Current Road Name Not Displayed

[mcmalburg]

On my 300 in 3D display mode, the next road on the route is displayed at the top and it's also displayed at the bottom. However, I can't tell the name of the road I'm currently on until I bring up the icon menu.

Hey TomTom People (I know you're out there),
Why not put the current road at the bottom of the 3D display and the next road at the top?

Thanks for listening.

- M

 

[Pedro2NR]

I agree. It should be displayed twice when you have a route planned. It should state the current road at the bottom of your screen, just like when you have no route planned.

 

[Internetpilot]

My TomTom GO700 running v6.XX doesn't work this way. On the top of the display it shows the next MAJOR road or highway, whereas on the bottom of the screen it shows the real next road (be it small neighborhood road or major road). If there isn't a major road or highway coming up, it doesn't display any road name at the top of the screen and only displays the next road on the bottom.

Does it work that way for anyone else or is it just me?

 

[mcmalburg]

My point is that it would be more useful to show the "current" information at the bottom of the display and then the "next" information (major or minor) at the top.

...just my 2 cents.

- M

 

[Internetpilot]

I understand the point and it's a legitimate suggestion. However, I suspect TomTom's stance on this design was that you just turned on to this road, so....why do you need to know the name of it?

Personally, I think that the next road should show up at the bottom of the screen only and that nothing else should be displayed at the top of the screen, taking away from already limited screen real estate, but that's just me.

 

[mikemilton]

It is a very useful feature to have the next cross-street named (on a route or off) and I would NOT want to see that removed but expanded to situations where there is no route.

Why? Because the actual street signs are not visible at a distance and are often obscured by leaves etc.

Coming to TT from Garmin, cruising (no route) with the current road, the street address and the next cross street showing is something I REALLY miss. The names on the 3D map seem to flicker and are sometimes not displayed.

m

 

[Pedro2NR]

Mike, have you tried using the 2D map view?

 

[Internetpilot]

Coming to TT from Garmin, cruising (no route) with the current road, the street address and the next cross street showing is something I REALLY miss. The names on the 3D map seem to flicker and are sometimes not displayed.

m

In reviews where Garmin units are compared with TomTom, I've seen this difference mentioned before. Definitely one way that Garmin is better. I believe Garmin also tells you which side of the road your destination is on, and also shows something with the address numbering, correct?

There are definitely ways that TomTom can improve, but they (TomTom) still won me over when comparing with Magellan, Garmin, etc., because there are features found in TomTom units that are found in the competition as well. You just have to make the best choice for you.

Good suggestions though. If TomTom would implement these Garmin-ish features in the GO models, TomTom would not have any competition.

 

[mikemilton]

Pedro - yes but it is still not as useful as having a large(ish) entry in its own window

Chris - exactly. I want to like my TT better (and chose it over a number of garmins that were in the store) but there are some gaps that are quite problematic. The KEY one (for me) is that is your destination is off a road the TT simply will not route to it (like a cottage for example or where the TT does not have the road). In contrast the Garmin takes you to the end of the nearest road and then goes straight-line to the lat/long.

I'm hoping that the TT will catch up on some of these features. And why NOT add features to a device that is so much more customizable? If people don't like them they can turn them off.

 

[Internetpilot]

In contrast the Garmin takes you to the end of the nearest road and then goes straight-line to the lat/long.

Did I read this wrong? Are you saying the TomTom doesn't do this? This is exactly what my GO700 does -- it puts a dotted direct line from the nearest road to wherever I am offroad. This happens to me every day since my home location (and therefore destination) is "offroad" because it's a newer neighborhood. It does snap to the nearest road to the offroad area, and not necessarily from the end of the road where you started to be offroad. Unfortunately, for anyone wanting better offroad features, the TomTom GOs snap-to-the-nearest-road feature is just that: a feature. One that admittedly comes in handy when encountering an area where a road, bridge, exit, overpass, etc., has been widened or otherwise moved slightly due to construction. It stops you for appearing to be offroad when you're not. I think this is one feature that TomTom likely will not change, because it truly is a nice feature. But like you said, they could easily make the snap-to function a user selectable feature, so that the GOs would be better for some offroad use.

 

[mikemilton]

Chris, my home location is (was) off-road and my 910 simply refused to route to 'home'. I only tried once early on so I'll try this again with the new software and repost back

 

[mcmalburg]

Chris, my home location is (was) off-road and my 910 simply refused to route to 'home'. I only tried once early on so I'll try this again with the new software and repost back

I had the same problem... as a work around I went to the location and while standing there, entered the location as "here" (as GPS position rather than as an address) - given that location my 300 seems to take me "as close as it can" when I navigate to it.

Perhaps my location is still "close enough" to a main road.

- M

 

[mikemilton]

Interesting

I just tried this again.

I set my home location by doing Change Home Location>GPS (I was AT home as suggested above). Then I went away, tried to navigate to home and got 'no route found' This is what happened before and I did not try again earlier.

However, I tried to route to a POI nearby and it behaved as you suggested. It gave a route that started at the nearest road and lead to the location. Interestingly, this route made me walk *away* from the destination to reach the road end and then back. This latter issue would not be a problem if you were far enough away.

So, I made a POI of my 'home' by selecting the GPS fix and gave it a name. Then I changed my hope location to the POI. It now routes to 'home' the way you described.

I guess that the lesson is not to set home (directly) via a GPS fix but via a POI (or a favourite?) even if the POI is, itself, simply a GPS fix?

Thanks for mentioning this as it really helps. It also underlines the effort of software testing when there are so many ways to do things; some of which work and some not. It is great to have a forum where others can say 'wait a minute, that works for me'

m

 

[Thom]

I set my daughters dorm room as a favorite place (it's off the map) and with the newer software I cannot route to it. Before upgrading the software, I was able to save the location and get right to her front door.

 

[Pedro2NR]

Off Road Navigator will let you nativate to a favorite not on a map. Check the link out for yourself.