New TomToms

[Motorolabizz]

Hello everyone, I've been a long time lurker and this site has definitely helped me out with my 2 models (listed below) over the years.

Anyway, with these new models and engine coming out is it expected that routing will be time based? IE: living in DC many of my streets and highways are time restricted and my Live unit continues to try to put me on these roads unless I preview the route and avoid it manually. Turns are even worse because I can make lefts. I would of thought by now this would of been figured out.

Old Model: TomTom 350TM
Current Model GO LIVE 2535M
Garmin Nüvi® 3590LMT

 

[dhn]

I'm aware of what you are asking .........

As far as I know, while TomTom's HD Traffic & Mapping are aware of the 1-way and time issues, they have not as yet figured a way to implement the information in the relevant mapsw.

Which is not to say it's not going to happen in the future ...... just not yet.

 

[canderson]

Further to that, they're also aware of the issues of HOV lanes that are time sensitive (into town direction in the morning, away from town direction in the evening), and understand that these should be addressed. But as dhn says, we don't have any info from TomTom that might indicate when they'll figure out how to manage this. Instead, they're taking time to add cute 3D buildings that don't really improve the actual navigation experience, just the appearance - but that their competition has already employed.

The raw map data never has had a time sensitive provision, though it does know about speeds at various times (IQ Routes).

 

[Motorolabizz]

Thank you mods for the prompt response.

 

[mvl]

I should have checked more frequently.

A day after I posted, a new Tomtom GO has been approved in the FCC. It appears to be shaped differently from any other Tomtom I'm familiar with, so it probably is part of this new lineup of models. The model that is posted on the FCC only has bluetooth, no LIVE modem.

They did a good job this time of hiding most of the device information for 180 days. All you can see is the "GO" name, however it was tested and approved for bluetooth EDR 3mbps. This means it was designed to transmit data over bluetooth, which makes this seem like one of the "smartphone connected" models announced in the April 17th press event.

 

[dhn]

Does it look like a ball on a fat stem?

 

[mvl]

No, it's a PND, not the commuter concept.

 

[offthegrid]

Set to go on sale in the UK June 1st.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CL9UMKG

 

[canderson]

Perhaps you'll see that model in the UK in that time frame, but I don't think you'll see the 5000 or 6000 in North America for a while yet... and by that, I mean not within some marketing dept manager's "1 month after Euro launch" dream.

 

[offthegrid]

Just curious why not?

 

[canderson]

Lack of testing on North American cellular systems.

The x00 models are all 'bring your own connection', which simplifies things a great deal for TomTom. Adding the cellular connection requires a whole lot more paperwork and testing to assure EMC compliance and decent compatibility with our cellular systems here.

 

[offthegrid]

Got it.

Do you think the bluetooth models will be here sooner?

 

[KOTULCN]

any idea of internal storage size or expandability on the Go 600?

 

[Andy_P]

They will have microSD card slots.

 

[canderson]

Got it.

Do you think the bluetooth models will be here sooner?

Absolutely sooner than the 5000 / 6000 models, yes. Since they depend only upon whatever connectivity you can bring to the party, there's no need for the additional regulatory testing and paperwork mentioned above, nor the testing against North American cell sites.

I sincerely doubt that when the 5000 / 6000 models show up here, they'll still be tied to the AT&T GPRS 2G network (as have all Live units in the past) since AT&T has made clear their plans about killing off that service not far down the road to free up bandwidth for their 3G and 4G services. Where that leaves those of us with existing Live units is ... not pretty.

While the complete shutdown isn't scheduled until 1 January 2017 now, what is NOT clear is how this is going to work out as a rolling shutdown. It's expected that we'll see service disappear bit by bit in various geographic areas until the job is complete in 2017. Some areas have already seen many of their towers drop 2G service altogether, or have its bandwidth shunted to 3G during certain busy hours.

 

[offthegrid]

TomTom's UK website shows the 400, 500 & 600 available 'next week'.

Connected models there in July. The German site has the same thing so I'm betting this schedule applies to all the European countries getting this.

The US bends over again.

http://tomtom.com/en_gb/products/car-navigation/go/

 

[canderson]

So far, the one feature that I see that I would really like to have added to the earlier units (if it works as it appears to do) is the Tap & Go. This is possible now with the Navigate to / Point on map, but a bit more cumbersome. Would work well for my use model for these devices.

As for being late to the US market ... I'm not too fussed about that. If everyone recalls all of the issues and missing features during the Nav3 product releases ... well ... might not be all that bad to allow these new units to 'season' for a little while and let another market be the guinea pigs for just a bit while the kinks are worked out and the features restored.

Anyone here about addition of custom POI on these units yet? Wonder if the early firmware will be supporting it.

 

[dhn]

A source tells me that the original roll out of the 400, 500, 600 models will NOT be able to deal with custom pois.

 

[canderson]

Then I guess I will not be able to deal with the 400/500/600 models for a while, will I?

@offthegrind

So as you can see, I'm not personally in any hurry to see these models arrive here in N.A. It's the same story as the Nav3 devices. Rush them to market, and get the missing features (some of them, at least) added later. Unfortunately, it's always the things that are key to my use that start out missing (sigh).

 

[mvl]

Everything I've heard is pointing to a repeat of the go1000 launch. Rush to market in Europe without everything fully built and stable, then more features and bugfixes coming in subsequent software releases. Tomtom did comment in a financial call a few years back that Americans are more prone to returning devices than Europeans, my bet is that they will let it stabilize more before introducing it to North America.

The GO1000 is far more powerful and stable now than it was with the launch 2010 software. So I wouldn't rush to judge the new devices based on launch capabilities and reliability.