Strange directions

[Many Feathers]

Hi... I just purchased a Go 730 for my husband and was showing him how cool it is. We took a test drive where I showed him how you could put in Best Buy and it would show us the closest one and how to get there....pretty straight shot. But.... instead of having us do a direct route of getting off the taking the freeway southbound and exiting on Brown Deer Rd (Best Buy is on the corner of Brown Deer Rd and Port Washington Rd), it takes us to the next exit (Good Hope Rd), has us turn around and get right back on the freeway northbound to exit on Brown Deer Rd where it should have had us exit anyway.... they are, of course, different ramps, but why would it do that?

It makes me want to return the unit....thinking these things don't work very well yet. Anyone can give me a reason it did this? How would I correct it with TomTom?

I checked with Mapquest and Google and both have me getting off at the Brown Deer exit southbound...not turning around to get off the Brown Deer exit northbound.

Hope this makes sense. Thanks much for your help.

 

[dhn]

Depending upon whether you set the route for 'fastest' or 'shortest', you may get some strange situations like that. Remember, no GPS will ever replace local knowledge of the user. Good luck.

 

[Many Feathers]

Hi Dhn... thanks for your fast reply. I was using fastest and now I tried it with shortest and it comes up with the same thing. It's not like this is just local knowledge. It's hard to tell from my description, so I'll try and add a map here showing how it routed me. Best Buy is on Brown Deer and Port Washington Road. If anyone knew where it was, local or not, they would get off on the Brown Deer exit.

The only thing I can think of is that there are two exits for Brown Deer when going southbound. One is to take Brown Deer west, the other is to go east. Perhaps TomTom doesn't know there is an east exit. How could I confirm that?

I know this is long... thanks for your help.


MF

Well, I see I need an URL to insert an image. The place I ususally upload too is having webpage problems, so I'll do it later. STill, if you have the time and want to check it out, try going from City: Mequon, WI, Streets: N Port Washington Rd and W Homestead Trl, to POI in City Mequon, Wi, Any POI category, Best Buy... it will be the 3rd one down...on 8755 N Port Washington Rd. You will see that it just totally misses the exit and has do a U turn to get back on the freeway and go back to the same exit.....just northbound instead of southbound. Makes no sense, local knowledge aside....

PS: I tried one more thing....putting in the exact address, instead of POI as Best Buy. If I put in the exact address, it routes me the correct way and doesn't have me do a U turn. So...what do I report to TomTom? Something is a bit wierd....

 

[dhn]

I don't know what map came with the unit you bought? Have you upgraded to the latest version (7.20)? Perhaps, its routing is more precise.

The fact that putting in the actual address got you the proper routing seems to indicate that the information stored for the poi for Best Buy is not quite precise as it relates to latitude/longitude.

 

[Bama Rambler]

My guess is that the POI has the location a bit down from the address and the TT sees this as having to go against traffic if you take the first exit, which is a big no-no. So it routes you to the next exit and turns you around so you're flowing with the traffic not against it to make the turn.

 

[Many Feathers]

Thanks to you all for your responses. Dhn, I think you may have the answer. I zoomed in and indeed the POI actually puts Best Buy on the northbound off ramp....not on Port Washington Road. The only way to get to the Northbound off ramp is to go to Good Hope and turn around. So... how would I report that to TomTom so they can change it?

I checked my version of map and it shows that it is 800.1727 and the newest is Vers. 805 which costs $99, which, of course, I should be able to get for free because of the upgrade guarantee. I'm going to wait to try, because I need to exchange this unit for a new one. There's a little spot on the screen that feels like a small seed is stuck to it or something. I'm thinking it's a flaw in the screen and am afraid to keep it...that in the future, it could make the screen fail or something. I'm certain Best Buy will exchange it. I'm curious as to why your version number is so different.... ?

And again...... thanks much! You are greatly appreciated.

 

[dhn]

My error on the map version number. Forgot you said a 730 model so your version makes sense.

 

[Many Feathers]

Okey Dokey.... any comments on how I notify TomTom of this.... is there some way to do with MapShare or.....? Sorry, I'm pretty dang new to this

 

[pianoCM]

Welcome to the GPS world, ManyFeathers (such a nice name )
Trust me, the more you hit those kinds of problems, the more experience you gain with gps. Bear in mind, nothing is perfect and as I constantly tell my friends that I (and they) should never completely trust the gps. We control it, not the other way around. With Tomtom gps, you almost can make, plan, force it routes the way you want. GPS just helps us ONLY.
Back to your issue, for now, 2 ways
1 - Move POI (in your case, the BB store) to the right location or
2 - Add the real BB location as new POI
Next time, use the one that you corrected or added (forget the old one)
MapShare won't get fit anytime soon (after you report)

 

[pianoCM]

Oh, btw, just make you feel better, I let you know that you are not the only one seen the problem like that. I am one of the kind.

 

[Many Feathers]

Hi pianoCM.... YEAH! I did it! I moved the BB POI to where it should be and now it works. .... and I sent in the changes. Way cool!

 

[Gilbert]

While you seem to have found the cause of your problem, I had a related one with missing ramps and exits on some highways for the routing engine. That would also explain why it would not take the right exit to your destination or take the right access ramp.

 

[Smokiewolf]

But why do you need a GPS if you know where you're going?
This is what a GPS is for, read this post:
http://tomtomforums.com/showthread.php?p=66604#post66604

 

[pianoCM]

But why do you need a GPS if you know where you're going?

There are 365 days = 12 months in a year (not a leap year), say, 4 one-week vacation which is, say, 1 full month = 30 days.

So, 335 days, we ride/drive with the GPS within OUR well-known areas

 

[Many Feathers]

But why do you need a GPS if you know where you're going

Hi Smokiewolf,
We were actually just testing the unit to see how we liked it.

Still, after playing around with it, I think the GPS would still come in handy and I'd use it all the time. Rather than searching for street signs, I could just look at the TomTom. Even though I know the city well, there are just some things I don't know...i.e. the TomTom could give me a better route that I don't know about. I just feel it could really come in handy...if it's accurate. I now know why the TomTom routed me screwy on this trip, so my confidence level is up much higher.

 

[Smokiewolf]

That's cool. There are a lot of people that take out their Tom Toms on routes that they know, then criticize it for choosing a route that they don't like. My point is, the beauty of a GPS is using it in places where you don't know where you are, and would get lost without it. This little beauty will prevent you from getting lost in places that you have never been, and that's what I like about it. When I'm in an unfamiliar place, I don't care if it sends me on a route that might be a few more turns than another, or a bit longer than another, or more traffic lights than another. I just don't want to be lost! That's all I'm sayin'...

 

[Many Feathers]

So true, Smokiewolf. Good point.

 

[Gilbert]

Last Friday, I was 160 miles away from home in L?vis, QC, for a funeral on the next day. My nephew was at the funeral home trying to get his laptop to do a slideshow on the large screen and needed a videocable. He asked me to bring it there. I had never been to this funeral home before. I had a good idea of where it was located, on a street running parallel to the St-Lawrence river but did not know how far East I needed to drive on the mainroad before driving North. With the gps in hand, I felt confident to find the place and it did. While driving there, at a red light, I tried to find the street sign and never found it. The street name was displayed on my XL-S but wanted to see the street sign to confirm it. It was missing.

I don't know anyone who could name the 10 streets East, West, North and South of their homes in the right order even if they have lived there for a long time...

 

[Many Feathers]

Touche, Gilbert.... I know I couldn't!

 

[Arno]

This little beauty will prevent you from getting lost in places that you have never been, and that's what I like about it.

Categorically, I never get lost when the sun is out (I always get lost under the Mall in Washington, DC, but my excuse is there is no sun).

That said, I appreciate the TT for 'Fastest route' when I am in an unfamiliar area and need to be somewhere in a certain time slot.

When not in a hurry and having a general idea when I want to be at a certain destination I always drop off onto by-ways and zig-zag myself into the general direction of where I want to go. That has led to the occasional (ha!) argument with SWMBO. Now, with the swift re-plotting of the map with a single POI as destination, "Jane", my voice of choice, will have always re-calculated the new route by the time the powers to be revolt and bent over to look for the route on the screen. Seeing that I "follow instructions" there is not much more than a 'hrmpf'.

Additionally, SWMBO has no idea what North, South, East or West is, in spite of the sun and her analogue watch, and I am teaching her (the technophobe) to use the 930 even for short trips so that she will not get lost again if she drives across town with her girl friend to check out that sale in that special store.

I bought the unit for our UK trip but it will still have benefits in local use, even though it is virtually impossible to get lost with the square hatched Concession Roads and Side Lines in Southern Ontario.

Now, if the gas prices won't increase drastically by next summer I will be making good use on my trip to Chiloquin, OR via Red Lodge, MT and the US 212, better known as Bearthooth Highway to our TomTom Rider brethren.
--
Cheers,
Arno