LIVE Services, HD Traffic and other Services

[Mick-TT950]

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mj2012 wrote:

.....ultimately HD Traffic - a revolutionary service that leverages the power of community and the highest quality sources of traffic information to provide the best user experience on the market.......

Discover how TomTom HD Traffic can you a competitive advantage that Drives More Revenue and Loyalty."

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I read the Title -  The HD Traffic Revolution - Transfer Gridlock into a Business Opportunity.

It is highly unlikely an increase in the HD Traffic Horizon is being considered.

With this webinar, I hope TomTom are not implying, that the limiting the HD Traffic range to 40 minutes from your location is a desirable improvement, and while it will be difficult for you to avoid the major gridlocks you don't know about and cannot avoid due the the limited traffic horizon, by adding twitter and similar applications, you will be able to keep in touch and be productive whilst you are sat in the gridlock.

Therefore, if you are in business, dont worry, we give your reps and drivers productive means to still do business while at a standstill

[Henry-Root]

Ye Gods I was just about to buy a fairly recent Live 1000 / 1005 and pay £47.50 for the privilege of their Traffic and other services! Currently I use an older 720 with the earlier RDS input which seems to work fine. You are making me wonder whether it does in fact report traffic problems over a certain range. I cannot find anything in their notes which suggests that their is a limit and I am going to make a 200 mile journey on Monday!!!

You seem to be a bit more experienced than I am with sat navs. Any comments or advice for me please?

Many thanks

[Carminat]

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Henry-Root wrote:

Ye Gods I was just about to buy a fairly recent Live 1000 / 1005 and pay £47.50 for the privilege of their Traffic and other services! Currently I use an older 720 with the earlier RDS input which seems to work fine. You are making me wonder whether it does in fact report traffic problems over a certain range. I cannot find anything in their notes which suggests that their is a limit and I am going to make a 200 mile journey on Monday!!!

You seem to be a bit more experienced than I am with sat navs. Any comments or advice for me please?

Many thanks

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I'm afraid I can only give you comments, not advice. Unfortunately, I can't see TomTom giving you any comment or advice in time for your trip on Monday - it's weekend now and in any event, by my reckoning it's 11 weeks since they last commented on this matter!

So here's my offering...

I run three TomTom devices in my van (I'm a whitevanman doing around 65,000 miles a year), a GO520 with RDS-TMC aerial draped round the windscreen, a GO550 Live with HD Traffic through the built-in Vodafone SIM and a TomTom Carminat built-in to the van, with RDS-TMC connected via the radio aerial.

Last Tuesday I had a delivery from London  to Exeter. First calculation by TT devices was via M4, M5, total 197 miles. I make a profit of about 4p per mile, so that's about £8. Cutting down on the mileage travelled, compared to the mileage I'm paid for is a worthwhile option  if possible, so in this case, I asked the devices to route me via the M3, A303 and they gave a mileage of 175. That difference of 20 miles is a saving of 2 litres of diesel, which means an extra £2.50 - alongside £8 that's better than 30% improvement!

The 520 RDS-TMC gave no comment about the A303 route, neither did the 550 Live. The Carminat said there was a closed road on my route, did I wish to avoid it? I always intially say NO, so that I can View Traffic on Route and that showed a closure on the A30 for roadworks between Honiton and Exeter, the last 15 miles of the journey. That's 160 miles along the A303 route. In the interests of profit, I chose to stick with A303, hoping either it would clear before I got there, or to use minor roads in the area to get round it.

The 550 Live eventually reported the problem when I got to Yeovil and offered diversion via Taunton/M5, an extra 10 miles/ one litre of diesel, which I rejected. I did find minor roads to get round the closure, which was major overnight re-surfacing at Honiton.

So, my experience with the two systems is as follows...

RDS-TMC traffic on GO520 with plug-in aerial draped around the windscreen. Connection to the service is very patchy - sometimes I never get a connection, sometimes it drops off! On Tuesday it never reported anything at all.

RDS-TMC traffic on Carminat connected via fixed radio aerial. Connection seems to be instant and permanent. I hesitate to say it IS instant and permanent, due to my scepticism that TomTom have in the past displayed RDS-TMC connection on the windscreen aerial models when it has actually dropped off - quarter hour bands. (Also whenever I ask for status of satefy cameras, the only answer is ALWAYS "Latest cameras  update - cameras up to date", NEVER ten minutes ago, or one minute ago - I'm a grumpy old sceptic!!).

In general, RDS-TMC traffic is limited - both in scope of roads covered and speed/accuracy. I consider it no more reliable than Radio Five Live half-hourly traffic reports (i.e. very patchy).

HD traffic on GO550 Live. When first introduced (with initial short free trial period, then £80 annual subscription), it was a bit iffy, but eventually developed into something absolutely brilliant, nothing on the market to hold a candle to it. So I subscribed. But in late November 2010, it seemed unable to cope with incidents caused by the terrible snow. So TomTom chopped it down to negligible range - in the early days, it would have told me about the Honiton closure when I first planned the route, now it doesn't. That's the situation still. The most recent contribution to this thread by anyone from TomTom was eleven weeks ago - this is the fourth or fifth thread of complaint - two or three on this forum, one on Facebook and one in the TomTom website HD Traffic publicity page.

The 1000/1005 range will apparently NEVER be given a range beyond "40 minutes".

So make your own mind up.

[Henry-Root]

Thanks that gives me a much better idea. I already have a 720 with the improved combined power line RDS which, although not brilliant, at least holds the siugnal (at present!)

Just a couple of quick questions - Have TT said that the 1000/5 range will only be 40 minutes (miles?) in their blurb somewhere? and how does that compare with the range of your 550 live pls? What miles are we talking about?

Many thanks for your response 

[Zsolt Elite Voyager]

Not for stirring up emotions, but funnily in the US, the chaps wouldn't mind to have the range reduced in order of getting a better service:

http://discussions.tomtom.com/t5/LIVE-Services-HD-Traffic-and/Live-Services-is-a-real-disappointment...

It is a catch 22. When the range is big, it is not that reliable or slow, when the range is small, it is not long enough Wondering what would happen around at half way.

[Mick-TT950]

But the range was excellent and very reliable.

That is until TomTom reduced the rang and  in favour so called improvements that reduced the range to point where old x20 units offer better service with RDS if you need to travel greater than 40 minute or 75 miles depending on which PND you have for HD traffic

[Zsolt Elite Voyager]

If it is due to data traffic, then mind you, most of the new devices come with one year free LIVE services. It used to be only 3 months before, and maybe a lot of people never renewed their subscription. But it is just one idea.

[Carminat]

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Henry-Root wrote:

Thanks that gives me a much better idea. I already have a 720 with the improved combined power line RDS which, although not brilliant, at least holds the siugnal (at present!)

Just a couple of quick questions - Have TT said that the 1000/5 range will only be 40 minutes (miles?) in their blurb somewhere? and how does that compare with the range of your 550 live pls? What miles are we talking about?

Many thanks for your response 

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If you look far enough back in this thread, I'm pretty sure Kenneth from TomTom did indeed say 40 minutes for the 1000/5 range and we have never seen anything other than that it will always remain thus. Bear in mind we never get any transparency from TomTom, so we are making assumptions in much of this. TomTom generally publish that information very quietly amongst the sales talk that HD Traffic is wonderful - its very easy to miss the significance that you can NOT see traffic a mere half hour's drive along your route - for me that could sometimes be 15 miles cross country!! The older models, including my 550 Live originally had a great range. Sadly, none of us can recall how far ahead it covered, simply because the service was terrific until the end of November 2010 (and I for one regularly do long journeys which seemed to be adequately covered). But they reduced it to ridiculously short range and have messed around with it ever since "we" started our campaign and they became embarrassed by it. I THINK at present it's about 75 miles for my 550, but I wouldn't swear to it - I am based near Bristol and cannot see traffic in London. If you are terribly keen, read all this thread and the one which preceded it for more enlightenment.

[Carminat]

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Zsolt wrote:

If it is due to data traffic, then mind you, most of the new devices come with one year free LIVE services. It used to be only 3 months before, and maybe a lot of people never renewed their subscription. But it is just one idea.

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What on earth does this mean? Could you please try it in the original language so that we can attempt our own translation?

[Zsolt Elite Voyager]

Are you a freakin' English teacher now or what? Just let go if you don't like it. I will leave it for you to put it together, at least you won't be bored during one of your cross country traffic jams...