mvl
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- Dec 19, 2008
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- Boston, MA, USA
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- TomTom Model(s)
- Tomtom GO for Android
Just got back from a 1 week trip with the family to Disney. Of course the real reason I went was to test out the Tomtom and meet gatorguy....
I drove from Boston to Orlando and back, with my 720 with plus traffic and FM music the entire way. Specifically, I used app 8.350, map 825 + the 900-series POIs, and a razr2 bluetooth phone.
Here is a long post of some of my general experiences. Some of it will be repeated in responses to other topic-specific threads:
Traffic - experience varied by city:
Boston - Plus traffic has always been weak in Boston. Boston abandoned major interstates back in the 70's because of NIMBYs. So the highway grid is severely lacking, and most urban driving is done through secondary roads. Plus traffic covers interstates only, and has no secondary roads at all. So it is of minimal value to a typical Bostonian. In addition, many of the key secondary roads drive slower than 10 mph at rush hour, which (due to the IQroutes 10mph bug) cause IQroutes to give horrible rush hour directions.
Connecticut - IQroutes intelligently avoided 95 and took me down Merrit Parkway. It's what my many trips through NYC have taught me, so it did it's job.
New York - The combination of IQroutes and PLUS traffic was pretty amazing. Most highway driving in NYC is via interstates, and PLUS traffic had them all. Tomtom routed me through some amazing routes, it showed me the must faster Fort Lee approach to the George Washington Bridge through IQroutes alone, it avoided the Deegan and used the Bronx River when PLUS traffic said a Yankee game was getting out, and it took side roads to Jersey City when the PLUS traffic reported that Holland tunnel approaches at 1&9 were backed up. The only issue was that tomtom seemed to have its typical 15 minute delay in information. A new accident on the BQE was yellow so tomtom routed me through it, when in actuality the road was almost stopped. I took an exit on my own, and about 10 minutes later on sideroads, the tomtom started coloring the original backup red.
Washington DC - Due to reported PLUS traffic in 95, Tomtom used the BWE starting in Baltimore, and halfway into DC, it switched me from the BWE onto local roads in DC itself due to more traffic. I listened to the Tomtom, the issues drove me around made sense. The BWE was congested with no PLUS traffic alert for much of the way, but the congestion was mostly picked up by IQroutes (eg: arrival time didn't change in the congestion) other than when it got slower than 15mph which seemed like more of the 10 mph bug
Orlando - The IQroutes engine worked very well, I never got into any congestion anywhere in Orlando. I heard of the congested International Drive, but IQroutes never routed me on it, except for 1 block when my destination was on the International drive itself. There were lots of "1 minute" delays reported by PLUS traffic, including breakdowns and construction, but when I got to the location nothing was there. So I don't really trust the PLUS alerts in Orlando. There were occasional flow incidents that tomtom always avoided (plenty of local alternatives in Orlando), and in the 3-4 times where flow incidents were on a highway that I coud see (eg: up on a bridge) it seemed accurate since I saw actual traffic where the flow incidents reported them.
Other locations - Everywhere else was traveled during off-peak hours. There were no PLUS incidents except one 1-hour congestion reported on 95 and routed around in North Carolina. As I got to the start of Tomtom's alternate route, there were "construction, 1-of-2 lanes closed ahead" warnings, but I left before seeing the actual congestion. The alternate route was a 55 mph sideroad that was about 15 minutes out of the way so it seemed like a job well done. IQroutes was pretty much spot on everywhere else, as the arrival estimates rarely moved. The only exception was numerous instances of the 10mph bug,
Overall, the combination of IQroutes and PLUS traffic did a pretty good job, causing an event-free drive in most of the major east coast cities. My hometown of Boston is the exception, where the lack of PLUS coverage and the errors caused by the 10mph IQroutes bug are most apparent. The 740 with its expanded LIVE traffic coverage seems much better suited to Boston, and coupled with a fixed 10mph bug would be a very good choice for Boston driving. I can't get myself to spend $300+ on a second-rate 740, but I plan to buy the 940 the day it is released in the US (assuming it sells for under $500).
Other experiences:
Fm transmitter - the FM transmitter did its job, I was able to play my 2 gigs worth of MP3 songs from an SD card, and rarely got bored driving on the trip. Normally I'd listen to satellite radio, but after about 2 hours the limited playlist on satellite radio gets repetitive. My wife used a different setup, plugging her ipod directly into a standalone FM transmitter dock. That dock had much higher signal strength than the Tomtom did, she was able to use many stations that were actual live music stations, where a similar Tomtom attempt resulted in static. She only had to change her selected station once across all the cities, where I had to select a new static-free station every 100 miles or so. So the FM signal strength of the Tomtom is much weaker than other FM transmission products on the market, a gripe which others have also mentioned.
Tunnel experiences - I noticed something new. When I traveled the Holland Tunnel, the Baltimore Harbor tunnel, and the Chesapeake Bay Tunnels, I noticed that the Tomtom now continues to move the map (the 720 doesn't have EPT) at the expected IQroutes speed all the way through the tunnel. In prior drives in the I-93 tunnel in Boston, the tomtom would slow to a stop once losing signal, just like it does at the end of a route demo. This is either a new feature in 8.350, or the Boston stops were due to the Boston tunnels having underground exits, where all the other tunnels had only one path. Once I get to test the Boston tunnels with 8.350, I'll report back as this would be a confirmed new feature.
EPT - I think EPT is needed in NYC. The bouncing signals cause all sorts of mislocations (eg in the middle of a river) when on a lower deck of a 2-level bridge. This is particularly troubling on the GWB, since the lower deck has many exits which the tomtom wouldn't properly route around. This alone would lead me to recommend a 930 with PLUS traffc over a 740 with LIVE traffic in NYC.
Bluetooth connection - My unsupported RAZR2 phone was pretty reliable in its data connection with Navcore 8.350. Much more reliable than the frequent inability to connect that I had with 8.302 software. I've found that turning off the Tomtom when going out of bluetooth range (eg getting a snack at the gas station mini-mart) helped the bluetooth connection reliability. Data transfer was quick, as no functions took over 15 seconds to perform. The only exception was that the Tomtom took over a minute to get plus traffic in a rural CSD (1.2 kB/sec pre-GPRS speed) section of T-mobile's network in North Carolina, most other places were on the EDGE or GPRS network and were fast. One minor nuisance is that PLUS weather reports expected rainfall in millimeters (not inches), even when all preferences are set to non-metric units.
Bluetooth dead zone bug - One issue I noticed is that the tomtom became very unstable if I ran into a T-mobile dead zone. The most common symptom is that the FM music stopped playing, and the tomtom started talking via the internal speaker. But I had other symptoms including a shutdown of all speech, having the tomtom jukebox show I was playing a selected song but actual play a different one, or just plan freezing and rebooting. Again these errors only happened after I paired for bluetooth data and hit a cellular dead zone. I am using a non-supported phone so I can't 100% blame Tomtom on this one.
POI search issues - I noticed a lot of incorrect "POI not found" errors when doing a search for POI under "POI along route" and "POI near destination". Sometimes I have to choose a POI category first, then type the same same search in the "Find" menu, for the tomtom to successfully locate a POI. This was a new issue, but I never used the POI search this extensively before. So this could be a problem all along, or something new in app 8.350. The other thing i noticed is that "POI along route" only finds POIs within about 30 miles of the current location and the destination, and then further filters them for POIs that have the green or yellow "near my route" arrow. So this means POIs on my route 50 miles away don't show up.
Volume - I noticed the same severe volume drop with app 8.350, but unticking the "auto adjust to background noise" setting seemed to return things to more acceptable levels. My suspicion is that, in addition to tomtom's reported 10% drop in volume that was supposedly fixed in 8.351, I think tomtom introduced a new bug. The volume level with "auto adjust to background noise" selected never seemed to change like it used to with 8.302, so I think it is more of a microphone/ambient noise calculation error rather than a quieter speaker issue.
Otherwise, I was very impressed with overall with the Tomtom. I estimate it saved me 10-15 hours on my trip, both by serving as a portable POI database, and by routing me around congestion and traffic. It also saved me numerous traffic headaches and gave me a more relaxing drive being able to listen to my MP3 library.
I drove from Boston to Orlando and back, with my 720 with plus traffic and FM music the entire way. Specifically, I used app 8.350, map 825 + the 900-series POIs, and a razr2 bluetooth phone.
Here is a long post of some of my general experiences. Some of it will be repeated in responses to other topic-specific threads:
Traffic - experience varied by city:
Boston - Plus traffic has always been weak in Boston. Boston abandoned major interstates back in the 70's because of NIMBYs. So the highway grid is severely lacking, and most urban driving is done through secondary roads. Plus traffic covers interstates only, and has no secondary roads at all. So it is of minimal value to a typical Bostonian. In addition, many of the key secondary roads drive slower than 10 mph at rush hour, which (due to the IQroutes 10mph bug) cause IQroutes to give horrible rush hour directions.
Connecticut - IQroutes intelligently avoided 95 and took me down Merrit Parkway. It's what my many trips through NYC have taught me, so it did it's job.
New York - The combination of IQroutes and PLUS traffic was pretty amazing. Most highway driving in NYC is via interstates, and PLUS traffic had them all. Tomtom routed me through some amazing routes, it showed me the must faster Fort Lee approach to the George Washington Bridge through IQroutes alone, it avoided the Deegan and used the Bronx River when PLUS traffic said a Yankee game was getting out, and it took side roads to Jersey City when the PLUS traffic reported that Holland tunnel approaches at 1&9 were backed up. The only issue was that tomtom seemed to have its typical 15 minute delay in information. A new accident on the BQE was yellow so tomtom routed me through it, when in actuality the road was almost stopped. I took an exit on my own, and about 10 minutes later on sideroads, the tomtom started coloring the original backup red.
Washington DC - Due to reported PLUS traffic in 95, Tomtom used the BWE starting in Baltimore, and halfway into DC, it switched me from the BWE onto local roads in DC itself due to more traffic. I listened to the Tomtom, the issues drove me around made sense. The BWE was congested with no PLUS traffic alert for much of the way, but the congestion was mostly picked up by IQroutes (eg: arrival time didn't change in the congestion) other than when it got slower than 15mph which seemed like more of the 10 mph bug
Orlando - The IQroutes engine worked very well, I never got into any congestion anywhere in Orlando. I heard of the congested International Drive, but IQroutes never routed me on it, except for 1 block when my destination was on the International drive itself. There were lots of "1 minute" delays reported by PLUS traffic, including breakdowns and construction, but when I got to the location nothing was there. So I don't really trust the PLUS alerts in Orlando. There were occasional flow incidents that tomtom always avoided (plenty of local alternatives in Orlando), and in the 3-4 times where flow incidents were on a highway that I coud see (eg: up on a bridge) it seemed accurate since I saw actual traffic where the flow incidents reported them.
Other locations - Everywhere else was traveled during off-peak hours. There were no PLUS incidents except one 1-hour congestion reported on 95 and routed around in North Carolina. As I got to the start of Tomtom's alternate route, there were "construction, 1-of-2 lanes closed ahead" warnings, but I left before seeing the actual congestion. The alternate route was a 55 mph sideroad that was about 15 minutes out of the way so it seemed like a job well done. IQroutes was pretty much spot on everywhere else, as the arrival estimates rarely moved. The only exception was numerous instances of the 10mph bug,
Overall, the combination of IQroutes and PLUS traffic did a pretty good job, causing an event-free drive in most of the major east coast cities. My hometown of Boston is the exception, where the lack of PLUS coverage and the errors caused by the 10mph IQroutes bug are most apparent. The 740 with its expanded LIVE traffic coverage seems much better suited to Boston, and coupled with a fixed 10mph bug would be a very good choice for Boston driving. I can't get myself to spend $300+ on a second-rate 740, but I plan to buy the 940 the day it is released in the US (assuming it sells for under $500).
Other experiences:
Fm transmitter - the FM transmitter did its job, I was able to play my 2 gigs worth of MP3 songs from an SD card, and rarely got bored driving on the trip. Normally I'd listen to satellite radio, but after about 2 hours the limited playlist on satellite radio gets repetitive. My wife used a different setup, plugging her ipod directly into a standalone FM transmitter dock. That dock had much higher signal strength than the Tomtom did, she was able to use many stations that were actual live music stations, where a similar Tomtom attempt resulted in static. She only had to change her selected station once across all the cities, where I had to select a new static-free station every 100 miles or so. So the FM signal strength of the Tomtom is much weaker than other FM transmission products on the market, a gripe which others have also mentioned.
Tunnel experiences - I noticed something new. When I traveled the Holland Tunnel, the Baltimore Harbor tunnel, and the Chesapeake Bay Tunnels, I noticed that the Tomtom now continues to move the map (the 720 doesn't have EPT) at the expected IQroutes speed all the way through the tunnel. In prior drives in the I-93 tunnel in Boston, the tomtom would slow to a stop once losing signal, just like it does at the end of a route demo. This is either a new feature in 8.350, or the Boston stops were due to the Boston tunnels having underground exits, where all the other tunnels had only one path. Once I get to test the Boston tunnels with 8.350, I'll report back as this would be a confirmed new feature.
EPT - I think EPT is needed in NYC. The bouncing signals cause all sorts of mislocations (eg in the middle of a river) when on a lower deck of a 2-level bridge. This is particularly troubling on the GWB, since the lower deck has many exits which the tomtom wouldn't properly route around. This alone would lead me to recommend a 930 with PLUS traffc over a 740 with LIVE traffic in NYC.
Bluetooth connection - My unsupported RAZR2 phone was pretty reliable in its data connection with Navcore 8.350. Much more reliable than the frequent inability to connect that I had with 8.302 software. I've found that turning off the Tomtom when going out of bluetooth range (eg getting a snack at the gas station mini-mart) helped the bluetooth connection reliability. Data transfer was quick, as no functions took over 15 seconds to perform. The only exception was that the Tomtom took over a minute to get plus traffic in a rural CSD (1.2 kB/sec pre-GPRS speed) section of T-mobile's network in North Carolina, most other places were on the EDGE or GPRS network and were fast. One minor nuisance is that PLUS weather reports expected rainfall in millimeters (not inches), even when all preferences are set to non-metric units.
Bluetooth dead zone bug - One issue I noticed is that the tomtom became very unstable if I ran into a T-mobile dead zone. The most common symptom is that the FM music stopped playing, and the tomtom started talking via the internal speaker. But I had other symptoms including a shutdown of all speech, having the tomtom jukebox show I was playing a selected song but actual play a different one, or just plan freezing and rebooting. Again these errors only happened after I paired for bluetooth data and hit a cellular dead zone. I am using a non-supported phone so I can't 100% blame Tomtom on this one.
POI search issues - I noticed a lot of incorrect "POI not found" errors when doing a search for POI under "POI along route" and "POI near destination". Sometimes I have to choose a POI category first, then type the same same search in the "Find" menu, for the tomtom to successfully locate a POI. This was a new issue, but I never used the POI search this extensively before. So this could be a problem all along, or something new in app 8.350. The other thing i noticed is that "POI along route" only finds POIs within about 30 miles of the current location and the destination, and then further filters them for POIs that have the green or yellow "near my route" arrow. So this means POIs on my route 50 miles away don't show up.
Volume - I noticed the same severe volume drop with app 8.350, but unticking the "auto adjust to background noise" setting seemed to return things to more acceptable levels. My suspicion is that, in addition to tomtom's reported 10% drop in volume that was supposedly fixed in 8.351, I think tomtom introduced a new bug. The volume level with "auto adjust to background noise" selected never seemed to change like it used to with 8.302, so I think it is more of a microphone/ambient noise calculation error rather than a quieter speaker issue.
Otherwise, I was very impressed with overall with the Tomtom. I estimate it saved me 10-15 hours on my trip, both by serving as a portable POI database, and by routing me around congestion and traffic. It also saved me numerous traffic headaches and gave me a more relaxing drive being able to listen to my MP3 library.
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