Sat Nav/warnings of traffic jams and rerouting

Sat Nav/warnings of traffic jams and rerouting

Author
Discussion

saxmund

Original Poster:

364 posts

242 months

Tuesday 22nd November 2005
quotequote all
I've been thinking of getting a cheapish sat nav system for a while, as although I do less than 10,000 miles a year a lot of it is long distance and on my own. However, as I can usually manage to plot a route fairly well myself, what would be really really useful would be something that could give me warnings of traffic congestion & offer alternative routes. Is there anything on sale at the budget end of the market that can do this?

humpbackmaniac

1,898 posts

248 months

Tuesday 22nd November 2005
quotequote all
Ahem, blatant plug. We can help. Flat fee £1.50 per call. If you don't travel far very often then its ideal.

www.voicemap.co.uk

polarbert

17,928 posts

238 months

Wednesday 23rd November 2005
quotequote all
humpbackmaniac said:
Ahem, blatant plug. We can help. Flat fee £1.50 per call. If you don't travel far very often then its ideal.

www.voicemap.co.uk


just seen the note on your page which says that the call will be terminated if your not using a hands free kit in the car if you make the call

how the hell do you know if they arent using one?

humpbackmaniac

1,898 posts

248 months

Wednesday 23rd November 2005
quotequote all
Technology, cutting edge technology. Could tell you but etc.
In fact trained staff, warning on connection. Any signs of stalling struggling etc its pretty obvious after a few calls who is and who isn't. Any shenanigans and the girls will ask you to call back when it is safe to do so.

off_again

13,043 posts

241 months

Wednesday 23rd November 2005
quotequote all
Navman iCN550 with TMC add-on..... full street mappping and routing as well as access to the broadcast TMC information for re-routing based on traffic and problems.

www.navman.co.uk/

Click through to the 550 and take a look - very impressive - not too expensive, but pretty much first on the removable market so expect a premium. Looking at this myself... my TomTom Navigator is getting old (version 3) and needs updating but might be worth spending the extra cash and getting an all-in-one unit instead.

saxmund

Original Poster:

364 posts

242 months

Wednesday 23rd November 2005
quotequote all
My websearch turned up the icn550 as well... looks good, might wait until after Christmas and hope prices drop. Alternatively, i could spend the same amount of money making the car go faster... choices, choices.

t1grm

4,656 posts

291 months

Thursday 24th November 2005
quotequote all
If you have one of the Tom Tom Go models that has bluetooh (just the 500 and 700 I think) you can subscribe to trafic updates and download them through your phone.

cerbie

196 posts

234 months

Friday 25th November 2005
quotequote all
I treated myself to an iCN 550 and I'm very happy woth it. Got it in Comet and it came with the TM 550 module. I haven't used the traffic module in anger yet but it is plug and play and is very easy to use.

jaytee368

2,058 posts

251 months

Friday 25th November 2005
quotequote all
cerbie said:
I treated myself to an iCN 550 and I'm very happy woth it. Got it in Comet and it came with the TM 550 module. I haven't used the traffic module in anger yet but it is plug and play and is very easy to use.

Ok, would be very interested to hear your feedback on this then.
I've been using the Navman SmartST 2.0 on an iPAQ6365. Had the kit about 18 months.
I've used it in southern Spain several times and then recently for the West Midlands.
In Spain the thing would have me take every dirt track and hazardous mountain route possible.
My feeling was the route selection criteria was as close as possible to "as the crow flies" and I found no way in the set up (very limited options) to "force" it to use only main roads, I had it set to quickest time as opposed to shortest distance (the only 2 options in Route Type).
I made excuses to myself for it, maybe the maps are out of date and should've updated from the website or ropey Spanish road data input to database, etc.
So then, using it back in the UK for the 1st time and it followed the same principles and had selected almost WRC class roads on a trip from Wolverhampton-ish to London Heathrow.
Right, last chance for this bit gadgetry, on to the website for a bit of updating.
What? Absolutley nothing about free updating of my maps. just some small patch for something or other.
But what I did find is I could buy a whole set of new generation maps and upgrade to V 3.0, for a pretty penny too I might add.
And that lot would all have to come in a box, no downloads or anything.
Does this seem right or have I got it seriously wrong?
Does the iCN550 have better and more user friendly functionality than what I've experienced?
And lastly, how much, if you don't mind my asking?
And double lastly, big sorry for the serious hijack!!!

Tripps

5,814 posts

279 months

Monday 5th December 2005
quotequote all
t1grm said:
If you have one of the Tom Tom Go models that has bluetooh (just the 500 and 700 I think) you can subscribe to trafic updates and download them through your phone.
What are the costs and quality of the TomTom service, as with the radio service the IcN550TM uses being free it would need to justify itself somewhat.

I've seen the radio service in use by built-in SatNav kit and the information available seems very impressive, so the 550TM is very tempting, but I'd imagine everyone else will soon start using it as the ideal combination is a device for SatNav/speed cameras and traffic avoidance - "plan me a queue free journey without cameras"

All they'd need then is an algorithm to detect fun hooning route