrum, twice now have i put faith in its suggestion of 'New Route Found - 30 Minutes Faster', only this time it send me past the M25 and into London OUCH!!

Heading to Heathrow last week, 3 lanes shut both ways, 1hr 15min delay - okay TT saw this and found a 40min faster rout, not paying attention to the route until i realise im heading to Romford down the A12 past the M25. By then time i got to Heathrow i was in fact 10 minutes worse off, didn't miss plane but i hate sitting in traffic - oh how frustrated i get.

My point of all this is, when the TT brings up a faster route, its only faster for that picture of time it searched, and once in London A) we all know how quickly traffic can snarl up & B) once in London, TT Live would have a hard job getting you back out on a quicker route.

Long post i know, yes, but i don't want this to turn into what's the quickest way to Heathrow, but has anyone else found themselves taking a quicker route and shooting them selves in the foot!!
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GO750 Live
APP 9.054.531676.103 OS:1000
GPS V1.20 Boot 1.0012
Europe V850.2784

[MrDJ]

your lucky you wasnt on the m25 on tuesday afternoon. 8 lanes closed. accident anticlockwise by heathrow and clockwise closed for hems air ambulance to land.

look forward to the replys as my next tomtom will have live services.

[DennisN]

I dunno how much help this will be, but here goes!

I use it by the seat of my pants, by which I mean I select incidents to believe and those to ignore. My main tool in this is the clutch of TomToms on my dashboard, either three or four, depending on how I feel when I go out of a morning, but recently only three. That's one with Live HD Traffic and two with RDS-TMC traffic. The other tool is Radio Five Live (AM 693 and 909) which gives traffic updates at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour. (The fourth device is also a Live model, but it keeps crashing so I'm not using it much).

Using my skill and judgement I'll usually refuse the earliest offers if they are distant. I agree with you, they are snapshots of this moment in time and I don't feel inclined to take avoiding action if I'm not due to get there for an hour or two. I also sometimes accept the re-routing to see how much it diverts, by comparing the Live TomTom with the two RDS-TMC ones - I feel inclined to accept if the mileage doesn't go up hugely, but take consideration that a short diversion may well be hopelessly clogged when I get there. I couple these gut feelings with the Radio Five reports and see how it works out.

Can't say much more than that really. I'm pleased I've got HD Traffic, but I daren't follow it blindly yet.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[SignumGPS]

Mr DJ, I was on other side on Tuesday, Bridge way - not too bad.

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Thanks for that Dennis, unfortunately i think i do a bit too much - follow it that is.
Although the Heathrow incident was the second time, it did happen going Basingstoke, again took me through London. Recently I have been ignoring anything shorter than 10 Minutes, you take the 10 minute faster route, but find there is a set of traffic lights and loose some of that time there fore pointless.

But other than the M25 London area it does tend to work quite well, especially around the A12 and A14 corridors out of East Anglia. How often does the TT search the server for routes, is it constant, every 5 minutes etc?

I don't know if my devotion to getting somewhere on time would stretch to buying another 2 Sat Navs, do they not sometimes contradict each other?
_________________
GO750 Live
APP 9.054.531676.103 OS:1000
GPS V1.20 Boot 1.0012
Europe V850.2784

[DennisN]

I've tried, but I can't find anything about refresh frequency - I'm sure it's been mentioned somewhere, but I can't find it. I know it's often - I've had my device tell me about a change in the delay and then VERY soon afterwards, tell me about another change. I agree with your discarding a 10 minute "improvement", just not worth it to me.

It's not a case of buying extra devices, simply not retiring those which still work when I get a new one (I mean, you've gotta get a new one now and then, doncher?). I actually possess six tomtom devices, but don't run them all together now (apart from any other consideration, it takes a lorra lorra ciggy plug'oles!). However, when running into London, I worry about the satellite signal degrading and bouncing off high buildings, which makes the device start to turn circles and move off route. With three, some on 2D, some on 3D view, I can keep myself moving in the right direction! Not long ago, I was running three together, all with different maps and different Navcores. It was interesting to see the differences in both performance (e.g. the GO700 displaying and recalculating so much faster than the GO550) and routing (so very similar for the April 2007 map and the April 2010 one - why did I buy new maps?).
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[Jaz666]

One solution I wish Tom Tom would implement would be to replace the "a new route has been found" screen with a map overview zoomed to show
- your current position
- the traffic delay
- the proposed alternative route as far as the point where it rejoins the original route

That way no one need blindly accept a diversion, but make an informed decision instead.

[SignumGPS]

Agree with that Jaz - ya never know the 'New Route' until you accept, then you need to go to view route to see where it has taken you, for you to then re-input original route if you want undo the re-route!
_________________
GO750 Live
APP 9.054.531676.103 OS:1000
GPS V1.20 Boot 1.0012
Europe V850.2784

[Andy_P]

Like this you mean?


Blue is current route and green the suggested new route

This is how it is implemented on the new Go1000

[SignumGPS]

Precisely that! Any chance of getting that on a 750
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GO750 Live
APP 9.054.531676.103 OS:1000
GPS V1.20 Boot 1.0012
Europe V850.2784

[SignumGPS]

.....although I do wonder why on your picture the suggested route is 6 min longer, hope this was an example only
_________________
GO750 Live
APP 9.054.531676.103 OS:1000
GPS V1.20 Boot 1.0012
Europe V850.2784

[Andy_P]

Yeah sorry, it uses a similar display when you just ask it to do an "Alternative route" and it's a lot easier to set one of those up to take a picture!

[SignumGPS]

...and that's the same screen that comes up on the live suggestion is it. Certainly would help things that's for sure!
_________________
GO750 Live
APP 9.054.531676.103 OS:1000
GPS V1.20 Boot 1.0012
Europe V850.2784

[matthewj]

The new x40 Navcore does offer such a display. I had it yesterday when I had three incidents at various distances, and it came up with three radio buttons, one suggesting a skip around the main one, one skipping all, and one doing the original. The key change is that it had information about the time and distances, not just simple button text.

[SignumGPS]

Well I think I have the latest X50 Navcore, or will there be another with this on?
_________________
GO750 Live
APP 9.054.531676.103 OS:1000
GPS V1.20 Boot 1.0012
Europe V850.2784

[IanS100]

If you do choose to accept the 'Alternative Route' the 550 doesn't seem to check the original route to see if the delay disappears so it's necessary to keep re-routing manually

I've never seen a display like that on the 550 it's just the blind 'New Route', it would certainly be an improvement.

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