tomtom traffic - just not fit for the purpose

[thelawnet]

Was travelling southbound on M5 on Friday evening, as we came down the M4 there were warnings 'M5 closed J23-24'. Didn't know where that was or if it affected us, but trusted the TomTom Live traffic subscription to sort it out.

About 15-20 miles before we were to turn off the TomTom said there was a traffic delay, and it had a new route. Accepted. Then a few minutes later it said that it had a new route that was nine minutes faster, would we like to take it.

Ok.

Kept on going, got about 1/4 a mile past an exit and the device suddenly showed 60 minutes traffic delay ahead. This was between j22 and the closure at j23. During the two hours (yes, really) that it took to get j22-j23, it oscillated between saying that there was a 7 minute delay, a 21 minute delay a 60 minute delay, and no delay at all. Even after sitting in traffic for over an hour, it was saying that the delay was 0.6 miles ahead.

We went past j22 at 9pm, and the local radio said they had been reporting the closure since 7:30pm, so there was no excuse for what happened - the traffic feed was showing delay, then no delay then delay again, and basically at the crucial moment there was stated to be no delay at all.

Coming back, it said there was a 25 minute total delay on the M5/M4, so we should go on the A303, which had an 11 minute delay. Which was fine, except that while it said there was a 4 minute delay just past Stonehenge (northbound; it wasn't that long, the traffic was doing 30-40mph and wasn't really that slow), it missed the 20 minute queue getting to the roundabout before Stonehenge, which made the whole A303 vs M5/M4. comparison a bit of a pointless exercise when the data is so incomplete.

I don't drive very much, but I've not been entirely impressed with the traffic data - we also sat 30 minutes or more at the roundabout on the A322 Northbound junction with the M3 with TomTom having no data at all. Maybe when the 1 year Live subscription runs out we'll switch to Garmin (which is also faster, since the TomTom CPU, in the 550 at least, simply isn't fast enough to cope with the demands of live traffic-based rerouting)

[matthewj]

Complain to TomTom support. It won't get immediate satisfaction, but they need to know when the system is failing.

[Kremmen]

I have a factory fitted SatNav with Trafficmaster RDS TMC.

In the main it is OK as a guidance but I do find the data being passed out from the radio stations to be a bit out of date.

As a result I invested in a TrafficMaster Q-Busta which is considerably more accurate as it reads the latest data from the roadside beacons.

I wonder in this case whether it is TT or the broadcast data that was at fault?
_________________
Satnav:
Garmin 2599 LMT-D (Indoor test rig)
DashCam:
Viofo A119 V3
Car Average MPG :

[IanS100]

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!