First/Second road trip with 920 - issues and questions

[Amjor]

Hello All,
Last weekend and this past weekend I took my first road trip with my new TT920. Some good, bad and downright ugly happend on the trip. I need some clarification on the bad and ugly. Well here goes:

Trip was from Baltimore, MD to Raleigh NC:

Good:
Traffic planning and time of trip where right on point even thouh I had to make a few unexpected bathroom breaks, kids (3,8,10) nuff said right.

Bad:
Why doesnt my 920 display the speed limit. Arent I-95 and I-85 major routes?

While coming back through Richmond my 920 said that there was traffic congestion ahead. Im new to this but shouldnt it have told me there was an accident on I-95 (I new this because of the flashing signs on the highway). Anyway, 5 miles up the road I manually checked traffic again and it says "no delays on route". Less then 1 mile later, 920 says delays ahead route replanned. It did take me around the accident but why the confusion??? Or am I just missing something here???

UGLY:
Two major things and number 2 could get someone killed on the road.
1. While still in Northern VA on I-95 good ole 920 tells me to take a left ahead... hmmm make a hard left on 95 sure im gonna do that.. then when I didnt turn when it wanted me to, my lovley computer comanion told me to make a u-turn when possible... about 1/8 of a mile afterwards I guess the 920figured I couldnt make a u-turn on 95 so it recalulated. (This happend on both of my trips back to Baltimore)

2. Now for the kicker. I have now made it to 495N towards Baltimore (anywone that knows this area, can releate to the traffic patterns on a Sunday night) Good thing I am from this area because listening to the TT could have cause me to get killed!!! 920 says in 2 miles take "left" exit, now I say to myself.. self the last 100 times you have traveled this way that exit has always been on the right.. and sure enough it was still on the right last night.. my 920 was telling me the exit was on the left even while I was on the ramp... now the reason I, like most people by navigation systems, is because we need help when we are in unfamiliar roads. There would have been no way in H*** for me to get across 4 lanes of traffic to take that exit if I would have been in the left lane like my 920 was telling me to do. I think it happened on my last trip but I was on auto pilot so I wasnt too close attention when I thought I heard it tell me to take the left exit.

Ok one last issue/concern:
While in Raliegh, I was using VR to navigate to an address that I only knew the street name. How do you do this when the street is only a 1/4 mile long with no cross streets? I had to start at 1000 and work my way up before I got an address on the street. What is the best way to handle those situations?

Ok off my soap box and thanks for listening (reading)

 

[Michael Quinlan]

Re: speed limit - you can configure it to show the speed limit (if known, it's referred to as "max speed" in the menus) next to your current speed. Take a look under Status Bar Preferences.

Re: traffic confusion - TomTom can only work with the data it receives from ClearChannel (if you're using the TMC receiver). I often get traffic information on my Garmin that shows incidents, but no delay, or a 1 minute delay. In short, it's beyond TomTom's control

Re: the kicker - these things aren't perfect. There's a disclaimer screen for a reason. In the end you have to use your own judgement and observe safe driving practices.

Re: known street, unknown number - the street must intersect with some other street - maybe not in the middle, but at least at one end - otherwise how would you get onto it. What I would do in this case is choose a destination of "intersection". Then enter the name of the known street. The next screen should present you with a list if intersecting streets. Just pick one and you should be good to go.

When I did this as a test (making sure that it worked the way I thought it did), I was surprisingly presented with an intersecting street name of "Anywhere". This seems to appear for all streets. It may be new in the 7.481 firmware (I just updated tonight). Additionally, I noticed that if I choose to enter a street address, when I get to the screen asking me for the number, there is a button at the bottom labeled "Cross street", which appears to let you convert to an "intersection" destination on-the-fly. Pretty cool! Even better... I started out answering a question, and in the process of researching the answer, I discovered a previously unknown (to me) feature! Whoohoo!

 

[cputrdoc]

Michael's right on all counts.

There's a quick access button for marking the errors you find so that you can provide detail when you're not driving, and that way no one else gets "killed" from the directions it's giving.

I've found TomTom to be mostly more accurate than my previous GPS. No, it's not perfect, and you will notice the mistakes more than you notice all the things it got right. TomTom knows their data isn't completely accurate, which is why they came up with MapShare. MapShare depends on people like you and me acting as spotters.


I'm a frequent reporter for the San Jose region, and I do the same for other regions when I travel; in fact, over the past week I'm proud to have added several of the local light rail stations and reported about four roads both in California and in Texas that needed to be moved on the map due to the completion of some new highways and interchanges over the past year.

The reward for being a spotter? Well, the more accurate the maps and POIs, the more people use TomTom. More people using TomTom means more spotters and better maps for me!

 

[Steve B]

I have found that TT doesn't have correct speed limits in my area. The warning for exceeding the posted speed limit has never worked for me and it is often incorrect on the arrival time as a result. Hopefully, this is something that will be improved over time as they get better data.

I also have a Garmin that I use simultaneously. The Garmin must have purchased better data regarding speed limits as the arrival time is always much more accurate.

 

[JimT]

My 510 told me to make a right hand turn during a trip in an area I wa not familiar with. The street I was to turn right onto was on a blind cuve. The problem was that there was no street. It was a hillside. As a matter of fact the closest street was about 100yds. away. Whoah!!!!

 

[sly999]

False Turns

I've experienced the TOMTOM saying to turn right while driving on the road a couple of times now. If you look at the screen, you'll see that the TOMTOM is actually drifting, (or the map layout is not fully correct for the bends in the road) and telling you to get back on the highway. You have to notice this and just ignore the false turns.

This happened to me while driving through Valley of Fire in NV, while driving by Zion in UT, and while driving through Sandy Valley in NV/CA. It was worse in Sandy valley and got kinda annoying, but through Zion wasn't too bad.

It seemed to only happen when I was off of a main highway and on a long winding road.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

There's an area north of here, I think in Avenel, NJ, or Routes 1 & 9, where the GPS suddenly thinks I am going sideways - still moving along the road, butmy orientation on the road is all wacky. It happens every time I go through that area - which happens to be in the middle of a road realignment, so the GPS thinks I'm actually off the road. I got the same effect in this area with my Garmin too, so it's not really a TomTom-sepcific issue.

 

[coutnerpt]

It seemed to only happen when I was off of a main highway and on a long winding road.

I think the TT resets itself (automatically) when you: stop for 5 seconds, drive on a straight road for 1 minute (in the manual somewhere). So maybe that helps explain why it drifts on long winding roads...

 

[Michael Quinlan]

I think what you're referring to is EPT calibration. In order to use EPT, the positioning sensors must be calibrated. The 920 attempts to do this each time it is turned on. A successful calibration requires a strong GPS signal, remaining stationary for 5 or more seconds, and then driving on a straight and level road for at least one minute. (See page 7 of the manual)

Why does it need to do this? EPT requires that the TomTom know the orientation of itself with regard to your vehicle, so that when it detects motion, it can determine whether you're moving forward, backward, turning right or left, etc. Remaining stationary allows it to associate certain sensor conditions with "no motion". Moving in a straight line allows it to identifya "forward" condition.

After reading this section of the manual I now know why my status bar dims sometimes while driving. I thought it was EPT kicking in. But now I know that it's actually EPT NOT WORKING.

I guess the lesson here is that if you anticipate the need for EPT, you have to allow it to calibrate somewhere along your trip prior to needing EPT.

The only real time I foresee using EPT is in NYC. On a typical morning approach to NYC, remaining stationary for 5 seconds shouldn't be a problem. Even moving in a straight line shouldn't be a problem. But moving continuously for at least 1 minute? Not on an approach to NYC during rush hour!

 

[Amjor]

Re: speed limit - you can configure it to show the speed limit (if known, it's referred to as "max speed" in the menus) next to your current speed. Take a look under Status Bar Preferences.

Re: known street, unknown number - the street must intersect with some other street - maybe not in the middle, but at least at one end - otherwise how would you get onto it. What I would do in this case is choose a destination of "intersection". Then enter the name of the known street. The next screen should present you with a list if intersecting streets. Just pick one and you should be good to go.


Mike,
I have changed the settings under Status Bar Prefs to no avail. No speed limit is being displayed... I do believe the speed limit would be know on I-95, as I travel it on a daily basis.

Thanks for the info about no cross streets. That works great.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

The only thing I can say about a failure to display a speed limit is that it's not inlcuded in the map data. Does it display a speed limit when you're on other roads?

 

[FlyGuy]

EPT calibration

The only real time I foresee using EPT is in NYC. On a typical morning approach to NYC, remaining stationary for 5 seconds shouldn't be a problem. Even moving in a straight line shouldn't be a problem. But moving continuously for at least 1 minute? Not on an approach to NYC during rush hour!

Once it's calibrated, it should be fine for "quite a while". Changing the orientation of the unit in your vehicle (or putting it in another vehicle) would require another calibration.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

Once it's calibrated, it should be fine for "quite a while". Changing the orientation of the unit in your vehicle (or putting it in another vehicle) would require another calibration.

According to the manual:

Your GO calibrates EPT automatically. If calibration is not complete when your GO loses GPS reception, EPT cannot be used and the screen is shown in grey, for example, when there is no GPS reception at the beginning of a trip.

Your TomTom GO resets the positioning sensors each time the device is switched on. To help improve accuracy in estimating your location, your GO calibrates the sensors throughout your trip. The following conditions are required for successful calibration:

• Your GO is receiving a strong GPS signal.
• The car has been stationary for at least 5 seconds and then travels along a straight and level section of road for at least one minute.

According to this, once I turn off the device, a reset, followed by a recalibration will automatically occur, and if I don't meet the conditions in the bulleted list, EPT won't be able to function.

What you're saying sounds like I can power off the device, and possibly remove it from the vehicle, and maybe even dock it to my PC, without having to recalibrate after reinstalling it in my vehicle (granted, I'm optimistcally reading a lot into what you said). Am I understanding you correctly?

 

[FlyGuy]

EPT - Oops

What you're saying sounds like I can power off the device, and possibly remove it from the vehicle, and maybe even dock it to my PC, without having to recalibrate after reinstalling it in my vehicle (granted, I'm optimistcally reading a lot into what you said). Am I understanding you correctly?

You are, but I'm wrong - I read the manual a few days later when my 920 updated to the new version, and I was surprised that it doesn't retain the calibration. I suspect the unit could do it, but they chose not to for reasons of their own. Perhaps that is the only way they can handle the unit being moved from car to car, or being moved to a different angle with each driver, or ...