COMAND error

[Piff]

So I pre-programmed routes in google maps to avoid toll roads. But, in my wisdom I decided to let COMAND do the work on one of the journey legs from Luxembourg to Innsbruck. I knew from my efforts that the last few miles could be on a motorway which google thought was a tool road, but there was a parallel A road which I planned to use.
I thought that if I set COMAND to “dynamic” and to “avoid toll roads” it may help us navigate around any bad congestion.
So the journey went ok, but the last few miles it took us onto the A12 motorway. I was a little concerned as I had not bought the Austrian vignette (approx €10) but arrived ok and assumed that like in France some motorways could be toll free.
The following morning set off for Florence via the Stelvio Pass. Knew that we would use Italian motorways & pay the tolls so split the journey in 2, with the first part to Stelvio Pass as “toll free”. COMAND started us off on the A12 so again assumed that section of motorway was toll free.
As we left the motorway we were flagged down and told that we should have the vignette to use their motorways. Tried explaining that we were following sat nav which was set to “toll free”. That cut no ice and they handed out a €110 penalty notice to be paid on the spot
Thanks COMAND

 

[markjay]

I'll know to be careful!

 

[markjay]

NTG4.5?

Latest maps (v18.0)?

 

[MercedesDriver]

Western Austria is extremely hard to navigate without having to drive on A roads at some point, almost impossible and ASFINAG and Austrian blues are notorious in enforcing the charges and penalties.
You should have asked them to buy annual vignette instead of a penalty. I was once stopped just after the tunnel toll and they allowed me to walk back to buy my jahre vignette, not that I had any benefit of it except maybe few euros saved.

 

[Piff]

Ntg 4.5, not sure that maps are up to date. Last updated in 2017.
Tomorrow, Florence to Rome, avoiding tolls, I’ll use my sd card with the google planned route on it.

 

[Piff]

Had intended to use parallel 171 but stupidly trusted COMAND.
The Austrians were not into excuses or discounts, just enforcement of the penalty,

 

[Teego]

Why would anyone trust a satnav? Buy a good Michelin map to plan your route and use satnav for last 5 miles to destination.

 

[Piff]

For that you need a competent map reading co-pilot......
Years ago used to frequently holiday in France & Spain. Self & SWMBO would share the driving. 2 sprogs in the back entertained by dvds on a laptop or gameboys.
Would have the route listed out. Idiot proof.
After a long stint at the wheel SWMBO took over. I dozed off. When I came to I looked at the map & tried to work out where we were.
French motorways have junction numbers but not for junctions where motorways meet or diverge.
So she had missed a junction & we were half an hour in the wrong direction.
Of course it was entirely my fault

 

[Piff]

Got into car this morning intending to use one of my prepared google routes to avoid tolls. Journey should have been around 5 hours Florence to Rome
Time was approaching 10:30. COMAND advised arrival time 22:45
Seems like google route had lots of wrong turns with u turns to return to planned route.
Set COMAND to “dynamic” & “avoid tolls”. Only got caught for €0.80 toll where the Italians had extended a motorway for a few miles north & my maps don’t have that section of motorway.

 

[Deletedmember130310]

Slightly off topic but how do you program a route in NTG 4.5?

 

[Piff]

How to import a Google maps route to COMAND

 

[Piff]

I previously used an earlier version of the conversation software. Iirc it was spring 2016. As I remember it was easier to use and certainly didn’t come up with a silly route like it did today.
Search back through that thread to see if the earlier version can still be downloaded

 

[Piff]

Post 52 on page 3 would have been the earlier version I previously used

 

[Piff]

Ref post 1 above - discovered today that just above the tick box for “avoid tolls” there is another tick box for “avoid vignette routes”
Feeling stupid now

 

[gaz_l]

I was driving through Austria a few years back, and vaguely remembered I should have a vignette. We stopped at a service station and I shelled out the €10, rather grudgingly as a 10 day pass was the shortest one you could buy. In fact, we were only in the country about 3 hours before we were over the Brenner pass and into Italy, but that could have been a very expensive 3 hours if we'd have been caught!

And don't get me started on Switzerland - 12 month vignette for less than 48 hours in the country.. robdogs.

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[st13phil]

Got into car this morning intending to use one of my prepared google routes to avoid tolls. Journey should have been around 5 hours Florence to Rome
Time was approaching 10:30. COMAND advised arrival time 22:45
Seems like google route had lots of wrong turns with u turns to return to planned route.

The issue is not the conversion program, nor COMAND per ser, but rather that Google's digital cartography and the digital cartography used by COMAND don't perfectly match. The net result is that any one of the many thousand points defined in the Google Maps route could be off by just a fraction compared the equivalent geographical point on COMAND which throws up all sorts of problems.

Unfortunately, all the available digital cartography is proprietary, which means that the same location (or road) can resolve to different GPS coordinates in Apple Maps, Google Maps and Teleatlas (for example). Add in that COMAND isn't really set up to deal with offline route planning and the results - especially on "unusual" routes, i.e. ones that don't follow the obvious main roads - can be unpredictable.

If you want to have reliable offline route planning then the only options really are high-end portable devices from the likes of Garmin and Tom-Tom.

 

[markjay]

The issue is not the conversion program, nor COMAND per ser, but rather that Google's digital cartography and the digital cartography used by COMAND don't perfectly match. The net result is that any one of the many thousand points defined in the Google Maps route could be off by just a fraction compared the equivalent geographical point on COMAND which throws up all sorts of problems.

Unfortunately, all the available digital cartography is proprietary, which means that the same location (or road) can resolve to different GPS coordinates in Apple Maps, Google Maps and Teleatlas (for example). Add in that COMAND isn't really set up to deal with offline route planning and the results - especially on "unusual" routes, i.e. ones that don't follow the obvious main roads - can be unpredictable.

If you want to have reliable offline route planning then the only options really are high-end portable devices from the likes of Garmin and Tom-Tom.

MB use cartography data prepared by Here (previously Nokia, previously NavTeq) which they part-own:

Navteq - Wikipedia

If you plan a route on the Here website, then it will match the cartography on COMAND:

HERE. Maps for Life.

 

[st13phil]

If you plan a route on the Here website, then it will match the cartography on COMAND:

HERE. Maps for Life.

I'd caution that “will” implies more certainty than is wise

It might match, it might not. It depends upon the respective cartography versions, but I agree it should stand a better chance!

 

[Piff]

The issue is not the conversion program, nor COMAND per ser, but rather that Google's digital cartography and the digital cartography used by COMAND don't perfectly match. The net result is that any one of the many thousand points defined in the Google Maps route could be off by just a fraction compared the equivalent geographical point on COMAND which throws up all sorts of problems.

Unfortunately, all the available digital cartography is proprietary, which means that the same location (or road) can resolve to different GPS coordinates in Apple Maps, Google Maps and Teleatlas (for example). Add in that COMAND isn't really set up to deal with offline route planning and the results - especially on "unusual" routes, i.e. ones that don't follow the obvious main roads - can be unpredictable.

If you want to have reliable offline route planning then the only options really are high-end portable devices from the likes of Garmin and Tom-Tom.

Thing is, a couple of years ago I used an earlier version of this conversion software to convert routes prepared on google maps to command recognisable data. It worked then, with a few minor glitches (North Coast 500).
I think the difference now is that the instructions provided are to export only the route data and not the whole route map, presumably to save space on the sd card.

 

[Atavus]

I generally get some fuel there and what I spend on the Vignette, I save on fuel costs.