TTG on Watchdog

[fuzzer]

My Garmin occasionally takes me down some tiny little roads (fun in a CL...) - but apart from thet, has been 98% reliable

Indeed , its never put a foot wrong for us in this country or the US.


Having said that , you can see the difference in the installed dvd sat nav systems. Almost instant routing and re routing. TMC traffic dynamic routing etc. It makes a big difference...

 

[DITTRICH]

I made it across europe all the way to russia and moscow with 4 paper road maps costing about £60 - Europe/Sweden/Finland/Russia - and the europe bit was at night. Never made one wrong turn the whole way.
That said, I've always wanted a satnav unit and researched it quite a bit. It seemed that NAVTEQ mapping was regarded as the 'best' , yet I could not find a NAVTEQ based unit that allowed you to input your own POI database - and had a 5''+ screen. I was thinking along the lines of integrating some of what you find in guide books so I could store details of places I had visited for use on future occasions - especially hotels.
Les

 

[GrahamC230K]

I made it across europe all the way to russia and moscow with 4 paper road maps costing about £60 - Europe/Sweden/Finland/Russia - and the europe bit was at night. Never made one wrong turn the whole way.
That said, I've always wanted a satnav unit and researched it quite a bit. It seemed that NAVTEQ mapping was regarded as the 'best' , yet I could not find a NAVTEQ based unit that allowed you to input your own POI database - and had a 5''+ screen. I was thinking along the lines of integrating some of what you find in guide books so I could store details of places I had visited for use on future occasions - especially hotels.
Les

My Panasonic system is driven by a Navteq DVD and has a 5.8" TFT.

 

[SimonsMerc]

I didn't see the show, as I find it hard to watch their one sided drivel and crap. Did they make the point that the map data is provided by a third party?

What people don't seem to understand is that the route calculation process is really just application of Dijkstra's Algorithm to a database of information (roads). Whilst you may have a preference for a better route, it is basing it's decisions on hard metrics. It *will* take you the shortest path, based on the information it has available.

And there is the problem - if the information is naff, it will make a mistake.

What I would like to see is more fields of information being included in the database, and considered during the routing algorith. Something like average speeds, accident rates, congestion at time of day, etc.

All of that extra thought is bound to cost a lot of money at the mapping provider and will push up the price of end units.

Damn good post. What folk don't seem to remember is that these are computers. They only accept inputs, make a calculation, and produce outputs. Nothing more.

You need to have a certain level of common sense to use a GPS unit. You cannot "just" follow it blindly, as while it'll work just fine 99.9% of the time, that remaining tenth of a percentile could mean you end up in Milton Keynes.

I've been using GPS since 1999, with a laptop, a serial cable and scanned maps. It's great. But you have to remember it's just a tool, nothing more - it's a "navigation aid", not an "infalliable navigation system".

-simon

 

[BTB 500]

As an aside, I read this morning in a Comet flyer that TomTom have updated maps every 6 months, whereas Acer / Garmin / Navman are every 12 months.

 

[mickl]

As an aside, I read this morning in a Comet flyer that TomTom have updated maps every 6 months, whereas Acer / Garmin / Navman are every 12 months.

so they fleece you twice a year instead of once.

all maps are out of date as soon as they are released.

 

[DITTRICH]

My Panasonic system is driven by a Navteq DVD and has a 5.8" TFT.

If its DVD based then surely uploading your own POI information wouldn't be possible? Or am I missing something. I seem to remember looking at the Panasonic Literature, but I think I got stuck on the POI bit. Thanks anyway.
Les

 

[BTB 500]

so they fleece you twice a year instead of once.

all maps are out of date as soon as they are released.

For sure, but this is no different to buying a new paper road atlas. You have the choice of how often you do it, you accept the risks of navigating on old maps, and you know that there will be occasional omissions (very recent changes) or even errors!

 

[mickl]

For sure, but this is no different to buying a new paper road atlas. You have the choice of how often you do it, you accept the risks of navigating on old maps, and you know that there will be occasional omissions (very recent changes) or even errors!

yep but some people don't appreciate that distinction. They somehow expect the navigation database to be up to date forever.

Must say I prefer my smartnav system in the C36 to the other systems as it's integrated with the tracker and trafficmaster notifications. It's expensive but updates are automatic and you get extra protection for the car.

 

[BTB 500]

Must say I prefer my smartnav system in the C36 to the other systems as it's integrated with the tracker and trafficmaster notifications. It's expensive but updates are automatic and you get extra protection for the car.

Sounds good, not an option for my R129 though!

I make do with a road atlas at the moment, but I like the idea of a GPS system that gives both navigation and safety camera alerts. And with 3 cars in the household, something self-contained and transferrable sounds pretty attractive.

 

[BTB 500]

yep but some people don't appreciate that distinction. They somehow expect the navigation database to be up to date forever.

Very true.

 

[mickl]

Sounds good, not an option for my R129 though!

I make do with a road atlas at the moment, but I like the idea of a GPS system that gives both navigation and safety camera alerts. And with 3 cars in the household, something self-contained and transferrable sounds pretty attractive.

I got the smartnav because insurers wanted a tracking system installed so I thought I'd kill 2 birds with 1 stone. It's problem is it's not portable.

For portable, try the Garming I3, available for £199 from the high st at the moment. It's like a mini TTG, about size of a tennis ball. Uses 12v or standard AA batteries and takes 5mins to setup and go. Long thread here http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modul...8&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight= For the price it is a great piece of kit and the camera database only takes minutes to load up.

 

[BTB 500]

Thanks I'll check it out.