This thing called Command is stupid

[television]

I live right on the edge of the South coast and I am going to Kent early in the morning.
I can use the coast road, thats the A35.A31,A27 to Lewes, then up to Tunbridge Wells, I can see most of it looking out of the rear window of my house.

What does Command want to do, go West for 30 miles then North 40 miles then M5,M4,M25 and drop down. OK I thought then I will enter Portsmouth, thats 80 miles along the coast road, and ½ way, but Command still only shows going as before, a total of 140 miles, and thats plain stupid.

I have tried no motorways,shortest,fastest, but always the same answer

Even if I chose to go to the M25 and drop down, the A303 is much shorter than the the M4.

In all plain stupid

 

[jaymanek]

sometimes the human brain is no match for computers... i only ever follow my tom tom when i really have never been there before, otherwise i find i dont remember roads...

 

[glojo]

Hi Malcolm,
Have you checked the settings to see if there is any option turned On or Off that shouldn't be?

We come unstuck when I accidentally ticked 'Avoid Toll Routes' this diverted my wife across the moors when she wanted to go down to Cornwall.

Good luck getting things sorted.

Oh and on our local news they are talking about a Czech Truck driver that got stuck in a lane and it took THREE days to extract his large articulated unit.

Regards
John

 

[television]

Hi Malcolm,
Have you checked the settings to see if there is any option turned On or Off that shouldn't be?

We come unstuck when I accidentally ticked 'Avoid Toll Routes' this diverted my wife across the moors when she wanted to go down to Cornwall.

Good luck getting things sorted.

Oh and on our local news they are talking about a Czech Truck driver that got stuck in a lane and it took THREE days to extract his large articulated unit.

Regards
John

Hi john, I have un ticked everything and the answer is the same, If I was coming to see you it would have sent me to the M25 then M4,M5 the A38 and as we all know, if it was not for one piece of rock, you could see me getting out of bed.

Regards

 

[whitenemesis]

Try putting in a POI or via/stop-over along the route you want to take. I've done this before to force COMAND to route me along a particular road

 

[GeorgeA]

This is not the first time I have heard that built in manufacturers Sat-nav units are less than reliable. I have a Tom Tom ONE and it uses full post code facility and proves itself to be most reliable. Comes at a fraction of the cost too.

Perhaps car manufacturers should use the software written by the companies that supply hand held units. Better still, design a unit, based on a hand held device, and build it into the dash. Just a thought

 

[glojo]

Hi john, I have un ticked everything and the answer is the same, If I was coming to see you it would have sent me to the M25 then M4,M5 the A38 and as we all know, if it was not for one piece of rock, you could see me getting out of bed.

Regards

In the bin If you want to pm me your address then I will see what our COMAND will do but is it the same type?

I suppose the good news is that it keeps you on dry land.

Regards
John

 

[whitenemesis]

This is not the first time I have heard that built in manufacturers Sat-nav units are less than reliable. I have a Tom Tom ONE and it uses full post code facility and proves itself to be most reliable. Comes at a fraction of the cost too.

Perhaps car manufacturers should use the software written by the companies that supply hand held units. Better still, design a unit, based on a hand held device, and build it into the dash. Just a thought

I don't think this indicates COMAND is unreliable, I used to have a hand held unit Co-Pilot, that refused to route me the way I thought logical. There generally is a way influence the route planning software.

BTW I see TomTom are trying to buy out Tele Atlas

 

[GeorgeA]

I don't think this indicates COMAND is unreliable, I used to have a hand held unit Co-Pilot, that refused to route me the way I thought logical. There generally is a way influence the route planning software.

I have never used COMAND I was just talking about manufacturers sat nav units in general. I think the technology is still developing and this forcing of route selection should be resolved as the software improves.

 

[television]

Thank you very much for the replies, I am fed up with it today, I can drive 90% of the way without it, and turn it on the last 50 miles, I will return to the subject on Monday when I have more time


whitenemesis, I will enter BlackC55 as a point of interest in Portsmouth.

John, mine is Command 2.5 so one of the first

 

[oldcro]

I live right on the edge of the South coast and I am going to Kent early in the morning.
I can use the coast road, thats the A35.A31,A27 to Lewes, then up to Tunbridge Wells, I can see most of it looking out of the rear window of my house.

What does Command want to do, go West for 30 miles then North 40 miles then M5,M4,M25 and drop down. OK I thought then I will enter Portsmouth, thats 80 miles along the coast road, and ½ way, but Command still only shows going as before, a total of 140 miles, and thats plain stupid.

I have tried no motorways,shortest,fastest, but always the same answer

Even if I chose to go to the M25 and drop down, the A303 is much shorter than the the M4.

In all plain stupid

Try ignoring the satnav's instructions and drive on your chosen route and see if it recalculates to your choice of route.

 

[andy_k]

try setting a couple of "vias" on the south coast.

Eastbourne, Bexhill and Catsfield should fool it and bring you onto the A21 at John's Cross about 10 miles short of Flimwell which is pretty close to where you are headed.

When we went the other way down to John's our sat nav followed the coast all the way - these Becker units are great

If you want "local" directions (we live here) for the last part of the journey drop me a line and I'll send some for you

Andy

 

[television]

Try ignoring the satnav's instructions and drive on your chosen route and see if it recalculates to your choice of route.

Thank you for that, for when coming home from the M3 I can either turn off to the A303 or go the M27. I remember now that she does re calculate the route.
So in the morning it will be loud CD to shut her up for a bit. thank you again

 

[The Dent Guy]

This thread is an interesting read........i am or possibly was, looking at retro fitting a comand to replace my audio 20 in my face lift W203 coupe.

I have a Nokia N73 running TomTom Navigator 6 with a seperate receiver and due to software issues which never seem to get fully resolved with N series phones, the phone periodically either loses bluetooth connection or switches off - either way i lose the post code entry i typed in.

Hence the possibility of Comand.......

Does Comand give an overview of the route (end to end) in 2D before commencing the journey.....like Tomtom does? I get an idea of how direct the route is by looking to see how straight the line of the route is, on the overview.

Should i stick to TomTom on an intermittently faulty N73 and wait for Comand software updates before i upgrade? Or should i save my money and stick to TomTom on my phone?

 

[jaymanek]

just buy a normal tom tom!! cant really beat them for value..

 

[whitenemesis]

Yes, you can get a start to finish route map by selecting info on the map screen.

COMAND is so much more than just sat nav...

 

[television]

try setting a couple of "vias" on the south coast.

Eastbourne, Bexhill and Catsfield should fool it and bring you onto the A21 at John's Cross about 10 miles short of Flimwell which is pretty close to where you are headed.

When we went the other way down to John's our sat nav followed the coast all the way - these Becker units are great

If you want "local" directions (we live here) for the last part of the journey drop me a line and I'll send some for you

Andy

Hi Andy, there is no way to enter any other stop off other than those on the route that it has already worked out, so all the hotels or airports etc are all around M5 or Bristol.
I will do what oldcro says, and whats the worst that can happen, once I get to the A21 I wil be fine.
I have entered goudhurst so it will take me past the door

Thank you

 

[whitenemesis]

Is it only in COMAND-APS that one can enter "vias"?

 

[Diesel Benz]

I didn't understand the issue with "vias". On my Comand I can put any VIA, even select any point from the map.

Considering strange route selections, I've heard similar complaints from some US drivers. All Navi applications basically try to reach a bigger road and leave that closer to the destination. I cannot see this bringing the strange selection Television was explaining. And I cannot believe it would be that big a mistake in the navi database. At latest if the shortest route was selected, it should really figure out a short route, the problem could be "too small roads selected", taking more time than a bit longer route. Would be interesting to know if the issue is at Navteq map data (my feeling is that Navteq is lacking the level of TeleAtlas, but is approaching the same level). If not, it could be an issue in the route calculation algorithm. Both should get fixed with updates (but hasn't Comand 2.5 existed a while, odd if an update did not fix it already).

 

[Rory]

Is it only in COMAND-APS that one can enter "vias"?

I assume my system is the same as yours but I only seem to have a very limited list of vias to select from? Perhaps I need to study the manual.


There was a report recently of another system that was something like: on a journey from N England to the SW, instructed the use of a ferry to Ireland, drive to S Ireland, ferry to France, then ferry back to SW England!