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Joined: Jun 03, 2005 Posts: 130 Location: Kent, UK
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 4:13 pm Post subject:
Quote:
She was left driving around in circles for ten months...
She must have bloody big petrol tank
I don't think anyone here is saying TTN is perfect, or not liable to make mistakes, but at the end of the day it's a driving aid i.e. it's there to help you drive not takeover the driving for you. You have to look at the directions given and think for yourself what the implications of following those directions are. If she can't even navigate out of her own village then I think she needs more than just GPS ;)
I missed the Watchdog yesterday, but I can gather the story from this forum. IMO, one should always use common sense over blindly following the satnav's voice commands, regardless of how sweet the lady's voice is I've been using TomTom Navigator 3 for over a year now, and can't remember it routing me through weird roads into destinations-unknown. Yes, quite regularly I do come across a traffic signal where it says "Go right on the roundabout, 3rd exit". But this is quite understandable because the road layouts are being changed regularly, many roundabouts are being replaced by signals, at least here in Newcastle.
I do agree with 'gpsdell' that these mapping/satnav companies should release regular updates for maps, which should be available for free.
I have recently started using TT5, and this although has some new features, I think has some flaws too. One of them being it prompts for the next move much before it should ideally. Sometimes you are close to an exit on the motorway, but are on the right lane, and it says "Take the exit". Now I used to get really confused. But then if you see the display it'll show 1200 yards to the exit it really wants to you take. I think, it should keep mentioning how far the exit is, so u know without seeing the display when to get into the lane.
I've also found TT5 a bit unreliable compared to TT3. It did ask me to take some turns which I knew for sure weren't correct. I knew this because I was familiar with the area. But if I wasn't familiar with the roads/area, I don’t know where I would have ended up.
But again, as someone says… I'd prefer this satnav any day over a regular map, never mind some flaws in it. The technology, I believe, is still developing and far from perfect.
Finally, about this girl "Amanda"... I can't understand how she could loose here way again and again, driving through the same area, never mind the four satnav units she's tried. I think she needs to get a doze of the Common Sense capsule 10000mg. Is there anything like that available on this planet yet ?
Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 6:29 pm Post subject:
rayamit wrote:
One of them being it prompts for the next move much before it should ideally. Sometimes you are close to an exit on the motorway, but are on the right lane, and it says "Take the exit". Now I used to get really confused. But then if you see the display it'll show 1200 yards to the exit it really wants to you take.
Try the voice file(s) avail for free from here
http://www.rayflanagan.co.uk/voiceskin.html
I use the Liz Whitticker voice, and some of the quotes are subtly different such "prepare to exit ahead" - the warnings are clear and the roundabout directions are far better than the TT defualt set-up, Mike
I believe that this 'Amanda' has probably been confused by slavishly following the GPS pointer on the map, rather than the voice directions. Because the pointer is about 1-2 seconds behind the actual position of the vehicle, it is quite easy to miss the correct turning (particulary roundabout exits).
When TT is working correctly the display doesn't lag by a few seconds. If this is happening you have encountered one of the TT bugs and you can cure the problem by disabling some of the features (usually associated with POIs and/or POI warnings)
The voice command is the one that is often incorrect. A command such as turn right, followed by turn left can actually mean 'turn right and take the third left half a mile along the road'. the map will show the correct route.
Joined: 24/06/2003 00:22:12 Posts: 2946 Location: Escaped to the Antipodies! 36.83°S 174.75°E
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 2:34 pm Post subject:
jpkeates wrote:
Where are these perfectly up to date maps
that people seem to "expect"?
They don't exist. :x I have heard all the excuses, but they are starting to wear thin.
With the explosion of sat nav map data provision is fast becoming a very big business and the map providers need to raise their game and investigate/fix map errors much more promptly when they are reported by users.
The likes of TomTom, Garmin, Navman etc need to raise their game and provide more frequent map updates with a faster time to market too. _________________ Gone fishing!
I don't know wether anyone noticed but when she went down one of the dead ends you could quite clearly hear TomTom say "Turn around when possible" which implies she had actually taken a wrong turn
I agree. If the unit knew that the driver had to turn around then it knew she had gone down a dead end road and therefore there is no way it would have tried to route down that road in the first place.
I bet this woman was taking the next available left turn (be it a road, driveway, farm track, carpark, petrol station, cliff etc) when she heard "In 300 yards, turn left".
Two friends claim that my Garmin took them down a dead end road into a park then told them to turn around, but looking at the tracklog the reality is that they made a left turn about 150 yards before the turn that was indicated.
Try it in Maidenhead then, eastbound out of the town on the MAIN A4 towards Slough. It tells you to take the first exit on a roundabout. That takes you down a road with Symantec on the corner, so if you don't know the area, you take the road. Then TomTom straight away tells you to turn round. The road has been there for years, so does that make TomTom wrong or the driver wrong?
On the A14 roundabout at Kettering coming from Wellingbourgh heading east onto the A14 it tells you to take the 4th Exit. The 4th exit is onto a small industrial estate that has been there for 5 years. TomTom spots you have done this and tells you to "Turn around when possible." Is that teh driver that is wrong or TomTom that is wrong. The 4th exit is the 4th exit, not the 5th.
I am starting to think this is a TomTom fan site.....
Fair play, ttn does tell you to take the .......exit. What I always do is confirm this with the actual display before even getting on the roundabout 8) . It is impossible to keep the maps up to date due to ever changing road layouts (that does not mean I agree with this). As for the comment that this is a tomtom fan site, I think you will find more criticism of tomtom here than anywhere else but at the end of the day, tomtom are not responsible for supplying the maps, that would be the map company they just utilise what they were given at the time.
Joined: 14/09/2002 20:56:18 Posts: 5231 Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:48 pm Post subject:
Masked-Marauder wrote:
Try it in Maidenhead then, eastbound out of the town on the MAIN A4 towards Slough. It tells you to take the first exit on a roundabout. That takes you down a road with Symantec on the corner, so if you don't know the area, you take the road. Then TomTom straight away tells you to turn round. The road has been there for years, so does that make TomTom wrong or the driver wrong?
On the A14 roundabout at Kettering coming from Wellingbourgh heading east onto the A14 it tells you to take the 4th Exit. The 4th exit is onto a small industrial estate that has been there for 5 years. TomTom spots you have done this and tells you to "Turn around when possible." Is that teh driver that is wrong or TomTom that is wrong. The 4th exit is the 4th exit, not the 5th.
I am starting to think this is a TomTom fan site.....
Some of the data as presented by TeleAtlas leaves a little to be desired. That road with Symantec on the corner might by marked by TeleAtlas as 'Not navigable' and so it isn't counted as an exit! The same as the one in Kettering I imagine, as lots of roads onto Industrial Estates are so marked. They appear as black, grey or dashed roads, as I recall. Travelling from Shipley Bridge on the B2037 towards Horley on the B2036, I am instructed to take the third exit, which would take me back on myself. TeleAtlas have inadvertently marked someone's driveway, which eads straight onto the roundabout, as a legitimate exit.
Also, at the roundabout at Gatwick's North Terminal, when approaching from the South Terminal, the first exit leads onto a service road which isn't intended for public use, but public use isn't barred. TeleAtlas discount this as an exit, too. _________________ Tim
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 6:04 pm Post subject:
Tim Buxton wrote:
Also, at the roundabout at Gatwick's North Terminal, when approaching from the South Terminal, the first exit leads onto a service road which isn't intended for public use, but public use isn't barred. TeleAtlas discount this as an exit, too.
Actually that road (the perimter road) is 'private' and joe public are not supposed to drive along it.
Comparing TA maps with Navteq I find many more such ocurrences in Navteq data. For example they class neraly the whole of Aldershot Garrison as 'private' despite it being open to the public and so discount it in any route calculations. _________________ Darren Griffin
Name one other source for obtaining maps for Tomtom products. Tomtom ARE responsible for the maps THEY sell.
How can you say that? If a company claim they have 99% map coverage then I as a company director would definitely say fine lets go with this.
I agree that the maps leave a lot to be desired but don't knock a product that even with its faults is still head and shoulders above the rest just because somebody else's product is not up to scratch!
i seen the watchdog thing and imho what she had was user problems mainly with some map errors.
what i don;t understand is if someone has a paper map and it doesn't have a road on it or something, they can say ach well. it was printed 6 months ago. what makes them think it is no different from these maps gps uses?
on another note, that woman on watchdog i couldn't believe it when she was complaining about being a steet away from a destination etc. when i went to the north of scotland i followed TT and it took me just over 70 miles away from where i should have been. they had the name of the towns mixed up in the map. cost me about 2 hours added time to my journey. i would have been DELIGHTED to be a steet away. .
Where are these perfectly up to date maps
that people seem to "expect"?
Given the cost of sat nav systems most people would expect the map companies to be making significant investment in keeping their maps up to date, that is their business, what else are they doing every day!?
You might also expect that when people do report problems or inaccuracies they might fix those and release an update.
Regarding the comments about road layouts constantly changing, while this is true there are only so many councils and local authorities around so it wouldn't be too much to expect that the map company could keep in touch with them to find about changes. In my local newspaper they always have notices about roadworks, road building, alterations etc, why don't teleAtlas pay me to work for them, I'll read the paper on a Friday and send in my report on the monday
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I've been using TomTom Navigator 3 for over a year now, and can't remember it routing me through weird roads into destinations-unknown. Yes, quite regularly I do come across a traffic signal where it says "Go right on the roundabout, 3rd exit". But this is quite understandable because the road layouts are being changed regularly, many roundabouts are being replaced by signals, at least here in Newcastle.
they just utilise what they were given at the time.
