I?ve loved me some TomTom in the past, and I?m not shy in saying so. The experience was not perfect by any means, but the TomTom was streets (and routes, and intersections) ahead of the pack when it came to usability.
Among a couple of complaints would be the ?dumb? routing. Not dumb as in stupid, but dumb as in lacking additional information other than signposted speed. There are devices that are not so dumb, the most visible being the permanently online Dash GPS.
TomTom have just announced two new entry-level GPS devices that come close to the intelligence of the Dash system without needing to be permanently online:
Driving with TomTom IQ Routes? ensures all users automatically obtain the most reliable travel and delay times on the screen of their device. Depending on the time of the week or hour of the day drivers set off, the most efficient route will be calculated for that moment. It takes into account any factors that can delay drivers? journeys based on facts derived from years of gathering anonymous historic speed measurements.
So in other words, they won?t tell you about at-this-moment traffic snarl-ups, but they will avoid a route that is routinely stuffed with traffic at that particular time and date. They?ve also added spoken street names, and updated menus and maps. The devices should be available before mid year in New Zealand.
“derived from years of gathering anonymous historic speed measurements” – who the hell has been gathering all that data for years on every street in the country?
All existing TomTom users? I imagine whenever you connect your TomTom for updates they are sending up road speeds.
Interesting read thank you, I’ve subscribed to your feed, keep up the good work.