TomTom HD Traffic Website - Real Time With x40 units?

PaulB2005

Does the TomTom HD Traffic Live website reflect, in real time, the reports you get on the x40 units?

I only ask because BBC news has been reporting between Junctions 7 and 8 of the M5 as closed due to an accident which occurred at 0815 here but TT HD Traffic website still reports nothing at 1230 but does report a closure between Junction 2 and 4A.

Is the real up to date reports just for x40 owners and is the website feed a delayed / reduced / restricted version?

MrT · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 2:02 pm Post subject:

No TomTom seems to have missed this incident on the maps and the x40 HD traffic, although as I am not near that part of the country that could be why I cannot see it on the x40.

The J2 incident shows on the maps as red and but as a grey incident (labelled accident under further details) with no time delay on the x40.
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Drivelux

Petekk · Regular Visitor Joined: Mar 06, 2004 Posts: 137

My x40 is showing the same data as the website. I have just emailed tomtom support over this.

The M5 closure is reported on radio, TV, Highways Agency website, Keepmoving.co.uk (which is ITis data), and Trafficmaster. Yet HD Traffic shows no sign of any problem, which has existed over 4 hours.

The problem shown on HD Traffic (between J2 and J4), happened a week or so before Christmas, but was never cleared from Tomtom. Having travelling the route several times (with my x40), there is no problem here, so why havent TT detected this (surely there must be thousands of voda sims that have travelled through this junction.

Certainly around Birmingham, coverage of roads is not great, and when there is info, it is not always accurate.

PaulB2005 · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 9:51 pm Post subject:

Ah boo.

Just when I've convinced myself to buy a 540 i get a reminder that it'll be no better than the Garmin I've already got....

Cheers for the confirmations...

PaulB2005 · Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:04 am Post subject:

Did it ever appear on the HD Traffic Live?

Have emailed TomTom for comment.

matthewj · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 751

I must say I'm most disappointed in this. I checked the status of this at about 2pm, and still nothing was there. I could see the tanker off the motorway, and the one to take the fuel away, on the CCTV pictures. Big queues. But nothing on the TomTom HD. This is disgraceful, and I should hope that they extend the 3 month trial to start from when the service works, not from when they started selling them.

matthewj · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 751

The HD website is really useful. It shows how bad the reports are at the moment!

Hmm, okay, just got a little better - it was showing "North England 30 reports" but is now showing 5 as it is. But the number of miles is wrong.

MrT · Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 1:24 pm Post subject:

As the failure rate is probably less than 1% I see little chance of any refunds or extensions to a free trial from TomTom. There is no statement at all of levels of service on the traffic information from them.

From what I can see it is the input of (or the interpretation of) the data from the Highways Agency to TomTom HD database which is the issue.

The information from Vodaphone or traffic sensors in the road is incapable of detecting whether a road is closed or just has no traffic on it, this must be input manually. TomTom certainly use this information correctly on their GPRS Traffic service so I cannot see why they cannot use the same information correctly on their HD Traffic service.
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Drivelux

matthewj · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 751

The M5 closure had a long queue of traffic trying to leave the motorway (I saw it on the CCTV) so at the very least that should have been reported. I can only see that that region of the HD system has a failure somehow, and that it is not able to update the live database. Being a programmer, I suspect that some out of bounds condition is occurring in a search that stops the query for new data working. But it should be detecting this and automatically causing an error message.

The hope for HD traffic is that you'd be able to rely on it. Turns out it is even worse than the GPRS data feed. I just hope that they can get it sorted, and then will offer a trial of the working version.

perussell · Frequent Visitor Joined: May 12, 2006 Posts: 292

I am becoming increasingly disappointed with HD traffic. I used the Live services for a 600 mile round trip over Xmas and (luckily) experienced completely clear roads although I was advised of at least 4 (relatively small) hold ups - one of them as I was actually on that stretch of road doing a comfortable 70 mph.

The abovementioned accident before Xmas on the M5 between J2 and 4 southbound of the M5 was clearly shown on the HD traffic site (and for days beyond long after it cleared) but it never showed on the 540 Live that my wife was using in the area on the day concerned.

I am also beginning to see increasing evidence that if a road is closed and there is no traffic on it then there are no slow moving/stationary SIMS and hence the road isn't actually showing as being closed unless somebody at TT HQ or wherever manually intervenes and puts a closure notice on the server.

It was also interesting to note elsehwere in these threads the other day that TT were tacitly acknowledging that their HD coverage of the UK would not be near full strength until March even though they started selling the LIVE units back in November.

Then again, anybody who has followed these threads for some time shouldn't really be surprised!

matthewj · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 751

FWIW I've been monitoring a traffic queue on the HD website and the www.keepmoving.co.uk camera site for an hour or two now. I'd say it was pretty accurate for this simple test. Well, as accurate as one can tell from a CCTV camera. But it restores a lot of my faith in the core information being good, and live.

I still suspect that there is a data problem with the M5 that they need to "unblock" to restore accuracy there.

matthewj · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 751

Either there are no cars on the roads, or the HD web site isn't working. No reports in London, Birmingham, West country, Manchester, ...

matthewj · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 751

I asked TomTom about the M5 closure:

Petekk · Regular Visitor Joined: Mar 06, 2004 Posts: 137

I have reported a number of problems with traffic. Tomtom have replied to me,

matthewj · Frequent Visitor Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 751

Thanks - I've been watching the other thread too, and saw their response to you. The response they gave me arrived a few minutes before I posted it here, so I guess they don't have a common line at the moment - one rep saying all is well, others saying it is a known problem.

The HD traffic web for greater London is showing nothing at the moment, but there is a holdup on the A3 due to a lane closure. The Traffic England site has these things, but they stay there for ages beyond their expiry. This was the problem with GPRS traffic of course - you couldn't trust it would still be there. At least with HD at the moment you'll not know anything so it will expire quickly. Laughing

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