Confusing spoken directions

[LangleyMike]

Hi all,

Just purchased a 2014 Mazda 6 last week with a built in TomTom navigation unit.

I have dowloaded the most recent Software and map info into an SD Card (came with the car, inserts into compartment in dash).

Up until now I have always used Garmin devices, so I don't know how the TomTom devices behave or if they can be configured to behave differently.

When driving to a destination, the intructions don't seem very clear, for example "Turn left, then turn right" when there is only a small jog in the road without any side streets. It speaks the same phrase when turning left onto a new street followed by a right turn onto anther street.

Sometimes is just says "Turn right", without any additional information like "How far ahead" or the name of the street. I find this most annoying and frankly kind of dangerous.

Is there an option I can enable to have the spoken instructions be more verbose?


Thanks,

Mike

 

[dhn]

Do you have a computer voice selected?

I know that when entering highways, for example, you may hear something like 'turn right onto the highway, then stay in the left lane'.

Depending upon the specific routing, I've also heard it speak (not for a highway) something like 'turn left and then a sharp right'.

For normal turns, you may hear 'in 1.5 kilometers turn right on Main Street' and then 'in 300 meters, turn right (no repeateing of the name of street)'.

 

[LangleyMike]

Do you have a computer voice selected?

I know that when entering highways, for example, you may hear something like 'turn right onto the highway, then stay in the left lane'.

Depending upon the specific routing, I've also heard it speak (not for a highway) something like 'turn left and then a sharp right'.

For normal turns, you may hear 'in 1.5 kilometers turn right on Main Street' and then 'in 300 meters, turn right (no repeateing of the name of street)'.

Thanks for the quick reply dhn.

I did select a Human Voice, but it asked me if I wanted to use a computer voice for street names etc. , I selected yes, then it gave me two different computer voices to choose from, and I selected one of those.

But I noticed that street names were grayed out when I went to Voice settings, so I was unable to check off (enable) some of the selections.

After selecting a computer voice only, the Voice settings menu had automatically checked off street names and numbers.

So maybe that is the way it works, either all computer voice, or no street names and numbers spoken.

I will try testing it later when I go for a drive in the car.

Many Thanks,

Mike

 

[canderson]

Your description is correct. There are two voice types. The 'computer' voice is capable of performing the text to speech functions necessary to pronounce street and city names and the like. The others do not. As you are in BC, I am guessing you received options for one English computer voice (Samantha) and one French speaking voice (don't know name). Down here, we only get the former.

 

[LangleyMike]

Selecting the computer voice fixed the problem, works so much better now.

Thanks Guys