Speed limits not on U.S. maps?

[srallen]

I'm happy to have gotten a GO 720 for Christmas. I would like it to display the speed limit for the streets I drive. From reading the other posts, it sounds like most/all U.S. maps don't include the speed limit on the map, and European maps do. Is that correct, or am I not understanding correctly.

Thanks!

 

[mdfrailey]

i dont get any speed limits either when i drive in the US. im pretty sure TomTom is based somewhere in the UK(overseas for that matter), so the US speeds probly aren't their main priority.

 

[JimT]

I'm happy to have gotten a GO 720 for Christmas. I would like it to display the speed limit for the streets I drive. From reading the other posts, it sounds like most/all U.S. maps don't include the speed limit on the map, and European maps do. Is that correct, or am I not understanding correctly.

Thanks!

With firmware 6.1 you used to get a warning, if set, that you were over the speed limit. it change during one of the firmware updates before 7.0.

 

[macgirl]

With firmware 6.1 you used to get a warning, if set, that you were over the speed limit. it change during one of the firmware updates before 7.0.

ah, i was wondering what happened to that warning. i had them on my 910 before i got my 720, so knew that data was available in their maps and was disappointed to not see this working on my 720...

 

[canderson]

ah, i was wondering what happened to that warning. i had them on my 910 before i got my 720, so knew that data was available in their maps and was disappointed to not see this working on my 720...

Based upon the ETA times that the 720 provides for its routes, it's pretty obvious that they've dropped specific speed limits for roads and have gone to a "best guess" idea of what speed limits are on various road types -- and aren't very accurate about it.

Could be they were concerned about some liability in the event that they called one faster than it really was. Who knows. We sue everybody for anything here in the U.S.

 

[srallen]

Based upon the ETA times that the 720 provides for its routes, it's pretty obvious that they've dropped specific speed limits for roads and have gone to a "best guess" idea of what speed limits are on various road types -- and aren't very accurate about it.

Could be they were concerned about some liability in the event that they called one faster than it really was. Who knows. We sue everybody for anything here in the U.S.

So do we definitively know that TomTom maps don't have the speed limit for specific streets and motorways in the U.S.?

 

[SShadow]

Its odd... I added in the speed limit (map corrections) for the section of highway that I take to go home every day. It was prefilled with 100km/h and I changed it to 110km/h (which is what it should be). The issue is, since it DID have the speed limit associated with it - why am I not getting the max speed display? Nor the prompt saying that I am above the speed limit?

 

[canderson]

So do we definitively know that TomTom maps don't have the speed limit for specific streets and motorways in the U.S.?

Not sure what map/firmware pairing "Shadow" has, above, but with 7.221 and the 710 North American set, I have no provision on the 720's display to make any corrections or references of any kind to speed limits.

(Edit: To clarify, I could attempt to make the "Map Correction", but to what??? As the change would go, there's no sensible "from" to change "to" when attempting to make the change. It always shows 60mph for every street! It clearly doesn't have a clue.)

Several of us have played around with routing to try to figure out what the 720 is using for assumptions about speed limits, and it appears that they used one fixed speed for interstates (I believe it's 60) and one fixed speed for rural US highways (I believe it was 40) and yet another for city streets, etc. There's a thread around here somewhere that covered that issue -- search, I believe, for the expression "ETA" (estimated time of arrival). We were all fussing about what seems to be a rather pessimistic idea of arrival times based upon these fixed estimates. By planning a route of any length on a particular road type, you'd always get the same number of minutes for the same number of miles, irrespective of the actual speed limit. Here in Colorado, that could as easily as not be 75 on a rural interstate, and no matter where we plotted a route, it kept coming up with an average of 60.

So if the 720 actually contains specific road speeds, it definitely is NOT (at 7.221/710) using them to calculate ETA. If not used for that, and not otherwise visible, they'd be useless if they ARE there, so we have assumed that they're not.

 

[SShadow]

Map Corrections -> Report Other Error -> Existing Street -> (select street) -> Done -> Wrong Speed Limit -> Done -> (type in correct speed limit) -> Done

I can verify that this is one of those changes that are not immediate, as when I went back in just now to ensure I had the right procedure, the speed was back to 100km/h.

And the Warn When Driving Faster Than Allowed is under the Safety Preferences...

My specifics on my XL-S are as follows:
App 7.162 (8492/071121) OS:2327
GPS v1.21, Boot:5.3013
Map: USA and Canada v710.1575

Does that info help out at all? According to TTHome I am totally up-to-date... Can I trust it?

 

[canderson]

Map Corrections -> Report Other Error -> Existing Street -> (select street) -> Done -> Wrong Speed Limit -> Done -> (type in correct speed limit) -> Done

Note the clarification in my post above. Yes, I can enter a value by attempting to do a Map Mod. HOWEVER, the only speed that is ever showing up as needing modification is 60mph. Tough to explain that to the cops on my way to the local car wash! The 720 in its current form seems to use assumptions about road type alone when estimating ETA, and seems to have no specific idea about the speed of any specific road should one attempt a correction.

Do you ever see that your XL (I'd note that you're running a different model AND firmware than we are on the 720, BTW) provides you with a speed other than 60mph to change FROM? If so, your older firmware is providing you with something we don't seem to have on the 720.

 

[SShadow]

You are correct, even my short street is 100km/h... LOL I'm not sure that there is a car on earth that could hit that speed before the end of the street.
So, another useless feature for us non-Europeans? LOL