Iq2

[Petrite]

Just curious if anyone has some good resources for what's needed for IQ2 to actually begin giving accurate info.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anything about my GO730 is wrong... I'm just curious for what it takes for it to start making adjustments.

Currently I believe my IQ routes are operating in a standalone mode (although I could be wrong). I dont subscribe to any of the traffic services and I dont have a data plan through my cell so I dont have "live" anything. This makes me think that my own IQ routes are based on my driving alone.

Thats fine, but how many times would I have to drive a route for the IQ routes to recognize... "oh.. I guess this way isn't faster."?

There's a route that it keeps telling me to take in order to get home. But I know 75% of the time, during the 5pm drive home, there will be a backup getting off the highway at my exit. So I've driven my normal (faster) path home both against the instructions of my TT (allowing it to recalculate each time I go rogue) and also in passive mode with no destination in mind. Now I'm going to start driving per its suggestions and let it see how long it really takes using its path. I'm curious how many times I'd need to do that. It will be an interesting experiment.

I'm also curious as to how much an extraordinary event will weigh in on future calculations. For example... some recent news that happened here... early last week, we had a tractor trailer hauling a pre-fab house jackknife and dump the house on the highway blocking it, then 3 days later we had a bad storm and a 59 car pileup occurred. (Again... with no traffic services subscribed to...) if I would have been caught in those traffic jams, would my TT be afraid to send me on those routes on those days now? or does it take more than one time?

I really wish I had a button to signify "traffic exception" so it would not weigh in as a slow road.

 

[sageuvagony]

I've never thought about it this way, but I don't think your TomTom uses your own information for your own device. I "think" they collect your info, then use that info to insert into either newer maps or updates. I don't think your own devices collects, processes, and applies it's own updates with driving habits. Someone correct me if I'm wrong please Original IQ routes was just days of the week, where IQ2 looks at the time of day. It SURE would be nice if my own TomTom used my own driving habbits and applied them to IQ2 on my own device.

TomTom has to process this information in some way. If your own device used your own avarages, then your own routes would be screwed up due to an even like you just mentioned (59 car pile up) which might cause HOURS or days of delay.

 

[Petrite]

TomTom has to process this information in some way. If your own device used your own avarages, then your own routes would be screwed up due to an even like you just mentioned (59 car pile up) which might cause HOURS or days of delay.

Again, without any sort of traffic subscriptions, I'm not certain of how this stuff is getting back to TT unless home is sending it.

Yeah.. now I just GOTTA know how IQ2 works and who it works for. I would think that if you needed to get traffic updates, the IQ2 selection would be on the traffic update page. I guess I may be confusing using "other peoples" IQ info with contributing my own data. I didnt really consider them being separate.

As for the pileup.. I have to give credit to all the emergency services... I think the highway was opened up in about 4 hours DURING the storm...

http://www.wmur.com/slideshow/news/18456972/detail.html

http://www.wmur.com/news/18456864/detail.html

 

[Petrite]

Ok well I guess I'm going to answer my own question here:

http://www.tomtom.com/page/iq-routes

You were right. I was incorrectly under the impression that:
1) My own driving habits would affect my units calculated routes
2) Some sort of subscription was necessary to get the data back to TomTom for others to use.

According to that article.. the info is gathered in the GPS device by everyone. and anytime the unit is connected to HOME, all that info is uploaded and hashed out by TomTom. How is it applied back to me?? well it's a little cryptic but it says:

This data is applied to a profile model and patterns in the road speeds are identified throughout the day. The profiles have data for every five minutes which can then be applied to the road segment, building up an accurate picture of speeds using historical data. All of these profiles are added to the existing IQ Routes data built into the device?s map, to make it even more accurate and useful for premium routing

So I guess I just need to trust where it's trying to send me... but I have to be willing to accept that certain traffic events may extend my trip time "longer than average" especially because I am not with any traffic plan. Basically, all I have to go on is a bunch of averages (which is still more accurate than calculation by posted speed limit.)

 

[mvl]

IQ2 speeds are built into the map (starting with V815). The tomtom never learns any corrections unless you type it in yourself. Unfortunately you can't edit speeds at tomtom's time-specific level in mapshare, you can only type in a constant speed that irreversibly overrides all IQ2 speed history for that road segment.

I've found my neighborhood has mostly IQ1 speeds (not time of day) as the speeds change only minimally depending on what time it is. You can test this by changing your tomtom's clock and doing route demos. The demo shows IQ2 speeds, and it appears to do an excellent job based on my memory of roads, with the exception of time-of-date and one other issue: IQ2 appears to completely ignore time waiting at stoplights. Hopefully tomtom fixes that in their new data.

Tomtom gets its data 2 ways:
1) in Europe they have a contract with Vodaphone where vodaphone tells them how fast their cellphones are moving down the streets. That gives tomtom incredibly precise data, and with their "live" service you get that data fed back to tomtom users in realtime (HD traffic). I assume their IQ2 stoplight bug is was a workaround for the cellphone-sourced data, they didn't want their analysis to be biased by people chatting on a cellphone while standing on a street corner.
2) In the US they haven't found a cell partner yet. So for now the data they get is by the "Anonymous feedback" option in Home. When you sync Home to get mapshare updates, it also uploads all your tomtom's travel history.

My Accord (Alpine??) navigation has the historical speed remembering feature. It works great, and the nav gets smarter about routes every month with more "training". I just wish Accord maps would cost less than $180.

 

[sageuvagony]

When you first set up your TomTom, install Home, or reinstall your navcore (I forget which of these causes this to happen) TomTom Home will ask you if you will allow TomTom to collect data so that it can be used to improve your driving experience. You have the option to select "No" but it would be wise for everyone to select yes (for the sake of IQ2)

No personal information is sent about you, only the drive data (according to TomTom)

 

[Eldendor]

When you first set up your TomTom, install Home, or reinstall your navcore (I forget which of these causes this to happen) TomTom Home will ask you if you will allow TomTom to collect data so that it can be used to improve your driving experience. You have the option to select "No" but it would be wise for everyone to select yes (for the sake of IQ2)

No personal information is sent about you, only the drive data (according to TomTom)

On that note, if you want to enable data collection, connect your tom tom and open Home. Then, go to tools ==> Preferences, and check the box at the bottom.