Bad Routing

HellFire · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 25, 2004 Posts: 126

SmartST SP2 is terrible at routing while I was driving in Chelmsford it kept taking in circles and the only way it would take me to my destination was to purposely go off course and once it took me onto a road and then it disappeared off the map, I fill I’ve been ripped off as I had to use my A – Z, anyone else experience anything like this or is it just me

sfi · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 18, 2004 Posts: 17

I know the feeling, driving in europe recently the routing has been a complete nightmare with the quickest route clearly no way near the quickest, being routed up dead ends or round in circles to roads which are not passable by ordinary vehicles. It really needs either a better algorithm or at least a lot more options to stear it via certain roads. If the routing can't be sorted out in V3 it will be the reason i ditch this software for another one.

Try a long route and make a note of it. Then try the same route but in reverse. I've had many a route where you get completely different routes depending whether you go from A to B or B to A.
In one case it added over an hour to the return journey time which was only 2 hours in the first place.

HellFire · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 25, 2004 Posts: 126

After version 2 I’m not sure if I would trust version 3, the thing is before this I had the Streepilot III and that was perfect with no problems the only reason I sold that is because the maps cost ½ the price of the unit and you could only get the maps in the US but my point is that if one company can make a good navigation system them how come SmartST is so bad I wouldn’t even call this a minor bug its just like its still in beta

HellFire · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 25, 2004 Posts: 126

Maybe if there are any Navman people reading this then maybe they could explain why they are charging £135 for beta software. £135 for this what have I done Mr. Green

Dave · Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 8:21 am Post subject:

Unfortunatey no software is ever perfect, the StreetPilot's also have their flaws when used in certain areas. It's all down to mapping and the routing algorithm's and priorities used.

You'll find that pretty much most software you purchase you're beta testing for the companies, take a look at Microsoft!

sfi · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 18, 2004 Posts: 17

dave

I think that reasonable routing is the one thing one should expect from a navigation system. I agree that mapping is important and the switch to teleatlas hasn't helped but when you get a better more consistent routing from a program like autoroute it shows the deficiency of the program.
Maybe if they offer a set of options (priorities) for route calculation at least the equal of autoroute then we can make a fair comparison. But having used V1 and V2 i don't see any improvement in this area so am not confident of V3.

MattB · Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 9:12 am Post subject:

I have also had some fun with the routing in V2. In June I planned a trip up to Scotland with various stops along the way. I planned ahead and made sure that all my destinations where either reliable contacts, or saved as favourites.
First stint was fine, though admittedly it was mainly motorway driving. The second section was a nightmare! It was from Morley (near Leeds) to Carlisle. Normally I would have chosen the most direct route to get to the M6, but V2 decided to route me through Bradford. I accepted this as it was still a reasonable solution, but when we hit Bradford it started to loop me round in a circle, so badly that I ended going up and down the same road. Obviously I got quite frustrated with this as it added around 45 minutes to the journey, which when you have young children in the car makes it even worse. One factor which I believe hindered the routing was that there was changes being made to some of the road junctions in Bradford, though that doesn't forgive it for looping me back round. Anyway as anyone would do I ignored V2 and followed signs to M6, where V2 finally gave in and gave me some logicla routing.

This is the first and only time it hads let me down. Every other time it has got me to where I wanted to go. There may have been a better route, but as long as it gets me there and approximately on time (based on ETA), I am happy.
What wasn't so good, was that my wife was in the car and she had to dig out the road atlas! I so hoped those days had passed!!!

HellFire · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 25, 2004 Posts: 126

Next time the route goes wrong plot that route using the departure and navigate to menu like without a GPS signal and look at the route it’s made you will see that it’s proper route, weather you like the route it’s made or not isn’t the issue but it’s normally ok, the thing is when you drive that route it should be the same but that’s not the case random things happen weather it’s voice commands that don’t match the route or it does it’s best to get you lost by sending you to different roads that’s not in the original route this just proves that it’s SmatrST that’s at fault and not the map data. I’m just amazed that after 2 service packs this software flaw still remains but anyway I’ve just ordered Copilt 5 so hopefully as they use Navteq maps they take more pride in their software

Steveee · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 5:22 pm Post subject:

Never had a route that got me lost! Recently got on to a circular route in Leeds beause of a bus route that is not recognised in the TeleAtlas map. Got out of it by adding the road as an "avoid area". 8)
_________________
Steveee
Where am I?
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GO 920 (retired)
Garmin Oregon 550T
Garmin Drivesmart

sfi · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 18, 2004 Posts: 17

Hellfire, let us know how you get on with copilot 5 with regards to routing. The actual route not matching the pre-planned route is something that navman know about as i sent them evidence of it in V1. But V2 exhibits the same thing and i don't think V3 will be any different.

HellFire · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 25, 2004 Posts: 126

Yes I will let you know what I thing of Copilot 5 and I will post it in the Copilot section but it will properly be about a week till I get it as I don’t thing it’s been released in the UK yet but I’ve ordered it from Handnav. Navman know about the error and don’t bother to fix it Wow talk about not caring I just wish I could deactivate it so at least I could sell it

sfi · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 18, 2004 Posts: 17

It's been so frustrating using their products so far as all i want is a program that gets me from A to B without hastles and reliably. I would happily forgo all the fancy facilities that are supposed to be in the next version for something that provides routing that i can rely on.

HellFire · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 25, 2004 Posts: 126

This is what i think of Copilot 5 http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=56672

**NOTE** I have removed the &SID from the URL as it's actually a link to your cookie and if people follow this link it will log them out, and if you are in the forum the same time someone clicks on it, they may be able to use your session. [Ed-Dave]

SilverButtons · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 11, 2004 Posts: 8

I have just spent two weeks in France with my new Navman 630, I have to say I have never been so dissapointed with anything that I have ever purchased before. Talk about 'Not doing anything remotely like what it says on the tin'. Something of an understatement.

I am not a stupid person, eventually I came to the conclusion that nothing was actually wrong, this is just the way it is. The machine itself functioned properly, and there was nothing wrong with what I was trying to do with it, in terms of loading and finding locations. The software is just rubbish.

In Basel in Switzerland, it worked perfectly, I was stunningly impressed.
In Colmar in France, it was beyond useless, it was so inept it just made things worse. Many major places simply do not exist...like Gerardmer for example. Its a case of get out the map, and try entering a few places next door to the town it wont recognise, and you get lucky. You also have to live with duplicate towns listed, you go into one, it recognises no streets whatsoever, its database is empty, so you go back in and choose the other...presto, they're all there. So what is the 'empty' listing for?
And why does it tell you to go straight ahead on a motorway for the next 180kmh, then a few km later pull you off at the next junction, take you around the houses for half an hour, then return you back to the motorway at the same junction you came off at. I let it do this to me twice under the rather stupid impression that it had just thought of a better route! Time and time again it attempts to take you down one way streets the wrong way, it is hopeless with many one way systems around towns. and isnt it amusing when you can see the road that you are on displayed on the screen, but the cursor shows you driving alongside in the fields!

I purchased the damn thing to give me sound and half decent advice, not for me to have to decide it was being stupid and ignore and overide it! People who have bought one of these because they havent got the first idea of how to get around could end up going many miles and hours out of their way, or blindly following it the wrong way down a one way street.

After a few weeks I have got the hang of 'thinking outside of the box' to trick it into being able to find my destination point to input. I have also got the hang of second guessing when it is about to do something staggeringly incompetent. It all rather defeats the point of it though, if I can do it better myself.

The bottom line is that the software doesnt even come close to a description of 'fit for purpose' under the sale of goods act.

Are they all like this?

SilverButtons · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 11, 2004 Posts: 8

Is my last post on the wrong forum? this is the Navman software forum right? but I notice anything to do with the 630 should go onto the Navman hardware forum, even if its about software. As confusing as the mapping itself!

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