Why can't TomTom avoid cart tracks and unnamed roads?

Bob L

I was recently sent down a track only suitable for tractors. Grass a foot high growing between the tyre ruts. Luckily I didn't meet any tractors or TomTom users coming the other way (2 miles).

BrianE

This has been raised so many times (I raised it again just a few days ago and I'll provide a link to my thread in a moment). I think I'm going to send a letter to TomTom's headquarters and ask them why they aren't sorting out these problems.

BrianE

Here's the link.

brucey

Any chance of an update TomTom on this and other frequently requested improvements?

Is a software update offering enhancements likely to be released any time soon?

BrianE

I am going to post the following letter to TomTom's headquarters on Monday:-

Dear Sirs

I have one of your portable in-car satellite navigators (model GO 6200) and I have a number of questions for which I would really appreciate having some answers.

First of all, may I say that there are many features of my GO 6200 that I really like, such as the clear instructions given at complex junctions and the way the map zooms in at roundabouts to make it easier to see which exit to take. However, there are a number of things which are not so good, many of which have been discussed ad nauseum on your official forum and which are causing your customers to become increasingly frustrated. I have therefore decided to write this letter to you in the hope that you can provide answers as to why some of the issues we have raised, often over a period of several years, have still not been addressed. Here are some of the issues for which I would like answers:-

1. Being routed down narrow country lanes, when there are perfectly good A or B classified roads available. I have raised this issue many times on the forum, the latest just a few days ago here: https://en.discussions.tomtom.com/ask-a-question-469/what-on-earth-is-wrong-with-tomtom-routing-1036552 In the UK, this could easily be solved by providing an option to avoid unclassified roads. As it is, being sent down these wholly-unsuitable roads is likely to cause damage to our vehicles and would be potentially dangerous on a wet night in winter. Imagine meeting a vehicle coming the other way and having to reverse back up such a narrow, winding track in the dark and rain with windows misting up – would you like to do it? I think not. Something is fundamentally wrong when Google maps can plan decent routes, but our dedicated satellite navigation equipment cannot.
2. Lack of proper support for custom POI’s. For example, many of us would prefer to use third-party mobile speed camera databases, such as the excellent one available at pockergpsworld, but we can’t do so and the TomTom mobile cameras (in the UK at least) are hopelessly inadequate.
3. The ability to turn off the annoying feature which zooms the map right out to 2D North-up view when a planned destination is reached, rather than staying on the selected 3D zoomed in view while driving along the active route. I have tried to turn this off, but I have never been able to do it on any TomTom device.
4. Mapshare Reporter – It takes way too long for reported changes to take effect and often our reports are rejected for no good reason. Here is an example from the forum and despite the assurance that TomTom’s error has been corrected, it’s still showing as rejected when I log in to Mapshare: https://en.discussions.tomtom.com/map-quality-75/proof-that-tomtom-don-t-know-what-they-are-doing-1035493
5. The poor voice-recognition feature. It’s so unreliable as to be almost useless. My Amazon Fire TV can recognise my spoken instructions with almost 100% accuracy so why can’t my GO 6200? It even thought the sound of my air conditioning was its wake-up command recently, so how bad is that?

I hope you will address the issues I have raised and provide some real answers as to why little or no progress is being made on resolving these matters. We have paid a lot of money for our devices and we expect them to function as they ought to do, especially since TomTom have been in the business for a long time.

I look forward to receiving your response at your earliest convenience.

Yours faithfully, etc, etc.

brucey

Good luck BrianE.

Displayed POI on map view and aggressive routing are 2 out of the 3 things along with ALG that prevent my 6200 from being an exceptional device.

I’m at the point where I think TomTom don’t value or listen to customer feedback and the ‘analyst’ ignores all improvement requests.

I would happily eat my words if some of these issues were addressed in an update.

BrianE

I've sent the letter today by tracked delivery, Probably a waste of £6.00, but at least if I don't get a reply, then we'll all know for sure what they think of their customers. I'll update this thread if I do get any meaningful answers to my questions.