Distance to next 'exit only' lane

[dhn]

You can run a demo of a route to see the ALG kick in, canderson. I know you can't moderate your speed in the demo, it always takes the imbedded speed for that roadway, but it may assist in your calcs. Don't know, though.

(wonder whether speeding up the demo to say 4 or 500% would alter things. Probably not. It's not as if you'd suddenly be travelling 240 mph in the demo.........

or would it................. )

 

[mandelbrot]

The 'movement' is in motion

I'm sooooo glad there is a lot of interest in this, finally.

I've started my email / phone campaign too, and won't stop until it's fixed.

Thanks to Canderson for really clarifying the problem.

BTW, I've got an older map with no ALG, so it's often really too little, to late for me.

 

[canderson]

FWIW, I received a reply. Provided they understand her interpretation to be what I intended (not 100% on that), it's at least been passed upstream:

--------------------

Dear xxxx,

Thank you for taking the time to contact TomTom Customer Support. My name is Candy and we are always happy to help.

I understand you would like your TomTom to prompt the lane warnings correctly so that along with asking to ?keep left? or to ?keep right? it should also be able to announce the distance to next maneuver. You would also like it to show the distance and direction of the next maneuver.

First of all, I would like to thank you for sharing your suggestion with us. I am escalating it to our product development team for further review. They might contact you via e-mail if they require more details about the feature you are looking for.

Please keep on updating Navcore application on your TomTom device, as these changes will be included in future application version.

You can also subscribe for TomTom Newsletter so that whenever any updates or news are released about this matter, you will receive them via e-mail. Please use the following link:

Signing up for the TomTom newsletter

xxxx, I hope I have addressed your question appropriately. Please do let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

Once again, thank you for being a valued customer and especially for sharing your suggestions with us.

We are looking forward to receive more ideas like these from our customers and it is them who drive along with TomTom on a daily basis, and it is our responsibility to fulfill their wishes.

 

[dhn]

Yep, keep on updating that application........ great suggestion. Too bad that TomTom has orphaned those of us with 8.351

Does the expression, 'Don't hold your breathe' come to mind?

 

[canderson]

Yeah - I don't figure on ever seeing any relief for my unit, but perhaps they'll wake up and get it right for some of the newer models.

Looking back at your previous -- and to fully clarify the number of things that are happening in this mode:

Be aware that when the "avoid the exit lane at all costs" mode kicks in, EVERYTHING is directed at the firmware's effort to keep you from stepping on your ... well, from getting off early ... heck - you know what I mean.


If there's an exit-only lane ahead, the "next road" at the top of the screen always shows the current road you're on instead of your next target road - that's because the firmware is focused on your current road as the right one while/after you avoid the exit. So you can't use that to match up to the signage, even if that would be sufficient. That's one strike.

The ALG kicks in (somewhere between 0.35 and 0.40 miles ahead of the exit-only lane) and shows the lanes and gives the straight, green arrows to your current line of direction. No info about your next real maneuver - which makes sense and would be entirely OK EXCEPT that it STAYS in that mode until such time as you'd be about 80% up the ramp off the road. So the ALG gives you no clue about a correct exit that could be a mere 500' from the ramp you've just avoided. That's strike two.

Until the ALG kicks in, the little diddly line in the lower left that indicates direction of next maneuver attempts to show you jogging left (all of this assumes right hand driving and exits -- you folks in areas still or once under UK rules or with left-hand exit-only lanes to play with - and I've got two in town - reverse the logic, please) to avoid the exit, not giving you the correct direction of your next maneuver. That's strike three, and we're not even leaving home plate yet...

The distance-to-next measurement at the bottom, either during ALG or without it, always provides the distance to the exit to be avoided, never the distance to the next correct maneuver beyond it, until you've well and truly passed any and all exit-only lanes between you and your intended exit. That's strike four, and we have a new batter (whew).

In short, there is NO information available on the driving screen to tell you what to do - just what not to do - if there are exit-only lanes between you and your target.

OK - a person CAN go in and review the route as text. One could indeed do that in advance. Of course, to get a sense of the distance, you have to reverse the "time" that gives you (instead of distance - why?) and OBTW, if you've rerouted since you started your trip either due to traffic or other reasons, have fun pushing the buttons and reading the text while you're dodging traffic. No thanks.

These units get entirely TOO focused on what not to do such that a timely warning of what one is supposed to do might not be possible.

THEN we get into the voice business associated with all of this. As you approach every exit-only lane to be avoided between your current location and the correct exit, the entire 'stay on xxxx' and 'keep left' and the like come out the audio. It's tied directly to the visual cue information on the screen. So if you're working your way through a metro area with exit-only lanes every mile (or less), you get the nag once a minute when what you really want the silly twit to tell you is how far until you need to change roads, PLEASE?! Nothing you can push will give you any useful information about your next correct maneuver, either - any more than you can get it from the driving screen. Even just having a functional option for shutting that down would be a blessing.

Last, there are some real problems with the "keep left, stay in the left lane" voice message that sometimes comes up. I'm not sure what's with the maps or the algorithm, but SOMETIMES, Susan will advise that I should "stay in the left lane" only to advise me moments later of a correct near right exit. Depending upon the location and time of day, that can be a real underwear event. I'm pretty sure that this occurs when there WILL BE an exit-only lane following a true exit from one road to another. She wants to shove you over all the way. That's fine, providing your next move isn't another exit immediately following. I'm going to keep my eye on that one to see if I can isolate exactly when this occurs.

 

[dhn]

You know the green lines showing are called 'Reality View' and the ALG only appears on the status line. Further, whenever the RV appears on the screen, you can tap the screen and it instantly disappears back to driving view. finally, you can choose to not show RV (hide images) totally using preferences.

My personal opinion is that ALG is quite useful; RV is pretty much a waste of time, space and processing cycles.

 

[canderson]

You know the green lines showing are called 'Reality View' and the ALG only appears on the status line. Further, whenever the RV appears on the screen, you can tap the screen and it instantly disappears back to driving view. finally, you can choose to not show RV (hide images) totally using preferences.

My personal opinion is that ALG is quite useful; RV is pretty much a waste of time, space and processing cycles.

Yup - got my terminology screwed up. Same difference. ALG persists until you pass the "offending exit" as well, as noted above if you turn off the reality view. Before arrival, distance projected is to the "offending exit". In short, until you get past it, and the TomTom is SURE you got past it (and with road snap, there's always some lag before the decision is made - just take that wrong exit and see how long it takes your TomTom to pick up on it if they're relatively parallel), the next move displayed is always the avoidance move. Geez - if they'd even use the name of the NEXT exit/turn road up at the top while the other nonsense is going on - that would help - but that name always matches the action elsewhere -- i.e., to tell you to stay on the road you're already on.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

I'm sure I've seen this at least a few times, where with multiple lanes proceeding straight and one of more exit-only lanes, ALG will advise me to be in the right-most straight-through lane. I know ALG availability and quality varies from one place to another though.

I think what they really need to identify and treat as two distinct situations, requiring different instructions, is when an additional lane emerges as is a briefly-available deceleration lane vs. an existing lane (or lanes) becoming an exit-only lane. The former doesn't normally require ANY instruction if your intent is to continue straight, unless there is actually a curve in the main roadway and the deceleration lane physically continues in a more-or-less straight direction. The latter is much more likely to require advance warning and direction to keep you on the right track.

TomTom needs to understand that not only are these instructions unnecessary and annoying, they actually interfere with providing necessary instructions to drivers, making it more difficult (and dangerous) to following the necessary instructions.

 

[canderson]

Thought you guys might get a chuckle out of this. Yeah - it's blurry - grabbed it in the dark on the move with my cell phone camera. First time I've ever seen it. Seems the ALG went a little beserk - no, there aren't near that many lanes! No question about which way I was expected to turn, was there?

 

[bednorem]

I live in Houston and drive the freeways daily. I loudly confirm everything said about this feature.

Fortunately, the GO units have a feature that helps a little. they can zoom out and stay at the manually set zoom level. (deactivated Autozoom!) In 3D mode I zoom out so I can see at least a mile ahead, and then I can see the "route" going past the next exit; this gives me enough time to tell if my "real" exit is coming up. If I use 2D, I can go up to 2 miles ahead and still see all the streets that I need to.

But this is a poor substitute for proper behavior.

 

[[email protected]]

First time GPS user, and I can't believe how very annoying it is. I get on the freeway, it tells me to follow this road for 50 miles. Fine. However, for the next hour it constantly tells me to keep left at every exit I pass. Would you please shut up if I am going straight for 50 miles? How can anyone stand this?

 

[billconant]

Does anyone know if the other GPS manufactures do what's posted in the post above this? Like the poster states I can't stand this constant keep left at every exit ramp. I will purchase another brand if there is one that doesn't do this foolishness.

Bill

 

[etray]

Workaround solution that could work is to disable to "Keep left" "Keep right" phrases from the voice file, ofcourse this would need additional tweaking with creating new voice for this. I dloaded and use "Silent voice" which has all the other voices disabled except radars...so it should be possible to selectively disable certain parts..

Edit: Has anyone tried this program... it seems u can extract voices and change them http://www.ozpoi.com/Edit_Voices.html

 

[go930user]

Hi all,

Clearly a topic that causes some friction, but I have to say I don't become too concerned about repetitive reminders to stay off an unwanted exit ramp - perhaps it has something to do with age, being retired and rarely being in a hurry. In fact I tend to regard it as a security comment that the thing is still active (My Nokia with OVI maps is ominously silent most of the time ) I tend to keep track of the "distance to exit/next change of road name" readout and when within a couple of km start getting into the appropriate lane for the off (exit) ramp. This avoids the hastle of trying to traverse a number of lanes in a short distance - difficult in heavy traffic. Then it is a matter of keeping a weather eye on both the ALG data and the road signs.

But there is a situation that I would like improved and it is when there is a single lane off ramp that opens into two or more lanes. Sometimes this is because each lane goes to a different destination or the turn ahead takes the two or more lanes of traffic onto a multi-lane road.

In the first case knowing which of the two or more lanes to get into before the off ramp opens into multiple lanes would be good. ALG tries to do this but often you are already in a lane when the information appears and of course in heavy traffic you end up going to where you do not wish to be. An instruction to "take the off ramp and choose the xxx lane yyy metres ahead" before you enter the off ramp would fix this problem.

In the second case the lane required depends on the change of track following the turn - and how close it is - After you have made the turn if your next turn in (say) 500 metres is to the right then you need to be in the right hand lane as you make the turn, and viceversa. Of course if your next track change is in 2 km or more then it is not so critical.

However, the real benefit to me of the navigator is in its ability to recalculate a route when you have made a turn error. I quite quickly learned that the unit would get me back on track, perhaps with a slight delay, in due course and this left me free to worry about the traffic around me rather than a mad scrabble to try to get back on track before becomming hopelessly lost.

Having Thomas (Yep, it got "christened" ) do "his" thing has made the car a much nicer place to be, especially when I am in acountry where I am driving on the "other" side of the road.

Cheers

Go930User

 

[dhn]

Well, certainly the computer voice I normally use (Susan) will say something like 'take the exit and then stay in the left lane' to give me a heads up when the exit lane splits.........

 

[go930user]

Obviously I need to change from "Ozzie" Ken to Susan.

But how will I explain this to "SWMBO"?

Seriously, I can't say that in the situation described, I have had this sort of advance warning.

Clearly I'm driving in the wrong country

Cheers

go930user

 

[Arno]

Obviously I need to change from "Ozzie" Ken to Susan.
But how will I explain this to "SWMBO"?

Tell her she's lucky.
'er, inside's name is Kathleen and I prefer the Oirish computer voice Kathy.
That is why I made up an opening screen like this:



Two Kathys giving directions!

 

[DDD]

Just got 540XXL and the issue discussed here is really annoying to the point I am ready to send the unit back. It looks like no solution has been found, correct? 540XXL does not even have that preference setting discussed in the beginning of this topic.

 

[DavidS777]

I'm missing something.

Since your on a road where your not taking any exit for 50 miles, and just 'going straight' - why not add "mute speaker' to the quick access one button touch screen?

When your on the road heading for the next 50, 100 miles - just two quick presses; and no more annoying voice. You still have the visual screen prompts. It will still re-plan if you somehow go off route; still give you a flashing warning for hugely exceeding speed limits... etc.

Most cars also have cruise control; and are easily set for a reasonable speed to alleviate any speed problem.

But no more annoying voice. And you can very quickly restore voice; as you approach the area of your exit.

D.

 

[Viseguy]

... But no more annoying voice. And you can very quickly restore voice; as you approach the area of your exit.

Yes, muting the speaker seems like the easiest solution to me.

Although possibly annoying on the open road, the spoken directions to keep left (or right) to avoid an exit are very useful for city driving. I'd think twice about doing surgery on the spoken instructions if you do a lot of driving in urban areas.