POI display distances

[billconant]

I'm trying to understand the mileage figure that's displayed to the left of the POI when selecting one from the list. I always use select a"POI near you" . The resulting list of mileage is never what is actually calculated when you calc a route. I found this in a TomTom manual that seems to indicate that the mileage should be the same as the calculated route:

The following table explains the distances shown next to each POI. How the distance is measured varies depending on how you initially searched for the POI:
? POI near you - distance from your current location
? POI in city - distance from the city centre
? POI near Home - distance from your Home location
? POI along route - distance from your current location
? POI near destination - distance from your destination

This seems to indicate that when you choose "POI near you" you should get a correct mileage reading, you don't, try it. So I'm not sure I don't understand or it's a TomTom gotcha.

Bill

 

[dhn]

Because the distance is 'as the crow flies', not driving distance.

 

[billconant]

Because the distance is 'as the crow flies', not driving distance.

I thought this might be the case. The distance displayed is useless when trying to figure out what poi to visit out of several choices. The only way to is to calc a route for each and go from there.

Bill

 

[Andy_P]

And that's why it's done like that....

It's quite easy for the unit to workout the "Crow flies" distance to lots of places at once, but to show driving distances would take it forever to work out and everyone would be complaining that the results took 5 minutes before they were displayed.

Remember, it's only got a little brain....

 

[dash8]

I think it could give the zip code or cardinal direction from your current location without doing a lot more computation. Instead, you have to go into the next screen to see where the POI is located. Usually I know the approximate distance, but in a city there's often several branches of the same store about the same distance away, but in different directions. Very annoying and time consuming, and seems so needless.

 

[Andy_P]

Then why not just select the POI category you are interested in to show on the " Browse map" screen and centre the map display on your current location.

Then you'll see them all exactly in relation to where you are.

Choose the one you want by tapping on it and select "Navigate there" from the cursor menu.

Simples .

 

[dash8]

The problem is the icons don't give the name of the store without tapping them. Without knowing exactly where the store is located, chances are there will be a lot of false hits before finding what you want. Also, with the slow CPU on the XL340, I have all my POI icons turned off.

In short, "catagory" isn't good enough, as I type in the name of the business. For example, if I type in "Sam's Supermarket" it might come up with list showing a Sam's Supermarket at 5.8 mi, 6.4 mi, 6.9 mi, and 7.1mi. If I'm only going north, and there's one about 6 or 7 miles north of here, which one do I choose first?

 

[Andy_P]

In that case using "POI on route" might be a better choice than "POI near me".

At least then you get the different coloured icons which show vaguely how far off your existing route the POI is, as well as the distance as the crow flies from your current location.