Distance......Incidents......What does it mean?

[oldie67]

I have a TT Live IQ Europe. When I switch it on, or at odd times thereafter, I'll get a banner across the top saying something like "Incidents 160 Distance 365mi"

I assume it's connected with live traffic, but what does it mean? Do I need to take any notice of it?

I've now had my TT 28 days, and I've decided, in view of the problems people have had, not to take advantage of the map updates. Any comments?

 

[dhn]

Do you have the unit set to take a faster route if it detects traffic?

Also, make an Explorer, not Home, backup, of your unit's contents and then get the latest map (or zoned area if that's all your unit can take).

 

[canderson]

I have a TT Live IQ Europe. When I switch it on, or at odd times thereafter, I'll get a banner across the top saying something like "Incidents 160 Distance 365mi"

I assume it's connected with live traffic, but what does it mean? Do I need to take any notice of it?

I've now had my TT 28 days, and I've decided, in view of the problems people have had, not to take advantage of the map updates. Any comments?

Total of 160 minute delay, begins 365 miles ahead. Yuck! Major stretch of roadworks ahead or a major train wreck. Whether the issue is of interest to you will of course depend upon whether or not they clear up the mess before you get there. 365 miles could easily give them 6 hours to square it away if it's something temporary, but 160 minutes? Likely not! Unless the delay is on an existing route, you shouldn't be hearing about it in any case. Perhaps you didn't clear a previous route?

Though the more recent map situation can be a pain if you don't have the memory for it, it's probably still better to do the full backup as DHN suggests (you can always revert to the original then if you really want to) and take advantage of the map update. Even if that means that you have to swap out map segments (zones, whatever) before you take a trip to the continent, you've got a more current map online for your own area for a while.

 

[mikealder]

The message that flashes up across the top of the screen is the total number of incidents the device has downloaded and the total of road distance affected by delays - To all intents this message is meaningless and of no significant value, just get used to ignoring it, the message is nothing to do with actual traffic on your route - Mike

 

[canderson]

The message that flashes up across the top of the screen is the total number of incidents the device has downloaded and the total of road distance affected by delays - To all intents this message is meaningless and of no significant value, just get used to ignoring it, the message is nothing to do with actual traffic on your route - Mike

Yours must operate somewhat differently than ours. I didn't note that word "banner". Not precisely sure what that looks like if it's not the same warning we get about impending traffic issues along a planned route. I've never yet had my new 740 flash up a "total" of everything it knew. It will, however, update the total delay on route and distance to the next "event" and display that.

As you say, a total for all known incidents and distance wouldn't be too useful ... perhaps apart from letting you know the thing is actively pulling in fresh data.

Where does this banner appear on your Live units?

 

[mikealder]

Where does this banner appear on your Live units?

Top right but only for a few seconds once the device has connected to the server and downloaded the data offered for the current location, its easy to miss it unless you are watching the screen, I will have a look for some screen shots that show this being displayed when I get back to the computer - Mike

 

[oldie67]

My last trip was last Wednesday, 72 miles then a further 42, so nothing like the mileage reported in the banner. I can accept that it's some sort of Live Service housekeeping, which I should just ignore.

 

[vlbaindoor]

The message that flashes up across the top of the screen is the total number of incidents the device has downloaded and the total of road distance affected by delays - To all intents this message is meaningless and of no significant value, just get used to ignoring it, the message is nothing to do with actual traffic on your route - Mike

I think this serves only as a 'user assurance message' indicating to the user that the Live Services on his/her device is working and nothing else.

I have noticed that this message flashes on screen even when no route is planned - the delay involved which looks like random (but it is not) is probably due to the device being busy trying to get the information from the LIVE servers - and depending on how fast this information arrives the message pops up.

It would probably be very hard to capture the screen with this message displayed as this shows up for just a few seconds and then goes away without any way to get the message back.

So as someone did suggest, I think this message can be treated as being a "Hello there, I am alive and working" message. May be if you suddenly stop seeing this message completely you may need to dig deeper to see why and check if Live services are working at all.

 

[mikealder]

It would probably be very hard to capture the screen with this message displayed as this shows up for just a few seconds and then goes away without any way to get the message back.

Indeed, I went through all the screen captures I have on the PC and couldn't find one with that message displayed, thats a few hundred screen grabs in total!!

If the device doesn't connect up to the Live server correctly you get a yellow warning triangle on the right of the screen in the bar where the traffic information is usually displayed - Mike

 

[oldie67]

On reflection, I'm wondering whether it could be "minutes" rather thn "miles"? I think the abbreviation may be "mi", so it could be either. In any event, I agree that it's probably just an "I'm working" mesage, and can be ignored.

 

[canderson]

I actually paid close attention today - usually I just fire it up, navigate to somewhere, and don't look down.

My 740 is a little more explicit, and you're absolutely right. It says "xxx incidents" covering "total length xxx miles" (no abbreviations). As Mike suggests, it appears to just be a summary of what's been picked up locally, and whether any of it pertains to your route isn't even considered.