Topic Review (Newest First)
|
| 17-04-2008 11:35 AM |
| bartmanekul |
A new version of wayfinder is being released in May, but I havent been impressed with previous versions.
|
| 17-04-2008 11:31 AM |
| hluder |
Nokia 2.0 BETA-do not trust
I think it serves you right using BETA software.Nokia Maps 2.0 beta is not reliable.All the forums say that and you have ignored it at your peril.Why is proper Navigation software like Wayfinder and in Version 7 and 8.They have gone through a painful testing and evaluation phase.I was one of the first people to test Wayfinder when it came out properly and gone through many revisions.I use now Wayfinder and Route 66 (because TOMTOM Customer support is useless) only and have the Best user experience!They have never let me down provided I did not switch my brain off,but I would not trust Nokia as they can't even get PC Suite right which is still buggy even after the umpteenth revision.
|
| 15-04-2008 12:29 PM |
| Unregistered |
Having tried only route mapping on Nokia Maps it amazes me that if I map a route from my home (Bedfordshire) to my in-laws (Essex) it maps the same route I always take and this is timed at approx 1 hour (which is about right). Now if I map to my parents (who live approx 2 miles from my in-laws at the other end of the road) it maps me on a complete tour of the Cambridgeshire and Essex countryside and is timed at nearly 2 hours. Now it definatley only takes approx 5 minutes to get from one to the other so I am unsure how the 2 hour route is the fastest.
I have worked out about 4 different routes for back up plans and none to date have taken me 2 hours to negotiate.
This is why I rely on a combination of road maps, common sense and route planning to get me from a-b and have not jumped on the Sat Nav band wagon (Mobile Phone or Dedicated unit).
|
| 15-04-2008 12:09 PM |
| Unregistered |
road data
@Steve: SatNav is not a system to prevent traffic congestion (yet?). That's the goverments task. However the problem with satnav is mostly inadequate data. Inaccurate data and information will yield improper results. "The map is not the land." I think A.E. van Vogt wrote that first. Adequate information would allow to calculate a mathematical accurate solution. However that might not be enough, talking traffic congestion we also need some form of prediction. Imagine all satnav's deciding to take the same byroads because there is congesting on the A??. I have seen it happen.
The only solution would be to make satnav a traffic regulation tool and set restrictions on your liberties and privacy. Then traffic congestion can be measured, planned and predicted (barring accidents). Needing you to submit a driving plan before take off. Being tracked from A to B. Getting penalted for deviating from the plan and unscheduled breaks...
For now I am very happy with satnav that knows how to get me where I have never been before and knows the presence of roadblocks. Besides 6 out of 10 people still get lost with a satnav...
I also missed a point of view from your 'satnav rant'. Several satnav systems were tested in the Netherlands and judged on their traffic safety. Do they send cars through child-rich urban areas, increasing chances for accidents and increasing local pollution?
Currently satnav are nothing more dan simple calculators and perhaps they should stay like that. If they became as smart as me, they'd allowed to drive to work, without me ;-)
snoyt.vox.com
|
| 15-04-2008 11:35 AM |
| johnfo |
All the satnav systems seem to be optomistic to a point
A recent news article (which as ever I can't find  ) talked about the problems of satnav systems being over optimistic as to the time it would take for various routes and how this through up problems - c.f. if you are not careful, basic satnav systems will take you through a town rather than round the bypass, or will follow narrow backroads, because the fact you can go faster on the bypass is ignored.
I think virtually all the tools suffer from this to a point. The old Nokia maps once directly me off a motorway and then back on at the same junction - seemingly because this was a slightly shorter route than the motorway itself, which went over a bridge (at least I assume that is what it was doing). I've noticed estimates on most of the programs that assume you can average 30mph in central London - technically impossible even at night unless you speed, but definitely impossible in the day. Most of the programs' problems seem to come back to this - they just are wildly out in real delays. I'd rather have something that assumes typical daytime speeds.
Even tomtom has this problem to a point, but Maps is definitely earlier in the learning curve, as it were. However, if you use it out of town, with low traffic, the current version I think is fairly good.
BTW If you are looking for a satnav program for occasional usage, I'd recommend Webraska (www.webraska.com). It is server based, and gives reasonable routes - even so it too suffers from the optimistic problem above. All the routes are downloaded from a server, but this is done in a relatively optimised way - you don't get good maps, but the simplification actually helps in driving Apart from this, its USP is that you can pay by the day (~ €22.50 for 10 separate days usage), which covers the whole of europe, incl. traffic info where they do it. The downside is not so much paying for the data, in my experience, as that when you go off route its natural tendency is to get you back to the original route and not a recalculation from where you are.
|
| 15-04-2008 08:46 AM |
| slitchfield |
"is it me or anyone experience the delays since the new firmware on the N95, i had gps signals in five minutes but since the last firmware upgrade it take more than ten minutes, today going to work at a remote place it took more than thirty minute before i gaveup"
Does http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/suppo...ck_so_slow.php help?
|
| 15-04-2008 05:29 AM |
| Unregistered |
Seems like Microsoft is joining in as well
Microsoft has invented a system that analysed old traffic data to predict future traffic jams.
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/14/m...idance-system/
"The point of Clearflow is to provide accurate route information that gives you the best chance to avoid traffic on highways and on the side streets."
|
| 14-04-2008 10:01 PM |
| shadamehr |
@ svdwal...
You miss the point made TWICE now mate, as another user tries to clarify...
It is NOT real-time traffic info - that's the whole point.
You RECEIVE the info in real time, in the sense that it gets to you as quick as possible. It is NOT however, GENERATED in real time. It is standard usual suspects Traffic data, from ICTIS, AA, RAC etc etc, and there is both a delay in them getting it often, and indeed when the issue is cleared, a delay in you being told the route is ok now.
This is bog-standard Traffic, unreliable, oft incorrect, and not trust-worthy, and nothing at all what my original report related to.
You also allude to cost... but that too is incorrect, in that whilst TT are going to charge a premium for this new HD Traffic, that is in order to ALSO actually cover the ongoing Data costs.
Additionally, whilst we do need those transmitting the data, and thus this is Vodafone only at the moment as the sign-up partners, realistically, ANY of us with a data connection can in future both be the receiver of this data, as well as the producer - that is, I already use standard TomTom Traffic - my device linked to my phone via Bluetooth, and connecting using my flat-rate data tariff T-Mobile Web n Walk. I can both be measured to see how long it takes me to travel from one cell to the next, as well as then UPLOAD this info for the benefit of others in terms of allowing this data to be used to measure real time traffic flow (it is submitted anonymously, rest assured).
There is actually no difference in terms of net cost to how I already do things RIGHT NOW.
It is just TomTom who for now are charging a monthly fee for this new service, but only because it covers the SIM card, and data costs already, thus is a ready solution for those not already owning a mobile phone and flat rate data tariff.
So getting back to the point, it is not real time traffic what you mention mate. What I mentioned is the makings of real time traffic though, if it works properly when finally introduced. Hope that clarifies this time.
@ Terry1100.
Not at all mate - not in the slightest - as the data is ANONYMOUS data simply stating which route was traversed, and how long it ACTUALLY took to get from point A to point B, as opposed to how long the map data THOUGHT it should have took.
Provided the data sent is totally anonymous once uploaded, or transmitted, then it can be the most detailed and in depth discourse going for all I care - PROVIDED the details of WHO it relates to is totally gone from it. I've always said I have no problem with the world and his dog knowing every little detail I get up to - PROVIDED they don't actually know it is ME getting up to it, if you follow.
And that is EXACTLY what TomTom did for building up it's IQ Routes data.
There is ZERO need for any company to know WHO the data relates to - all that is needed is to know how LONG it takes to travel a certain road at a certain time. And TomTom's collecting of data in order to provide IQ Routes has always been COMPLETELY anonymous.
|
| 14-04-2008 05:00 PM |
| krisse |
Quote:
|
In order to build this "real world actual average database", we are going to have to start allowing people to know where we are, where we're going and how fast.
|
Not necessarily, it could be done with samples from volunteers, as is done with television ratings. You don't have to tell anyone which TV programme you watch, but we still know roughly how many people do watch each programme.
|
| 14-04-2008 04:48 PM |
| Unregistered |
signal delays
Hi
is it me or anyone experience the delays since the new firmware on the N95, i had gps signals in five minutes but since the last firmware upgrade it take more than ten minutes, today going to work at a remote place it took more than thirty minute before i gaveup any
Paul
|
| 14-04-2008 01:48 PM |
| Terry1100 |
There's a very big but to all of this.
In order to build this "real world actual average database", we are going to have to start allowing people to know where we are, where we're going and how fast.
And in today's climate I'm not sure that's a good thing.
|
| 14-04-2008 12:28 PM |
| svdwal |
@shadamehr
Route 66 does in fact offer realtime download of traffic jam information and it is smart enough to reroute you based on the latest info. Biggest problem is (in the Netherlands at least) that traffic jam info is only available for the highways.
There's another problem, which is cost. Getting reliable realtime congestion info isn't going to be cheap. If the savings due to faster trip times are significant, expect to pay as much in total for the congestion info instead. If there are hardly any savings, nobody is going to bother.
|
| 14-04-2008 12:27 PM |
| Unregistered |
Better options out there
I was always a fan of TomTom since it seemed to make the best job of calculating the best routes.
Since the N95 (and now with my excellent N82) though I have favored those systems which make use of the built in GPS - f which there are a few (Navigon, Nokia Maps, Route 66, Wayfinder).
I have to say that for accuracy and sheer routing performance I have found Navigon the best by far.
It's just a shame that interface is so ugly and you have no option to customise POI's or landmarks.
These days I run my N82 with Nokia Maps 2.0 beta and Navigon.
|
| 14-04-2008 10:20 AM |
| shadamehr |
@ svdwal...
Alas, your suggestion is again, like one of the previous posts, not really a solution.
As this would indeed add to the estimated journey time using city centres, as is oft the correct case.
But as "unregistered" higher up says, he had the opposite of this, with a long winded route back home, in order to avoid London driving, when given the time of night on a Sunday evening, a 45 minute direct trip through London would have been much quicker. Your suggestion of adding time to city driving would only have made it worse for him.
In other words, you kindly highlight my point.
It is not just the "where" that the sat-nav's can't get a feel for - the problem is also the "WHEN" factor too.
A road is not simply a road, end of story...
It can be busy at peak times, quiet on weekend evenings, and closed altogether if there is an accident.
So a simple algorithm that says "this road has a 50 mph limit", use that as the criteria for calculating journey times, is realistically, no use. But that's how most current sat-nav's actually work.
What is needed, is the more intelligence led approach, as I mention higher up, where REAL world speeds for actual roads, for different days and times of the day, are KNOWN to the device.
Couple this with the newer REAL TIME Traffic info I mention (not the bog standard usual suspects data we currently receive), and you are a lot of the way there towards having a real, viable, and usable sat-nav solution that Steve alludes to in his article.
I just argue that we should be a lot more closer to this now, than we actually seem to be.
|
| 14-04-2008 09:19 AM |
| svdwal |
Fiddling with the settings might sometimes work.
Take Route 66 (version 7) for example. You can set the speeds you generally drive on different kinds of roads. You can also tell it to reduce your overall speed in a city or town by a percentage. So if you tell it that in a city you will only be be to drive at 25% percent of the normal speed, the routing algorithm should take route you around a city if if finds a faster route.
It might be worthwhile to check if your navigation app has something similar, and play a bit with these parameters.
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
All times are GMT. The time now is 11:52 PM.
|
|
