Who uses the shortest distance route calculator in Tom Tom?

djohnson · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 12, 2004 Posts: 35

Hi,

I found a small bug in the calculation of shortest routes in Tom Tom 3. I posted the bug to Tom Tom support. The reply from Tom Tom support is below and am somewhat dissapointed to learn that this particular feature might get removed. I for one use it a lot and find it very useful. Please post your thoughts on this feature. I'm interested to know how many people use this feature.

Here is the discussion with Tom Tom:-
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Customer 03/07/2004 01.21 PM
I often calculate routes using the shortest distance instead of the quickest. I do this because I sometimes prefer more scenic routes, which the shortest routes often give.

I have found a very irritating problem. If during live navigation of a shortest route, the GPS signal is lost or I take a wrong turn, the system auto calculates the quickest route instead of the shortest (which I had initially set). To illistrate what problem this caused for me, I was in Winchester in a laybay where the signal wasn't too good. I calculated the shortest route to where I live in Portsmouth. The shortest route is 21 miles. After the route had been calculated, I would put the navigator back on my dash board. Once the satellite was picked up, it would re-calculate my route using the quickest which was 31 miles. This kept happening repeatedly and meant I had to keep stopping the car to re-calculate. What a pain. Perhaps your tech guys could add this to their list of to do's for a future update.

I also have another suggestion. When doing a route by tapping on the nav screen and clicking navigate to, it would be nice if there was an option to say "Shortest Route" at that stage. Rather than just in the From/To type of calculation (which I use less often).

Auto-response 07/07/2004 08.31 AM
Dear Mr Johnson,

We apologize for not yet having responded to your email dated 03/07/2004 01.21 PM.
We will get back to you as soon as possible and apologize for the delay in answering your query.

Thank you for your patience and best regards,

The TomTom Customer Support Team

Response 13/07/2004 01.20 PM
Dear Mr Johnson,

We believe the future version of the software will only have one option for calculation but we are not sure. We tried to see if there was a workaround for your problem but there is not.

We hope to have answered your question to your satisfaction.
With best regards,

The TomTom Customer Support Team

Customer 13/07/2004 01.25 PM
If you remove this feature then that would be a great shame. I use it a lot and I expect so do a lot of other people.

If this feature was removed, then I'd be forced to use different software.

MrT · Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2004 12:35 pm Post subject:

I suppose if you reduced the speeds for the motorways and A roads, or set all roads the same speed, TomTom would probably find the shortest route as it would also be the quickest.

djohnson · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 12, 2004 Posts: 35

gokhart · Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2004 1:26 pm Post subject:

I was wondering about how to calculate the shortest route apart from having to go to MAP / AtoB. You are not alone, I would be disappointed if this feature went. Anyway, the quickest route often turns out to be the one with traffic lights, congestion etc...

djohnson · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 12, 2004 Posts: 35

Wobbly · Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2004 2:13 pm Post subject: short cut when in a jam

Isn't this already included as the 'avoid roadblock' feature?

W.

Wobbly · Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2004 2:16 pm Post subject: setting road speeds

I have the PalmOS version of TTN3 and can't find where to set the speeds - is this another example of a PktPC only option?

W.

djohnson · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 12, 2004 Posts: 35

MikeB · Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2004 3:49 pm Post subject: Re: setting road speeds

frmarcus · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 8:53 pm Post subject:

I'd be disappointed if the shortest route option were removed. When driving at leisure, it makes much sense on economic grounds to take the shortest route (fuel economy for shorter distance and, probably, slower driving). How stupid of TT if they remove this!
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frmarcus

carl_w · Lifetime Member Joined: Mar 13, 2004 Posts: 242

This auto-recalculation bug also happens if you select a route type of "Walk" in the map mode.

For example, I wanted to know the quickest way to walk from Regent Street to Neal Street the other day -- planned a route of about 700 yards. At Picadilly Circus it lost the sats (GPS location wasn't optimal -- it was in my shirt pocket) and when it reacquired them the route shot up to 1.5 miles because it was avoiding all the one-way bits.

BTW, the actual route is straight up Shaftesbury Ave.

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