Is there a (newer?) TomTom with decent TTS?

[misterbk]

Hi all,

I have a TomTom Go 740. No idea how old that model is, bought it from Sam's Club... I'm hoping to figure out whether my issues are solved in newer models, or if "TomTom just does that."

The text-to-speech is nearly useless. I'm using it to find my way around after moving to the West coast, i.e. I'm in unfamiliar territory with high population density, lots of highway exits very close to each other, lots of Spanish road and city names, and dense traffic. People drive stoned all the time. Motorcyclists ride the line between lanes and fly by cars at 95mph. (One almost got himself killed on my car once, doing that next to an entrance ramp.) I need turn and exit notifications that don't require me to look away from the road.

I know a dashboard mount would help but don't want to do it until I know I'm keeping that GPS.

I like the tweakable Linux architecture on the TomTom. I've been trying to fix the pronunciation by editing files in the TTS folder but so far everything I do is completely ignored:
* changing speaker pitch, speed, age, etc. no effect.
* Adding key destinations like San Francisco to LoquendoTTS\data\roadnrEnglishUS.lex does not change how they are pronounced.


Some specific speech issues I'm trying to address:
* San Francisco pronounced "Sah Frahtheeskah"
* Powell Street pronounced "Pahy-;-y-;-ou" where -;- indicates what sounds like a glottal trill.
* San Jose pronounced "San Plahsen"
* Susan talks closer to the speed I want but can't talk right.
* Dave is -slightly- less terrible, but talks too slow.
* UK voices are WAY too slow and just change the pronunciation issues.


Is there a TomTom device that has improved text-to-speech?

Should I return this and buy a Garmin instead? I've heard people repeat here that "if you want speech buy Garmin, if you want routing buy TomTom." I don't know what that means. What does TomTom do for routing that I would miss?

I've had issues with the directions also. Getting directions from Emeryville to Concord, I get directions like these:

"Keep left, then stay in the left lane."
(3 seconds) "Keep left, then stay in the left lane."
(3 seconds) "Keep left, then stay in the left lane."
(3 seconds) "Keep left, then stay in the right lane." (that is 5 lanes away!)
(3 seconds) "In 1/4 mile, exit right"

It gave me 6 seconds to cross five lanes of traffic and exit! By the time I registered what it said I was watching my exit fly by.

 

[dhn]

The Loquendo speech engine leaves much to be desired and while I know TomTom engineers work to 'tweak' the pronunciation, it'll require an application update that hopefully will improve the situation.

Your other issue is also noted with TomTom in that sometimes it seems to give premature instructions. You should be seeing Advanced Lane Guidance along your route. That is often an additional visual cue as is the direction arrow on the status bar as to what direction you'll eventually be going.

 

[misterbk]

My application is 8.371. I don't see any application updates in Home.

Does that mean the device was up to date off the shelf, or that the device is an old model and can't be updated?

(I don't trust Sam's to have the newer stuff all the time... I've seen electronics from 4 years ago.)

 

[dhn]

That sounds as if it may be the newest, if none was offered.

 

[mvl]

I have a TomTom Go 740. No idea how old that model is, bought it from Sam's Club... I'm hoping to figure out whether my issues are solved in newer models, or if "TomTom just does that."

There's no newer model in the USA that addresses your issues. Tomtom has newer models in Europe but they haven't made it here yet. Tomtom has said new models are coming in Q2, I'd expect to hear about them in March and April.

Some specific speech issues I'm trying to address:
* San Francisco pronounced "Sah Frahtheeskah"
* Powell Street pronounced "Pahy-;-y-;-ou" where -;- indicates what sounds like a glottal trill.
* San Jose pronounced "San Plahsen"

Have you tried being more phonetic in the file?
"Francisco" = "Fransisko",
"Powell" = "Pawil"
"Jose" = "Hosay"

Beware that the TTS processes one word at a time so putting in "San Fransisco" will be ignored.

Should I return this and buy a Garmin instead? I've heard people repeat here that "if you want speech buy Garmin, if you want routing buy TomTom." I don't know what that means. What does TomTom do for routing that I would miss?

The Tomtom 740 uses IQroutes and LIVE traffic, which allows it to very accurately predict congestion almost anywhere in a city. It uses this in its routing, so it give much more efficient directions (ie: chooses roads that get you to your destination faster) than a Garmin. Garmin is from Kansas, their devices speak English much better than the Italian-made TTS software on Tomtoms.

"Keep left, then stay in the left lane."
(3 seconds) "Keep left, then stay in the left lane."
(3 seconds) "Keep left, then stay in the left lane."
(3 seconds) "Keep left, then stay in the right lane." (that is 5 lanes away!)
(3 seconds) "In 1/4 mile, exit right"

It gave me 6 seconds to cross five lanes of traffic and exit! By the time I registered what it said I was watching my exit fly by.

That is a problem that takes getting used to on a Tomtom. When there's an exit only lane on the right, it says keep left. In general, I stay in the middle when Tomtom starts speaking multi-step directions, so I'm ready to go into the necessary lane after. As dhn said, look at the lane guidance, when it says "keep left" the lane guidance may show that any of the 4 left lanes is fine.

 

[misterbk]

In general, I stay in the middle when Tomtom starts speaking multi-step directions, so I'm ready to go into the necessary lane after.

On my recent trip the traffic was abnormally light and I would have been able to do that, but in general that's not possible in this area. In medium or heavy traffic you really have to plan to be in the correct lane or you miss your exit. Other drivers are cooperative in known problem areas, like the entrance ramp near my house that makes everybody not crossing the bridge traverse five lanes in a half mile, but that's the exception not the rule. To successfully get back to my house and not be forced onto the highway, I have to plan four turns in advance and other drivers will not let people shuffle around.

The problem with the directions it gave was not the "keep left," it was the "stay in the left lane" that followed. The GPS had all the necessary information to understand that I should be in the right lane and not the left lane. If I know the roads already, I can realize when the Tomtom is wrong and follow my own directions, but that defeats the purpose of the GPS.

Have you tried being more phonetic in the file?
"Francisco" = "Fransisko",
"Powell" = "Pawil"
"Jose" = "Hosay"

Beware that the TTS processes one word at a time so putting in "San Fransisco" will be ignored.

So far I have been unable to make any change to any file and have that alter the pronunciation on the GPS.

Adding items to roadnrEnglishUS.lex doesn't seem to have any effect on how they're read, using any voice.
examples:
"Francisco" = "fran sis koh"
"francisco" = "fran-sis-koh"
"Francisco" = "fransiskoh"
"francisco" = "walkway" (or anything else)
"jose" = "test"

The SQLite database file uses exact phonetic codes, but changing that also has no effect. Deleting entries has no effect, adding entries has no effect, and changing entries has no effect.

I'm realizing that if I did find a way to tweak it, by the time I entered tweaks for all the things it can't pronounce, this whole area will probably be underwater.


I'm really appreciative for the help and suggestions but this unit is a failure, I'm just returning it.

 

[gatorguy]

If you're still set on a "Live" device, then look at the Garmin 1690. The bonus is no subscription fees for two years.

 

[mvl]

To not fragment this discussion, I'm responding further here.