Saturday trip to Northampton - mystery tour

Stevie

On Saturday we installed our youngest at University College Northampton (UCN) and as the roads were a bit tricky once you leave the M1 at Northampton I thought GPS would be of great service.

It did the trick but it made me look silly before we left as I couldn't find any of the roads near UCN under Northampton. Seems I needed Kingsthorpe(Northampton) though I didn't know it at the time.

Then on the way home we decided to follow the TT route and though it did get us home there were a few times that the blue indicator went off road (the car stayed on the road of course) just as we came to key turn offs. Since I was following the TT route sort of on trust this was a bit like a mystery tour. I knew the names of the towns and that I was going in about the right direction but the exact turns were down to TomTom except when it went off into nearby fields!

So the wife is a bit anti-gps at the moment and thinks it took us on a countryside tour of Bedfordshire & Herts!

Privateer · Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2003 9:09 pm Post subject:

Hi Stevie,

Hmmm, I know what you mean. The A43 from M40 to Towcester was turned into a dual carriageway some time (early this year or late last year) and in some parts it deviates from the original route by several hundred yards. Unfortunately the TeleAtlas data that TTNav2 currently uses isn't up-to-data for that road, and therefore the pointer does fly through the air at points.

Don't worry the vast majority of the data is OK - just be prepared to do a reality check once in a while. Wink

Regards,
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russgunn · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2003 12:08 am Post subject:

Stevie, I live in Rushden, not far from Northampton and know the area pretty well. If you can give some more detail about the route you took I'll see if I can establish why TTN got confused somewhat. It's likely you may have driven on a section of road that is fairly new, like Privateer said, therefore it may not be detailed in the map's software yet. The system doesn't really get confused as such because it still knows your position, it just can't relate it to your planned route until you get back onto a mapped road. Then it may re-calculate the route, but it will still get you to your destination in the best way from that location.

Something like this happens to me every time I take the new A6 Clapham bypass in Bedfordshire. Driving across a field at 85mph is not wise by any standards! At least I know I'm fine, TTN is just waiting for me to get back on a road it knows about.

Also, a word of encouragement...I think all satnav software products take a bit of time to get used to, especially when it comes to address finding. It's neither your fault nor TTN's that you didn't realise it was Kingsthorpe. However, 'Crap in crap out' as they say, so knowing more about the address is key and makes destination setting so much more hassle free IMHO. If you punched in 'Northampton', Kingsthorpe may have actually been listed further down the results page, but if you don't know what you're looking for...well, there you go.

I also know what you mean when it comes to the misses! I've had a few moments when TTN2 failed to give me the exact voice command even though the visual was correct, or the destination wasn't found in 3 seconds flat after getting into the car! Of course I'm always fine about these things and still get the family to the destination. However, my other half thought because of these rare and tiny blips the whole thing was totally useless and needed to be either sold or smashed up to make little ear rings for her good self. Confused

longitude · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2003 8:35 am Post subject:

I put completet trust in TT last Saturday when we took our daughter to Leeds University from St Albans and had a faultless journey, however using it to navigate to Leeds city centre later in the day was a nightmare. I think it is because the junctions come fast and furious plus I'm still confused about the instructions "keep right/left". So I'm not convinced about city navigation but otherwise pretty impressed.

alix776 · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2003 7:31 pm Post subject: ttnav routes

i have this on regular basis it may be a map error or tt may read the info from the storgae card wrong a419 to swindon i end up doing 50mph accross a field Laughing

slap my top
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Stevie · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2003 2:27 pm Post subject:

From the replies I think I know what the problem was. The part of the route that went across fields was just befoe some major roadworks (sort of like a bypass). As I don't know that area well I cannot say if the road that gave the false reading was new or not. It was nearer to Hitchin than Northampton, th directions in Northampton were fine including me getting in the wrong lane and doing a minor detour, that's when TT really becomes useful.

For years I have always gone to the M1 via Luton when going North and TT wanted to take me a more direct route. I put the same journey into the AA route planner and got the same so the wife is a bit more of a believer now.

I think the Stevenage-Northampton run may be a regular item so it's now on as a favourite. I wonder if any parents taking a daughter to University get everything on the first trip - we started a list of 'must have' items the first night!

Cessquill · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2003 12:46 pm Post subject:

Whilst the "crap in, crap out" philosophy is fine, I have found occasions where towns or streets are grouped into places that I have never heard of, seen on a map, of have included with the supplied address of a venue.

I appreciate that you've got to meet it half way in being able to find what you're looking for, but I'm sometimes left wondering where the map data comes from (or from which folklore). Smile

I successfully got through and around the roadworks, traffic lights and lane changes in Leicester City Centre earlier this week, and TTN didn't let me down once. Could have done with via points though...

Stevie · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2003 5:34 pm Post subject:

My daughter is studying Law at Northampton and we visited Leicester University earlier this year as they specialise in law as well. Not knowing the area and with 'the navigator' telling me to take the turning on the left (the one we passed 2 mins ago) made an interesting journey. One of the results of which was me buying TT2 and a gps device.

No more 'that road we just passed what was it called - I think we should be going the other way - I can't find it on the map, we are in XXX aren't we?'

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