Chatty or verbose directions.

[Rick F.]

With my new TomTom XL-335TM I've noticed that there seems to be a lot more directions and lane instructions. Like, "Continue on 441, State Rd 7, Hwy 7 for 2.2 miles". Susan does this after every turn. Or... "Stay in the right lane". My old 3rd edition didn't have that many instructions. Is there a way to minimize some of these? If so I sure can't find it. I looked in 'Planning preferences' but no choices there. On the 3rd edition I remember having a choice about turning off lane instructions.

Maybe I need to find a male voice so it won't talk so much.

 

[canderson]

Wow - you are so busted for that last comment if your significant other is looking over your shoulder!

Try something along these lines (not Planning Preferences)

Change Preferences
Voices
Voice Preferences

You should find quite a few options for what you want said aloud and what you'd rather your TomTom just think in "her" little CPU brain.

 

[Rick F.]

Thanks Canderson,

Yeah, I'd be busted for sure with that comment.

Thanks. Now that you told me how / where to find it, I was able to turn off 'read early warning instructions'. We'll see if that helps some.

 

[firstdown80]

I have a XL350TM, I had a problem updating maps (ran out of memory), but dhn assisted and I got it resolved. Now I find it really strange on the voice directions.

well initially I really like the voice directions. but today I encountered a "problem".

I was on my way to the Phoenix, AZ Social Security office and was on this 3 lane road. The instruction was stay right, make a U-turn.

I looked at the screen and saw that it was showing left and a U-turn required. And it was not a U-turn, it was just a left turn.

Then tonight I was on my way to the Scottsdale Fashion Sq, it kept asking me to stay right for at least a 4-5miles, and then it asked that I keep left, so I did just that, and then it said keep left stay on right lane. And then turn right. When I heard turn right I had to switch 3 lanes to get in.

anyone know why this is happening.

 

[dhn]

When it senses a major exit on the road (usually a highway) that you are travelling but wants to let you know to stay on the highway, it'll say to stay left (to avoid the exit) and then if it says to keep in the right lane, it's letting you know that when you DO exit, it'll be to the right.

From your description, that appears to be correct.

 

[firstdown80]

When it senses a major exit on the road (usually a highway) that you are travelling but wants to let you know to stay on the highway, it'll say to stay left (to avoid the exit) and then if it says to keep in the right lane, it's letting you know that when you DO exit, it'll be to the right.

From your description, that appears to be correct.

but I'm driving in the City roads, not even near major exits.

 

[canderson]

Then tonight I was on my way to the Scottsdale Fashion Sq, it kept asking me to stay right for at least a 4-5miles, and then it asked that I keep left, so I did just that, and then it said keep left stay on right lane. And then turn right. When I heard turn right I had to switch 3 lanes to get in.

anyone know why this is happening.

One of my pet peeves.

This is something I've ragged TomTom about mercilessly (every firmware release since 7.221), and have brought up here many times. It is supposed to be possible to defeat this feature, but it hasn't ever worked on any TomTom I've owned at any version of firmware.

And now we have another example of just how unsafe this feature can prove to be.

I'd bet that the highway you were on had an "exit-only" lane just prior to your actual exit. Your TomTom was trying to warn you to avoid the exit lane by saying "keep left". That's all it is -- a nag to remind you not to get off the highway too early by getting stranded in the right lane.

The problem becomes more acute when driving in a metro area where there are LOTS of exit-only lanes. Not only do you get the excitement you mentioned, and the constant verbal nagging every mile or so, it fouls up a few other things, too. For example, if you go to look at the text summary of your route, you will get an entry showing the same highway over and over, one entry for each of the times your TomTom plans to tell you to stay left. That's why you can see the identical information showing the same highway time after time. You can go through a full page of the same useless information looking for the next real maneuver.

It causes other issues as well, and personally, I would REALLY appreciate it if the button that is supposed to shut this off (you'll find it in the voice preferences under "Disable 'keep to highway lane' instructions") actually worked. AFAIK, there's absolutely nothing you can do about it except write or call TomTom and let them know you'd really like to be able to shut if off.