Trip WAY longer than it should be.

[JVersh]

Hello. Newbie here. I have a Tom Tom One Third Edition. I bought it as a Christmas ('08) present for myself and my wife. I updated it to the latest maps around the 26th of December '08 with the freebie code I got in the box. I just updated the mapshare two days ago. This thing has been fantastic on short trips (2 hours or less). But I really bought it for long trips. My family usually vacations in the Smokies or Gulf Shores, Alabama. We're vacationing in Gulf Shores this year so I thought I would go ahead and have the Tom Tom plot the trip just to make sure everything was working properly. Boy am I glad I didn't wait until the last minute. 3087 Highway B, Perryville, MO 63775 was the departure location and 24114 Perdido Beach Blvd, Orange Beach, AL was the destination. Tom Tom calculated the quickest route to be 727 miles with an elapsed time of 12:30. Second best was 747 miles with a travel time of 12:10. Now here is the kicker. I've made this trip 3 - 4 tiimes in the last 10 years. It is a 600 and change mile trip lasting 9:45 to 10:30 depending on how often you stop for bathroom breaks. Expedia, Mapquest, google maps and my mother-in-laws Garmin all agree within 10 miles and 15 minutes of one another. 614 miles and 10:20 -10:35. Can anyone give me a clue why the Tom Tom is so poor at calculating this course. These highways are not new either folks. We're talking 20 years plus. I'm going to have to get rid of this thing if this is the best it can do. Any help? Please?
JVersh.
Oh, Tom Tom's Route Assistant (or whatever the hell it's called) that you can link to from TOM TOM Home agrees with the afformentioned service's routes and times but you cannot transfer the route directly to the Tom Tom. You can only transfer the departure site and destinations and then have your Tom Tom calculate the route. And that bites.

 

[dhn]

I just tried a route from city centre Perryville to city centre Orange Beach AL using fastest route on a NA 830 map using IQ routing.

10 hours 26 minutes
1101 km = 682 miles.

Maybe you could use a newer map?

 

[JVersh]

Thanks for the reply. I just tried the exact same routing and it still comes back 727 miles 12 hours 30 minutes. Then I tried city center Perryville to city center Gulf Shores, AL (Basically the exact same place seperated only by 1 1/2 miles. That route came back 752 miles 12 hours 12 minutes. My map is USA and Canada v715.1712. I do not have the IQ routing feature on my Tom Tom. Is that a feature I can download and install?

Thanks,

JVersh

 

[dhn]

IQ2 routing is built into version 8.15+ maps and application 8.3+ is necessary.

HOWEVER............not all models are capable of having those versions of map and application. And, unfortunately, your model falls into that category.

IQ2 routing takes into consideration 'real world' data of drivers as to what speed they really drive on any given road, rather than the default speeds built into the map being used.

That's why in my earlier post, although it shows more miles distance than you said, the time to travel reflects a lesser amount of time than you experience. Drivers are going faster than the default speeds.

Maybe, you want to upgrade your unit to one that has this feature????

 

[JVersh]

Thanks once again for your timely reply, dhn. I just got an e-mailed response from the TomTom support group. They told me that unfortunately 727 miles is the best distance for the quick route that my particular model of Tom Tom will do. Even the most up-to-date map they have still calculates at 727 miles for the route on the Tom Tom One Third edition. Seems to be a glitch in the map. They realize the shortest and quickest actual distance from point A to point B is 616 miles. They suggested I report the glitch to map share so that the glitch can be addressed on the next map release. Ebay here I come. I'm not a happy camper. Thanks for your replies, though.

JVersh.

 

[dXprime]

I can sympathize with you. I think you've found one of the major problems with the older Tomtom maps/units. I too have an older One with USA & Canada V710.1575 and have experienced the same route calculation problems as you describe. I believe it's because Tomtom puts a ~35mph speed limit to all secondary roads. And since the last ~150mi of your "fast" trip is secondary roads (State 49 and 42 as examples), your Tomtom likely thought you were better off sticking to highways even if it takes you the LOOONNG way around. My tomtom routes me to hit I-65 from Nashville TN down through Montgomery AL. While it doesn't really help you fix the problem, I know I always feel less enraged if there's a reason behind why something's FUBAR. So, in short, the problem lies with Tomtom stating all secondary roads can only go 35mph, so it thinks the highway is faster. I believe they have corrected this with the introduction of IQ routing that replaces that "dumb" speedlimit with a more realistic one based on people's actual speed. Hopefully you don't give up on Tomtom (I still haven't) even if they do have problems. They do have alot going for them. Just my 2 cents.

 

[mvl]

Yes, this was fixed with IQroutes.

Most people agree that the pre-IQroutes Tomtoms ave were worse than most/all of the competition in directions.

They leapfrogged everyone with IQroutes. The IQroutes directions are far-far better then any other GPS in the market today.

IQroutes has a few flaws (that I've been bugging Tomtom to fix). But in general IQroutes will find better route than you know, more often that you'll know a better route than the Tomtom.