Mobile Speed Cameras

[Jim83]

I have a 620 with speed cameras enabled. I am usually in western Pa. and eastern Ohio, but with yearly trips to Florida, SC etc. There are not a lot of red light cameras here, but there are in Florida and the 620 alerts as I expect it would.

My question is about mobile speed cameras. There is a little camera icon I press and report police along side of the road. The 620 thanks me and goes back to normal. Seems like it is working.

The 620 has not alerted me of a mobile speed camera in YEARS. I think it might have a couple times when it was new, but that was a long time ago, and I gradually stopped reporting mobile speed cameras as it seemed useless.

My grandson introduced me to Waze. It alerts to mobile speed cameras and a lot of other things, maybe too many, but it works. So now I am using Tomtom for navigation as usual and I keep Waze open on the iPhone and listen to the audio alerts on the car sound system. The iPhone is too small a display to safely watch while driving or I might try switching. Maybe an iPad mini? Little Android tablet?

Anyway, it seems to me that either the Tomtom 620 isn't working with mobile speed cameras or there are not enough people in the US reporting them to make crowd sourcing effective. Or maybe I don't understand how this is supposed to work.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

-Jim

 

[Willy875]

If you report a mobile speed camera the speed camera is signaled for 2 or 3 hours to other users. If the speed camera is signaled again the speed camera will be signaled again for 2 hours.

 

[Jim83]

If you report a mobile speed camera the speed camera is signaled for 2 or 3 hours to other users. If the speed camera is signaled again the speed camera will be signaled again for 2 hours.

Ok, that's about how I thought it worked, but I make routine 100 mi+ trips. I know where I am going. I put the route in the 620 to watch for traffic delays etc.
I often see police in the medians and beside the highway, but I NEVER get an alert. Maybe I'll try reporting one of them then turn around and go the same place again within the 2 hours and see if the alert works. All the other alerts in this 620 seem to work fine. I assume I have to have a route running in the 620 to see the alert.

 

[canderson]

What we don't know is the crowdsource 'threshold' for TomTom to actually flag the presence of a camera.
Given the location of the button on the screen, you can bet more than one false report has been sent by accident.
It may require more than one report for them to feed the location back as a camera spot, but I have no idea what that threshold might be.

 

[Jim83]

What we don't know is the crowdsource 'threshold' for TomTom to actually flag the presence of a camera.
Given the location of the button on the screen, you can bet more than one false report has been sent by accident.
It may require more than one report for them to feed the location back as a camera spot, but I have no idea what that threshold might be.

Good point! My test idea may not be conclusive. Just one report, or multiple reports from the same device may not hit the threshold.

I have never had a mobile speed camera alert in years of driving with the 620. Everything is turned on and the other alerts seem to work fine. Either it doesn't work or there aren't enough US drivers in my area using the reporting to make it effective.

I guess my question now is does this work for anyone in the US?

There are lots of users watching this forumn. Anyone have any experience with this? If so in what area?

Thank you

-Jim

 

[canderson]

There are lots of users watching this forumn. Anyone have any experience with this? If so in what area?

Can't offer any help here. No speed cameras at all in our area, just cops with radar guns in cars and a wealth of red light cameras.

 

[Jim83]

Can't offer any help here. No speed cameras at all in our area, just cops with radar guns in cars and a wealth of red light cameras.

My red light camera alerts work well, but I'm interested in mobile units. " I am assuming when Tomtom says "speed cameras" they mean fixed and mobile"

Does Tomtom alert for the cops with radar guns? If so someone would have to have reported them and the system is working.

-Jim

 

[canderson]

Only if someone reports a cop with a radar gun as a "mobile speed camera" would it ever be reported. There's no separate mechanism for reporting these.

 

[Jim83]

Only if someone reports a cop with a radar gun as a "mobile speed camera" would it ever be reported. There's no separate mechanism for reporting these.

I would think that a cop with a radar gun, or even a cop car sitting in the median or along the road would be considered a mobile speed camera and be reported.

Maybe not... Mobile cameras may be a Europe thing. If I look in my 620 they are called "safety cameras" so I may be using the wrong term, but if I click on that it says "your device automatically receives location updates for fixed safety cameras and speed traps in real time." and that I have a subscription.

After thousands of miles of using this in the US I have never seen any such alert. Red light cameras yes, traffic yes, all sorts of other incidents, but no police or speed traps.

After trying Waze I got to thinking Tomtom has this. I wonder if it is working? I may be working, but there aren't enough users in my area reporting. I will probably never know.

Meantime Using Tomtom navigation with Waze voice alerts from my iPhone seems to work pretty well.

Thanks for your interest

-Jim

 

[canderson]

An example of a true 'mobile speed camera' here in our part of the world would be one of those small vans with the camera in the rear window that is left to sit on the side of the road all day and record speeders for ticketing.

In some other countries, if you don't see it, you shouldn't be driving:

but here in the U.S. they tend to run in 'stealth mode' ... using any old delivery van type vehicle, unmarked, of course.

 

[Navigierer]

@Jim83

Haben Sie auch Ihr Smartphone/iPhone mit Ihrem TomTom gekoppelt?
Meines Wissens nach werden die mobilen Blitzer beim 620 nur in Verbindung mit dem Handy angezeigt.

Have you also paired your smartphone/iPhone with your TomTom?
As far as I know, the mobile speed cameras on the 620 are only displayed in connection with the mobile phone.

 

[Jim83]

@Jim83
Haben Sie auch Ihr Smartphone/iPhone mit Ihrem TomTom gekoppelt?
Meines Wissens nach werden die mobilen Blitzer beim 620 nur in Verbindung mit dem Handy angezeigt.

I haven't had very good luck with pairing Tomtom to my iPhone, but I connect Tomtom to the wifi hotspot in the iPhone. I get all the other alerts and traffic information so I think it's working OK. I am now guessing that the system may be working, but drivers in the US don't use it like I thought they would, or there are not a lot of drivers using Tomtom. Everyone I know that uses a GPS has Garmin. The younger folks use Google Maps and Waze.

I started with Tomtom a long time ago when I could connect it to a cellfone and get real time traffic in rural areas. At the time Garmin was using FM stations and it only worked around cities. Tomtom has been fine, but I recently discovered Waze has these crowd sourced reports.

-Jim