What's the consensus on TomTom Traffic?

[Garry Platt]

I tried to ask this question previously but left off the Traffic reference. Any way my question is; is it worth getting? Or is there a problem with the software and the reliability of the data received in TomTom Traffic – reports don’t appear that positive on some of the forum messages, what’s the experience of people who have stuck with it?

[alix776]

it aint brilliant as its a first release but after speaking to tt support they are working on it so hopefully it should get better
if it were me id get the free trail by the time it over then may be a better version will be out
_________________
currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .

Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl

[Mark R Penn]

Pretty poor - it slows down startup of TTN3 to a crawl, it hides your journey info (ETA etc) yet still shows the number of satelites in range, it includes holdups you've already passed in it' summary, and it stops the app from exiting fully, so you have to soft reset.

On top of that I've found the actual data to be less usefull than I'd hoped. Twice now I've been through the same contraflow on the M25 - the first time there was no actual delay, the second 1 hour. On both occasions it gave me the "standard" delay time of 42 mins.

Add to that the fact that sinse using it there have been more holups it's NOT reported than ones it has, and it's hard to say it's anywhere near useful.

[hornist]

For what it's worth, here's my comments based on a few weeks experience with Traffic, and a small handful of long journeys.

The concept
In principle the concept is a very good one. TTN as a route planner is a powerful tool. Live traffic information services are also useful. But to integrate the two is really where the technology should be heading, which is what TT Traffic is trying to do. TT Traffic is also right, I think, to give the user the information about the delays and then allow the user to decide whether to be routed around it or not (though the way this is presented is possibly not ideal yet).

My only concern about the concept is that I have found myself wanting to look at the PDA a bit more than I think I ought for safety reasons. TTN by itself is nice in that you really don't have to look at it or fiddle with it much, and I don't feel it compromises my driving safely. TTN with Traffic ifeels like it is pushing uncomfortably close to the distraction margin.

The software
Reasonably well thought out and integrated into TTN. However it currently feels like beta software not production software. Installation is a bit of a mess, wiping out TTN's existing settings. There seem to be some problems with the robustness of the GPRS dialling which need ironing out.

In terms of the user interface I, like others, don't like the fact that the route summary can only be shown at the expense of the trip data (arrival time etc). If anything has to go I'd rather lose the icon showing the next junction, which I rarely use.

I'm not convinced that the right information is presented to the user about delays when driving. When you're planning a route before you set off (or if you're a passenger in the car) then the screen that shows details of the delay is useful, but when you're driving then the information is just too small and detailed. In fact when I'm driving it's probably not practical to give me such information, but the interface should be more focussed on helping me to choose routes. I simply need to know: a) the total (delayed)journey time if I carry on as planned, b) what will be the time and distance difference if I take a TTN-suggested alternative route. Anything more complicated could distract drivers.

Data
I have a TrafficMaster system built in to my Citroen, of the sort that talks to you about delays (and lights an LED) but does not have a screen of any sort. So my views are influenced by that system.

In principle TT Traffic has a big advantage over TrafficMaster system, not only because of its integration into the navigator, but because it knows about delays on your whole route and on possible alternative routes, whereas Traffic Master only gives you info for a short distance ahead (so you only find out about delays after the point where it would be most sensible to plan an alternative route). Furthermore TT can give you more info about the cause of the holdup, and could even know about things that TM doesn't, like closed roads (which don't show up on TM unless it causes a jam).

However the BIG problem with TT Traffic so far seems to be the accuracy of data. Various people have reported this. There seems to be a particular problem with contraflows where Traffic seems to apply a standard delay regardless of the actual traffic conditions. In two weeks I have encountered 2 contraflow delays in Traffic, one of 35 mins and one of 117 mins (yes, that's right, nearly 2 hours). In both cases there was no actual delay at all. Now I know that TrafficMaster is not perfect, and may sometimes be out by 10 minutes or so in its estimates, but TT Traffic's errors of 1/2 an hour or even 2 hours render it, to my mind, pointless.

This data problem is a shame, because everything else about the product is either already reasonably good, or could be fairly easily improved as the product develops. But the inaccuracies in the data completely let the product down. Integration of real-time traffic data with a route navigation system is a great goal, because it should support you in making meaningful decisions about which route to take. But without reasonably accurate data on delay times (+- 10 mins is probably a reasonable target, +- 15 absolute max) any decision to take an alternative route could be totally misguided.

Personal conclusion: I will be sticking to TTN3 in conjunction with TrafficMaster and radio bulletins.

[Fuego]

Indeed, when you say integration, I believe that someone should be considering going further. Every GPS user is potentially an indicator of how traffic is flowing along the route that they are driving. It would be interesting to see if that data could be made use of to feed-back into the traffic system, to mutual benefits. Of course, you still need other data collection means, for obvious reasons.

Similarly, I've long thought that Navigator could monitor a driver's average road speeds along each particular type of road and feed that back into the average road type speed table. Maybe giving the user the option of collecting the data and creating a personal speed profile, or perhaps even two or three profiles. Actually, there probably should be 3 or 4 of these tables, in each profile, to cover different times of day. The M25 at 8 am is not quite the same as at 3 am.

[alix776]

unfortunatly they cannot monitor any position data you ether send of receive as it infringes the data protection act and other privecy rights issues to
_________________
currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .

Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl

[MrT]

[alix776]

trafficmaster only use certain company veihcles ie eddie stobart large company car pools that have given permission to traffic master to use its system from what understand
_________________
currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .

Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl

[DavidW]

I thought Alix's description is nearer how the ITIS system works (which is the data that TomTom Traffic uses) - the data is reported by vehicles equipped with ITIS equipment, and put together with data from AA Roadwatch.

Trafficmaster reads partial number plates of vehicles passing their equipment - and doesn't store the data that long, so there's no privacy issues. (Surely SPECS must read the whole plate to issue a ticket?)


I think it's a unanimous conclusion that Trafficmaster's data is superior, but my understanding, based on Darren's posts, is that Trafficmaster will not licence this data for use in navigation systems, possibly because it competes with their own Smartnav product.

TMC in the UK uses ITIS data.



David

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