Another HD Traffic FAIL

AndyVaughan · Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 8:25 pm Post subject:

On a positive note, I have just seen my TT update 4 times in approx 15 minutes and go from a total of 37 to 40 to 38 to 39 incidents in the North of the UK.

I will come back to it in an few hours and see if it has updated again - I am sure the number of incidents will change by 11pm.

Lets see what Monday morning rush hour brings ...........

Graeme2812 · Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:20 pm Post subject:

jpg1 · Regular Visitor Joined: Mar 20, 2009 Posts: 61

And...if people have bought (or been given for Christmas) the new x50 devices, TT will only have until mid-Jan perhaps to ensure that HD Traffic is working - otherwise hardly anyone will actually subscribe to something that does not work!

Perhaps these problems are largely down to the larger voume of data (number of traffic incidents) that TT appears to be pushing down to the devices at the moment, because they are expanding the number of roads on which the traffic system covers? If so, then there seems to be a big long term problem for TT - lack of memory capacity in the devices (64MB RAM) or the GPRS connectivity capacity (incoming data rate). I normally only have 8-9 MB of memory available when my device is working normally (with the bluetooth hi-fi mode transmitting to my iOPlay). I don't think this is unusually low.

If this is the case, I can't help thinking that the new Navigon 8450 and 6350 Live devices have a much better chance of working with the same data, as they have much more memory. TT should have realised this, given that most of their devices operate at around 85% of memory capacity (at a guess) when running normally.

At the moment I am seriously considering the new iPhone when it comes out on vodafone next year, with Navigon and their Live Traffic on it, assuming this works well....or maybe TT if they can get HD traffic onto the iPhone using the 3G connection through the phone's original network. But, of course - that's a BIG if.

Here's an idea they can consider...maybe they can zip down the data somehow, when it comes across the GPRS network, then expand it back up to full "size" on the device.

Or, perhaps they could reduce the geographical area (radius) within which you get HD traffic info, given your location? That would limit the amount of data coming through. Granted, it would not help much in London or the really big cities, but in many other places people would not experience many problems by having data over a smaller radius from their current position. Only the worst traffic jams have not cleared by the time you get them if they are 1.5-2 hours away when you start your journey, so perhaps many of these should be ignored (or filtered out) if they are not within the first hour of your journey? This could be done by reducing the radius around you within which you get info.

Or - here is another idea. Reduce the cost of the new maps, so that people will buy them more often, thus having a more up-to-date IQ Routes database on their devices more regularly. Therefore they will not see quite so many traffic jams each day, because some of them will now be "normal" for that time of day. I think we will all agree that the number of jams in each area is growing, not shrinking, so if the devices relied more on the IQ Routes data and less on the actual traffic for that road (when such jams have BECOME "normal") then the load on the devices' GPRS connections will be reduced.

When Navcore 9 came out and I heard that it was a firmware upgrade, I first thought it was some kind of fix for this problem, so that the units could deal better with a large volume of incoming traffic info. But since Navcore 9 only appears to be for the X50 and XL Live devices, but not the X40 ones, it doesn't look like this fix is related to the recent HD traffic problems.

What is odd is that the traffic bar stays navy blue all the time, which would suggest that the device is getting some kind of update regularly. I suspect the timer for changing the colour of the bar is in the device itself, so as far as the device is concerned, it may be connecting every 3/4/5/6/7/8... minutes, but not getting any data...?
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TomTom Go 740 LIVE and iOPlay bluetooth hands-free car kit

AliOnHols · Pocket GPS Verifier Joined: Oct 15, 2008 Posts: 1941

swash · Regular Visitor Joined: May 22, 2009 Posts: 65

Increasingly convinced that it is the increased amount of data that is causing the problems, as of a few minutes ago after a restart, selecting an incident via Browse Map, showed the incident as 1 of 1017!

Not seen four figures before.

Oh and this morning my device tried to route me down the A127 even though it was closed and even shown as closed on the Browse Map screen.

MrT · Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:46 am Post subject:

This morning there was far more detail on the traffic map, particularly around J5 of the M1 with the A41. It was showing the traffic on local roads and on the slip roads and roundabout. However a traffic queue I was in suddenly disappeared according to HD traffic when it was getting worse.
"1/1525 incidents. delay 1 min 325yds"

The latest way I have found to get HD traffic in the car in rush hour is to use the laptop on 3G with the TT route planner. It does not navigate but at least I get traffic updates. This is over vodaphone, so the network is working.
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Drivelux

swash · Regular Visitor Joined: May 22, 2009 Posts: 65

At the moment even the HD Traffic web page can barely load (South East England) and that's on a decent computer with a broadband connection, so my poor little Sat Nav has got no chance!

Good to hear them happily peddling their marvellous HD Traffic services on a radio commercial this morning as well!

Graeme2812 · Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 4:41 pm Post subject:

swash · Regular Visitor Joined: May 22, 2009 Posts: 65

Mine never seems to refresh now, although by placing the device next to my DAB radio it certainly sounded as if data was being received every 3 minutes or so.

AndyVaughan · Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:51 pm Post subject:

Mine didn't update the total number of incidents on the way in to work this morning - it stayed exactly the same for about half an hour. In rush hour traffic approaching the M60 from the north I would have expected some movement on the number of incidents.

It seems to update fine when there are only about 40 to 50 incidents, this morning it was 500 ish and I think it just gave up!

shires999 · Lifetime Member Joined: Nov 09, 2006 Posts: 96

For the first time this morning I had the time spare to look at this in detail.
I switched on my Tomtom XL IQ Live at 9.00 and plotted a route to my office. At the same time I plotted the same route on the online route planner (ORP). At first both displayed the same data. For the next hour the ORP happily updated itself with the changing traffic. As you can guess the Tomtom didn't.
The only way I've found to get it to update is to switch it off and switch it on again. Even plotting a differnet route doesn't force an update.

I think it's time to let Tomtom know. If they come back and say it's my device then they can send me a new one as I bought it from them and it's still under warranty.

It seems that the lack of an update is the biggest problem here. We know the HD traffic systems are working as can be seen by the ORP.

One thing I also noticed is how long the tomtom took to automatically work out an alternative quicker route. I left it alone and timed it at about 5 mins which is pretty poor as you could have gone past a couple of motorway junctions in that time.

I'm wondering now if I would have ben better off getting an XL IQ instead and an RDS antenna

Jammy1 · Regular Visitor Joined: Oct 20, 2004 Posts: 63

I've had the request to gather data for the developer. Whilst I try to do this it is going to be pretty difficult. Surely they could devise a bit of software that will collect all this info for them automatically?

falkirk81 · Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:43 pm Post subject:

I have just seen HD traffic in the little town I live in for the first time EVER!!

It is accurate though, as around 9am the town grinds down to a snails pace, so no complaints from me!

Sounds like Tomtom have definitely improved the reception and detail of HD Traffic!

Shame the updating issue is still occurring!

I have alerted Tomtom to the issue and it will be looked at. When, I don't know!
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Tomtom GO 1005 LIVE

iPhone 12

shires999 · Lifetime Member Joined: Nov 09, 2006 Posts: 96

Well just a quick update to my testing I did earlier today. I've just done teh same sort of test and myTomtom is actually updating very nicely. I've evne noticed the display changing on the screen and it matched perfectly to the ORP.
So it looks like it's just a peak time issue which is a pain if that's when you use it the most.
Anyway reported it to Tomtom so hopefully I will get a reply.

AndyVaughan · Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:23 pm Post subject:

Yep - exactly the same this morning.

When I got to work I had 524 incidents showing, exactly the same number as when I left home half an hour earlier.

But, during the drive in the existing delay on my route updated twice and I got the 'boing' from the TT (TTS is removed for now so TT can't say it is all my fault) as well as the text about traffic updated on the screen. The total number of incidents stayed the same.

When I parked up at work I rebooted and after what seemed like an age before the device connected and received an update I had approx 650 total incidents.

So, it seems to me that I got some form of update but no update of all of the incidents.

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