TomTom fastest route is not accurate...

[Krazy Jeff]

I just got a TomTom One LE on December 22. This is my first experience working with a GPS unit. But I have already within a few days of getting it, hacked the splash image, downloaded some new PIO's, and also have changed my car icon, plus have even contributed of including some missing POIs. So you can say, I am electronics savvy.

Saying that, I think I discovered a flaw with it's fastest route navigation. To help you understand me better I am gonna give you the current location and the destination, so you can also see it for yourselves as I explain this.

Current Location:
State: California
City: National City
Cross Street: G Ave and E 5th Street.

Destination:
State: California
City: Imperial Beach
Cross Street: Seacoast Dr and Imperial Beach Blvd

The results is that it tells me I must travel through Highland Ave for about 1.7miles which is a very traffic light congested street (over 12 traffic lights) until I am able to reach Fwy 54.

It should instead tell me to go to either 8th St or National City Blvd, to reach the SB I-5 fwy entrance on W 8th St to jump into the freeway. Reaching that fwy entrance either through 8th St or National City Blvd, should be at least 3 or 4 traffic lights and it should be about less than half a mile.

The only way I figure to workaround this issue is to program to avoid part of the route (the first time avoid Highland Ave, then avoid National City Blvd, until it finally tells me to jump on the fwy on W 8th St SB I-5, to head out to my destination. Weird huh?

So how is it possible that it's telling me that the fastes routed is to go through a heavy traffic light congested street to finally reach the fwy, when it could tell me to go through a nearby street that has less than 3 or 4 traffic lights, it's about 1/4 mile shorter of the way to reach another Fwy? I strongy think this is the best Fastest Route, since once I jump on SB I-5 fwy, I will be able to travel at least 65mph than a 30 mph traffic light congested avenue. Your thoughts?

FYI: FWY 54 will then join I-5 fwy for me to head out to my destination down to Imperial Beach.

It seems to ignore that there is a quicker fwy entrance on W 8th Street SB I-5 to almost any scheduled destination when traveling south on I-5 (i.e. Chula Vista E St & Broadway; Chula Vista J St & Broadway; Nestor Palm St; and etc.)

Does anyone have an explanation why this happens? And if you know if there is a way to correct this with TomTom GPS map makers? Thanks in advance.

 

[Lehman26]

I found that mine takes me some random ways to get some places as well, when it is actually alot easier certain ways

My Magellan does this sometimes as well , not sure what there is you could do about it.....

 

[ajsasr]

I've been trying to figure this out for sometime now. There's been a lot of talk on a lot of boards regarding the TomTom routing engine. I too have seen some weird things regarding routes....we all have, and you'll see them on all Sat Navs. However it seems for US use you see them more on TomTom units. What I have come to find is that it's not the routing engine, but the level of detail on the maps.

I'll give you a good example.

I now have North America Maps version 7.10 on my 720. Traveling from Birmingham Al to any destination north on I-65 the unit would have me get off the highway at Fultondale, Al only to get right back on it. For the longest time I thought it was a routing engine issue. Then I went to my backup I made when I first got the unit and tried the same route with NA 7.05 maps. With that version on maps, the route was right. It didn't have me get off the exit and then back on the highway.

I think I lot of the problems TomTom has regarding routing are maps related. Another example can be seen when demoing a route. You'll see that the speeds used are all wrong. For instance on a highway with a speed limit of 70, the demo will go 75. For city roads with a speed limit of 35-45, the demo will go 31 to 41. Is it trying to predict actual traffic? If so I think that's a big mistake. I hope that with better maps issue like this will go away. I hope that with TomTom owning Tela Atlas, we'll see better maps.

That being said, I had to go to a couple of places late Sunday night downtown Birmingham, (not a place to be late at night), and my TT took me right to the door. It paid for itself that night.

 

[Krazy Jeff]

Thanks you all for sharing your input. I am glad I am not alone with this issue. I do hope they figure a way to fix this.

I wonder if Mapsharing can become an issue when these GPS units become a game target for youngsters (or those with devilish young minds). I mean what if they attempt to correct a map direction when there is nothing wrong with it, just to cause us all to have further issues?

 

[SJX426]

Noob here. Just got the TT 1 XL S. Don't know what it means or how it relates to other models. Thought I would visit the site but it is way to slow.

I live on a corner. My address is on one street and the front door on the other. The address road is like the straight section of the capital letter D. i am at the lower intersection. The front door is where the curve starts. If you overlayed a Q on the curved part of the D with the tail on the lower right, it would represent the only road out of my neighborhood.

I know TMI. The ONE XL S always has me go the length of the straight part of the D and then around most fo the curved part of the D to get to the tail! It is about 3-4 times longer than the shorter direction! And the design spec is driven as a consumable!

I set a POI at work and had the unit set the route home via the fastest path. I then turned on a time that I thought I should get home. It immediately told me I would be 2 min late. I ended up not following the perscribed route and ended up 1 min early!

There is a lot of information on a map and I can understand the limitations as well as the algorithms needed for navigation SW. What is not understandable is the limited amount of memory in the units. I just read about adding SD cards to increase capacity, but this was never explained in any documentation I have read yet. Haven't designer learned that max memory is cheep insurance to longevity? Oh yeah, they just use prototype units and don't have to pay list!

 

[w5lx]

I have found the same thing on my new XL. Fastest route is not always accurate, although it does get me to the destination. I switched preferences to "shortest route" and am going to see if that works out any better.

 

[ajsasr]

I have found the same thing on my new XL. Fastest route is not always accurate, although it does get me to the destination. I switched preferences to "shortest route" and am going to see if that works out any better.

It won't do any good. Shortest will take you down side streets and alleys. Anything it keep the route short.

The problem isn't with TomTom's routing engine. It's with the level of detail on the maps. For instance, if you live near a highway, do a demo route that will take you on the highway. Keep on eye on your speed during the demo. You'll notice two things, I think. One, the demo doesn't reach max speed on the city streets, and two, it actually exceeds the speed limit on the highway. I'll give you an example. I live in Northern Alabama. I-65's speed limit is 70. The demo will run at 75 mph. If I travel north into TN on I-65, where the speed limit is 65 and not 70, the demo still stays at 75.

The level of details in the maps has no idea of what the actually speed limit is. So when Tele Atlas put their maps together, they "guessed" on what the speed limit was of many type of roads. Thus if you don't have proper speed limits, you can't calculate the fastest route (or a realistic ETA) because you don't know how fast you can on a road.

My hope is that with TT buying Tele Atlas, and seemingly pushing to really become a player in the US market, they'll fix all this. I'm banking on this and that's why I've decided to keep my superior Go 720 (superior in features and GUI), with inferior maps and not get a Nuvi 760 with inferior features and GUI but superior Navteq maps. Maps can be changes, a device's abilities can't.

 

[Tryton]

@ ajsasr, Correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't the point of having a gps is to direct you properly? I understand about features.. but if it's giving you outdated and wrong poi's, bad routing, misspelled or wrong street names, missing communitys thats been there for years.. just to name a few.. then whats the point? I have the ONE Le, I have now gave it to a friend as a Xmas present. I got tired of the inaccuracy's, I have a new Garmin on the way, the 660. Has great features, blue tooth, FM transmitter,etc.. but most importantly. good maps and poi's. I know it wont be perfect. but tom tom's has let me down too many times as far as accuracy. I'm not trying to start a flame war. Just trying to remind you why you bought a GPS in the first place.. Best Regards Tryton

 

[ajsasr]

@ ajsasr, Correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't the point of having a gps is to direct you properly? I understand about features.. but if it's giving you outdated and wrong poi's, bad routing, misspelled or wrong street names, missing communitys thats been there for years.. just to name a few.. then whats the point? I have the ONE Le, I have now gave it to a friend as a Xmas present. I got tired of the inaccuracy's, I have a new Garmin on the way, the 660. Has great features, blue tooth, FM transmitter,etc.. but most importantly. good maps and poi's. I know it wont be perfect. but tom tom's has let me down too many times as far as accuracy. I'm not trying to start a flame war. Just trying to remind you why you bought a GPS in the first place.. Best Regards Tryton

All good points. My experiences haven't been nearly that bad. If I sounded that way I didn't mean to. If you live in an area that has those many issues, I would be doing the same. Out of all the points you mentioned the only two I've seen are lack of POIs (which can be fixed) and bad (bad is a strong word, not the best is a better way to put it) routing. Last week I spent an hour in front of a Nuvi 750. I played with the features, I tested routes, I looked at POIs. But in the end I came to two conclusions.

One, the Nuvi wasn't work the 200 extra dollars for what I was getting. And two, the tomtom unit will get me to my destination, just in a different manner.

Make no mistake, I'm hedging my bet here. I'm betting on the hope that tele atlas will improve their map data now that TT has bought them. If not, well my next unit might be a Garmin, and I'll have to put up with the display that looks like a 5 year old drew it.

 

[Tryton]

All good points. My experiences haven't been nearly that bad. If I sounded that way I didn't mean to. If you live in an area that has those many issues, I would be doing the same. Out of all the points you mentioned the only two I've seen are lack of POIs (which can be fixed) and bad (bad is a strong word, not the best is a better way to put it) routing. Last week I spent an hour in front of a Nuvi 750. I played with the features, I tested routes, I looked at POIs. But in the end I came to two conclusions.

One, the Nuvi wasn't work the 200 extra dollars for what I was getting. And two, the tomtom unit will get me to my destination, just in a different manner.

Make no mistake, I'm hedging my bet here. I'm betting on the hope that tele atlas will improve their map data now that TT has bought them. If not, well my next unit might be a Garmin, and I'll have to put up with the display that looks like a 5 year old drew it.

I agree, the 750 is a lot! I got the nuvi 660 for $435.00 with shipping, not too bad. I cannot comment on the menu's or how the maps look, but I hope its not as bad as you are saying.. Tryton

 

[dhughes]

I tried this today with my new TomTom One XL, my first GPS (well I had a Magellan in 1998 but that's another story).

When I asked it to take a route home it ignored the bypass around the city and took some insane route through a mall parking lot, through a subdivision, through a school parking lot and about 50 turns through another subdivision at some points going the wrong way. It did get me there but boy what a ride!

I was laughing like a maniac the entire time

 

[Tryton]

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2007/06/garmin_vs_magellan_vs_tomtom_which_gps_picks_the_best_routes.php

 

[F22]

I tried this today with my new TomTom One XL, my first GPS (well I had a Magellan in 1998 but that's another story).

When I asked it to take a route home it ignored the bypass around the city and took some insane route through a mall parking lot, through a subdivision, through a school parking lot and about 50 turns through another subdivision at some points going the wrong way. It did get me there but boy what a ride!

I was laughing like a maniac the entire time

Well, at least, you maintained your sense of humor.

I do wonder who the mapping company's employ to gather the data. It sounds like it may be minimum wage HS dropouts who may decide to play a little while out in the field. Or they may use aerial photos and wider aisles in parking lots may appear to be viable roads???

 

[bwhite]

TT needs to add a routing method I've seen other places called something like: Best Route
I believe the logic is to use roads that are more of a "primary" nature whereever possible and not every alley and residential street on the map, one of which tried to take me thru a parking lot and over a cliff on Christmas day....not impressed since this wasn't even a street although the TT insisted it was.

 

[Bog]

I'm new to GPS, the One XLS is my first one. Overall I remain satisfied with it since I get utterly lost when I try driving someplace... especially someplace new.

I remain unimpressed when I know a route home that is so much better than the route TT suggests. By the way, I live in Toronto, ON Canada. There are times when TT would route me through the city instead of onto a highway even though I have fastest route enabled.

I do have a workaround... while driving I ignore TT and skip some exits or drive towards the route I think is best. The route is instantly recalculated and it is almost always the route I thought was best. Although it's inconvenient, before I start driving I can instruct TT to take a preferred route. Of course, if it's a new location I'm not as confident to override the suggested route so I follow what TT suggests and I do get to where I want (even if it's not the fastest, we're not talking that much of a time difference compared to how much time I waste when I get lost).

FYI... TT is also the source of arguments when I listen to it's directions instead of my girlfriend's directions. Despite my girlfriend saying left when she actually means right it's always better to listen to her. She has a rule that TT has to be turned off when she's in the car.

 

[Tryton]

FYI... TT is also the source of arguments when I listen to it's directions instead of my girlfriend's directions. Despite my girlfriend saying left when she actually means right it's always better to listen to her. She has a rule that TT has to be turned off when she's in the car.

Oh, i know Exactly what you mean brother!

 

[RgnKjnVA]

Why isn't there a Stay On Major Highways option in Routing preferences?

I also get a convoluted route to a place in MD. It seems hell bent on taking back roads. If I try to modify the route using Point On Map to select 2 highway intersections I can't because it seems to only allow one waypoint. Unless I'm missing something, 'Booo!'. If the routing engine is suspect, users should be given the flexibility to work around it as easily as possible.

 

[pperrelle]

I have noticed the same thing so far. My 720 has taken me on routes that i normally would not have taken. Still get to the same place, but it took me off of major roads and onto smaller ones.