Incorrect fastest route planned... why!!??

[tjmitche]

My daughter has a TomTom One we purchased for her for Christmas. I have a 720 I've had for a couple years. She planned a route from St. Charles Missouri to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The fastest route option planned a route east back out of Missouri into Ill. up through Peoria and then into Iowa. The total route time was over 6 hours. This is ridiculous. I told her to come up highway 61, through Hannibal Missouri.
I then got out my TomTom and planned the same route. It sent me through Hannibal and estimated the route time to be 4:20ish. This is consistent with my experience.

Why is my older TomTom, with a year older map sending me on the appropriate route and her newer Tom
Tom sending her on a completely weird and wrong, out of the way route?

Any ideas? This is driving me nuts trying to figure out and frankly making me a bit paranoid about updating the maps on my older TomTom. What other goose chase is it going to send her on?

Thanks in Advance for any and all insight.

Todd M.

 

[dhn]

Probably because the 720, even with 1 year old maps has IQ routing and her model does not.

 

[Arno]

Shouldn't a GPS without IQ Routes be the same as Google Maps?

 

[canderson]

Without IQ, your daughter's TomTom One is making speed assumptions about interstate highways vs. US 61 / US 218 that aren't necessarily true. If you reverted your 720 back to the old navcore firmware that didn't support IQ, you'd find yours making the same incorrect assumptions. Mine always did, and I was quite pleased when the upgrade occurred.

No doubt about it -- there's a reason why TomTom believes they can charge more for units that support IQ.

 

[tjmitche]

Without IQ, your daughter's TomTom One is making speed assumptions about interstate highways vs. US 61 / US 218 that aren't necessarily true. If you reverted your 720 back to the old navcore firmware that didn't support IQ, you'd find yours making the same incorrect assumptions. Mine always did, and I was quite pleased when the upgrade occurred.

No doubt about it -- there's a reason why TomTom believes they can charge more for units that support IQ.

That really stinks. So her tomtom will not show here the quickest route without IQ Routes. Is there anyway to upgrade firmware to a better version?
I'm thinkin' I should spent a little more money for a better unit.....
thanks for the responses.
tjm

 

[dhn]

Unfortunately, lower end models have fewer features and functionality than do higher end (More costly) models.

I doubt a firmware update will improve that situation on the unit.

 

[Arno]

Without IQ, your daughter's TomTom One is making speed assumptions about interstate highways vs. US 61 / US 218 that aren't necessarily true. If you reverted your 720 back to the old navcore firmware that didn't support IQ, you'd find yours making the same incorrect assumptions..

It does not sound reasonable to me that a plain brown wrapper TomTom would make slower speed assumptions than a plain Jane Google map.

Maybe tjmitche should Disable IQ Routes on his 720 to test the route without IQ.

 

[canderson]

They'd also have to be running identical map files. Remember, it's likely the assumptions about speed based upon road classification that is at the root of this, and that's where the info is parked. If there are any differences in the road classifications for the roads in question, that would also wind up being reflected in the results.

General added advice: there is no substitute for local knowledge when it comes to routing. IQ Routes, which slices and dices reported* road sections by time of day and day of week is about as close as we're ever going to get until all roads have real-time sensing and feedback of traffic. I don't expect that in my lifetime.

* by users by means of their "anonymous data dumps" each time they connect with Home, if selected.

 

[mvl]

It does not sound reasonable to me that a plain brown wrapper TomTom would make slower speed assumptions than a plain Jane Google map.

Before Tomtom launched IQroutes and became the best routing GPS on the market, their pre-IQroutes routing used to just plain stink

I'm not surprised at all that a pre-IQroutes device gives far worse directions than Google maps.

 

[gatorguy]

MVL, they weren't (and aren't) that bad. If they were then Tomtom wouldn't still be releasing models without it IMO. IQR can assist in creating a better route up to 35% of the time according to TomTom themselves. That means even comparing to non-IQR Tomtom models, where I think that percentage comes from. I haven't seen nearly that high a percentage of routing differences comparing against manufacturers devices using Navteq maps vs IQR TA maps. I'd guess closer to 10-20% and that's a maybe.

 

[mvl]

I guess my neck of the woods just exaggerates problems too much. Of all the PND's I've owned, the non-IQroutes Tomtoms (510, ONE LE) gave the worst directions.

My Accord nav was better (after it had time to learn road speeds).

Then the 720/930 with IQroutes and traffic were the next step up

And, hopefully, your 740 will fulfill it's expectations of being far far superior.

 

[dhn]

Gator, as per your new sig line:

TomTom 740 (Sold to MVL)/TomTom 930 (sold) - Garmin 760 with MSNDirect / nuvi 255 (sold) - Navigon 7200T - Garmin Dakota - Motorola Droid with Google nav. On the hunt for the next best pnd.

Thought you found it ..........

 

[gatorguy]

Well, the Droid's gps performance sure ain't your Dad's iPhone experience.

Really impressive, at least as good and IMHO better than any of my Garmin's or Tomtom's. Now if they made a Droid with a 5" screen then. . .