My new Nuvi 350 (longish)

I bought it two days ago at Circuit City for $300 less a 10% AAA coupon. I'm
having a lot of fun with it, driving around town, but today's test of its
navigation skills from work to home disturbed me. It kept trying to route me
to one of the main 8-mile east-west routes through town. I almost always
take a parallel route south of that that, in actual practice, is faster
because of less traffic. The "problem" is presumably because its posted
speed is 30, whereas the Nuvi's recommended route is posted at 35. The worst
part occurred when I left work and drove south to pick up my desired
easterly route. (I.e., turn left.) Instead, it tried to get me to turn
right, (the opposite direction!) and then north to get to its aforementioned
recommended route east. Sure, it'd get me home, but in a lot more time.

On a positive note, Wednesday night I had it direct me to a place I'd not
been before, and to save me the danger of making a U-turn in 50 mph traffic
at night, it routed me through a 25 mph residential area for about 1/2
mile -- a route I'd never have thought of taking -- where it allowed me to
safely turn right onto the 50 mph road.

I think the thing is amazing, and I'm very pleased with it. I'm glad I made
sure I got a model with text-to-speech. I like that she calls out the street
names -- and I'm amazed she can pronounce my street name; most humans can't.

Oh yeah -- it can (usually) pick up satellites inside a multi-level concrete
parking garage.

Computers can't think, nor do they know how much traffic is on a given road.
As you can see, they do have quirks. Check what settings you have for your
prefferences also. shortest/fastest may change the suggested route.



IMO, that is where GPS navigation shines. My 5th grade geography taught me
enough about locations of cities and states that by using the highway signs
I can get to any major city in the US. What I can't do is find 29 Park
Street in Chicago or 3450 Main Street in Houston without some assistance.
The Nuvi will get me there from the highway.



Try the different languages too. The Austrailian voice and Great Britain
voice have different ways of calling out the name of numbered streets
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

I think your experience (where your unit doesn't generate what you know to
be a "best local route") is a common one. A GPSR may not always give you
the best local route because it doesn't know all the things you know about
your local area; in addition, it may have errors in the highway algorithms
and thus generate what it thinks is a "best route" over highways that may in
practice be slower than those in its algorithm. Also, I've found that if it
is sensitive to HOV (High-Occupancy Vehicle) lanes, it may refuse to use
them during the hours it recognizes as HOV-restricted even though I set it
to ignore HOV.

However, this does point out why I always use mine around home, to the
amusement of my wife and the ridicule of some on this list who say "why in
the world would you need to use it around home?" Well, here's one reason:
So I can learn its "routing personality" and be aware of some of its
foibles. Then, when I'm in a strange place and it generates a questionable
route, I can make an educated decision as to whether to wander off on my own
and let it recalculate, or just follow the route it has generated.

The good news is: While the route may not be the absolute "best" route by
your way of thinking, it always gets you to your destination! That in
itself is a wonderful thing! Let's not get too hung up about the exact
route it might generate :-)

--
Jim Beachy

Jesus Christ, how long can that take?

It takes about one or two trips to know its "routing foibles". After
that, you're just making excuses for playing with a toy in the car
instead of paying attention to your driving.

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" wrote



You always crack me up; I love your replies. Like Jim, what I'm doing with
mine around town, as well as simulating routes, is to also find out just
what it will do under various circumstances. I want to know what kinds of
odd directions I might encounter when I'm in unfamiliar territory. As a
test, I tried a simulated route from LaGuardia to a relative's house, both
by shortest route and by fastest route, and it turned out the fastest route
was the most sane one (i.e., the one that is really the most direct and
simplest), so now I've learned to leave it on that setting. What was really
weird during that simulation is that the thing actually got off track and
went through several recalculations! It was as if I mysteriously drove off
the interstate, and it had to get me back on.

But what you also say is true for me: while testing it out in the car along
otherwise familiar, it's sometimes a real distraction in traffic, as I'm
concentrating more on waiting for Jill's voice than on the cars around me.
Oops. I think I'll leave it home for now... until I actually need it.