TomTom Live trafic useless?
Discussion
I have been a big fan of TomTom Live traffic for many years first of all I had the 520 and now the 1005, in the past on any given route it predicts my arrival time reasonably accurately which include several 2-300 mile trips up country from Hampshire.
Just recently we have been travelling back and forth to Norwich and have found the new unit a 1005 completely useless, I have updated it but as soon as we hit the M25 the little bar on the right hand side only shows the whirring wheel type logo and no traffic info despite the fact I can see a long queue of traffic on my route which completely defeats the whole object of having this service.
I know TomTom customer service is a talk to the hand experience and I see no point trying to communicate with them but I wondered if anyone else has experienced this too. I am none too happy with this as I have always recommended the Live units to friends and now having had this happen on about 6 occasions it's becoming a real pain.
Just recently we have been travelling back and forth to Norwich and have found the new unit a 1005 completely useless, I have updated it but as soon as we hit the M25 the little bar on the right hand side only shows the whirring wheel type logo and no traffic info despite the fact I can see a long queue of traffic on my route which completely defeats the whole object of having this service.
I know TomTom customer service is a talk to the hand experience and I see no point trying to communicate with them but I wondered if anyone else has experienced this too. I am none too happy with this as I have always recommended the Live units to friends and now having had this happen on about 6 occasions it's becoming a real pain.
I have encountered issues connecting to Live - I suspect it often due to issues with TomTom servers, but sometimes I think it is issues with a Vodafone cell (especially when hit same black spot several days running)
Might be worth asking on discussions.tomtom.com and/or PocketGPSWorld
Might be worth asking on discussions.tomtom.com and/or PocketGPSWorld
JimmyTheHand said:
I have encountered issues connecting to Live - I suspect it often due to issues with TomTom servers, but sometimes I think it is issues with a Vodafone cell (especially when hit same black spot several days running)
Might be worth asking on discussions.tomtom.com and/or PocketGPSWorld
Thanks I'll check out the linksMight be worth asking on discussions.tomtom.com and/or PocketGPSWorld
I suspect you have a faulty unit TBH.
I get the spinning wheel maybe once a day for a few minutes at most..... assume its a connection issue (VF network is a right PITA at the moment in certain areas)
But, have never had any long term issues and mine was bought within the first month or so of launch. Live traffic is fantastic.
I get the spinning wheel maybe once a day for a few minutes at most..... assume its a connection issue (VF network is a right PITA at the moment in certain areas)
But, have never had any long term issues and mine was bought within the first month or so of launch. Live traffic is fantastic.
Tomo1971 said:
I suspect you have a faulty unit TBH.
I get the spinning wheel maybe once a day for a few minutes at most..... assume its a connection issue (VF network is a right PITA at the moment in certain areas)
But, have never had any long term issues and mine was bought within the first month or so of launch. Live traffic is fantastic.
I agree that 99% of the time it's fine but heading towards the M25 from the M11 it has a hissy fit not just once but three times now.I get the spinning wheel maybe once a day for a few minutes at most..... assume its a connection issue (VF network is a right PITA at the moment in certain areas)
But, have never had any long term issues and mine was bought within the first month or so of launch. Live traffic is fantastic.
Its most likely to be the Vodafone network. I have a 500 series with Live and its got progressively worse over the years. Vodafone Coverage is pretty poor at the best of times with large areas of the country not covered at all. If you are travelling at a busy time then the network gets congested with so many mobiles in such a small area and the tomtoms just cant connect any more so you dont get the updates.
Yes it defeats the object of having traffic, yes its very annoying, no there is nothing you can do about it unfortunately.
Yes it defeats the object of having traffic, yes its very annoying, no there is nothing you can do about it unfortunately.
Even when it is working it is questionable. Last thursday I was coming back from Bristol, and as it detected heavy M4/M25 junction traffic it diverted me across Bracknell dual carriageways. However just before rejoining the M25, I stuck BBC London on and they were talking about huge delays on the M25 around my junctions, 5 to 2. A few minutes after it suddenly picked these delays up with a 128 minute delay! I decided to go clockwise North back around to Kent as the distance is roughly the same from the M4, although I had to crawl back up to the M4 junction from where it brought me out south. However, for the entire journey up to just past St Albans it was still trying to get me to turn around and go southbound. It eventually clocked what I was doing and recalculated that way, and lo and behold the arrival time was a good 45-60mins sooner. Makes me wonder if it is making such odd decisions in areas of the country I don't know and I'm blindly following due to no local knowledge.
vrsmxtb said:
Makes me wonder if it is making such odd decisions in areas of the country I don't know and I'm blindly following due to no local knowledge.
Usually I find it seems to route fairly well, however it does seem to not want change route if you decide to - I suspect it is programmed to push you back to original route rather than do a full recalculation every time.vrsmxtb said:
Even when it is working it is questionable. Last thursday I was coming back from Bristol, and as it detected heavy M4/M25 junction traffic it diverted me across Bracknell dual carriageways. However just before rejoining the M25, I stuck BBC London on and they were talking about huge delays on the M25 around my junctions, 5 to 2. A few minutes after it suddenly picked these delays up with a 128 minute delay! I decided to go clockwise North back around to Kent as the distance is roughly the same from the M4, although I had to crawl back up to the M4 junction from where it brought me out south. However, for the entire journey up to just past St Albans it was still trying to get me to turn around and go southbound. It eventually clocked what I was doing and recalculated that way, and lo and behold the arrival time was a good 45-60mins sooner. Makes me wonder if it is making such odd decisions in areas of the country I don't know and I'm blindly following due to no local knowledge.
I was working in Bristol/Wales a fair bit last year. TomTom preferred route was always off through Bracknell for some reason. I too have been having issues connecting to traffic. A lot of the the time I only have it on for traffic as I know most places quite well. One thing I will say, if it says 'you are still on the fastest route ' its probably lies. Tell it to minimise delays and it nearly always finds a better route. I've had a few rubbish instances lately - one was Tomtom missing a 10 mile queue on the M4, the sort of thing it just shouldn't do. Google had the jam without a problem...
On Friday evening it just gave up trying, so again needed to move over to Google. As described above the wheel turned, or the blue screen said there was problems. As above I've ascertained that it mostly happens when there are big jams in the area - just the time it shouldn't stop working!
Over the weekend Tomtom posted something on Facebook, so I had a little rant. In fairness they've replied and asked for the email address I'm registered with and my device ID. I've fed them over, so let's see what happens!
On Friday evening it just gave up trying, so again needed to move over to Google. As described above the wheel turned, or the blue screen said there was problems. As above I've ascertained that it mostly happens when there are big jams in the area - just the time it shouldn't stop working!
Over the weekend Tomtom posted something on Facebook, so I had a little rant. In fairness they've replied and asked for the email address I'm registered with and my device ID. I've fed them over, so let's see what happens!
HotJambalaya said:
well its supposed to have traffic, its a Go 5000
I've got one too and the traffic is completely useless.Did 2 x 400 mile journeys last week and it was completely rubbish and useless. And seriously considering getting it replaced. Drove me straight into 2 30+ minute jams with no warnings. Then decided that it did not want to connect anymore.
http://discussions.tomtom.com/t5/TomTom-Discussion...
Tom Tom forum ,good people on here plenty of hints,my 6000 do a reset usually kicks traffic and cameras back on,got me out of trouble last bank holiday on the M5
Tom Tom forum ,good people on here plenty of hints,my 6000 do a reset usually kicks traffic and cameras back on,got me out of trouble last bank holiday on the M5
I use a 1005 every day, have done for years.
Traffic very occasionally goes down, for between a few minutes and a day, but this is very rare.
More irritating is its inability to recognise the Snake or Woodhead closed by snow or roadworks and, just recently, the long term closure of the A420.
Traffic very occasionally goes down, for between a few minutes and a day, but this is very rare.
More irritating is its inability to recognise the Snake or Woodhead closed by snow or roadworks and, just recently, the long term closure of the A420.
mybrainhurts said:
I use a 1005 every day, have done for years.
Traffic very occasionally goes down, for between a few minutes and a day, but this is very rare.
That's my experience, I use it every day, even on my commute to work where I could drive it with my eyes shut, just for the traffic and the mobile camera alerts.Traffic very occasionally goes down, for between a few minutes and a day, but this is very rare.
Outages are rare in my experience.
On my normal Mon & Thur 4-hour commute, I regularly get traffic service for only about half of my journey (usually the first half).
Last night I was travelling home in fairly light traffic (which was unusual), and once I got on the M6 Toll it decided to have a 'connection problem'. Multiple resets over the course of the next hour didn't fix it.
They're obviously trying to reduce their data bills by only serving a proportion of their users at any one time.
Mine used the built-in SIM, so don't know if the service is any better on the devices that use your phone's data connection - but that's not much use when I'm in Europe as I don't want to be paying for traffic updates anyway.
Last night I was travelling home in fairly light traffic (which was unusual), and once I got on the M6 Toll it decided to have a 'connection problem'. Multiple resets over the course of the next hour didn't fix it.
They're obviously trying to reduce their data bills by only serving a proportion of their users at any one time.
Mine used the built-in SIM, so don't know if the service is any better on the devices that use your phone's data connection - but that's not much use when I'm in Europe as I don't want to be paying for traffic updates anyway.
Since my original post I have done the deep re-set etc only to find the traffic info is still very slow to react so much so that the other day on the M25 it suddenly warned of heavy delays just as I joined the end of the queue.
All in all from my first days with the 520 which was always 100% reliable I am overall a bit disappointed long term with the 1005. The one very good service is the camera location in particular on the M25 and in areas I'm not familiar with.
All in all from my first days with the 520 which was always 100% reliable I am overall a bit disappointed long term with the 1005. The one very good service is the camera location in particular on the M25 and in areas I'm not familiar with.
I'm happy with my 1005. Traffic goes a bit bananas abroad. Sometimes there's no traffic info and it does happen often (even when there's GSM coverage. I checked that). I usually ignore the traffic thing unless the alternative route is meant to be a lot faster, but then (in general) I know the route I'm taking and not being able to compare the alternative annoys me.
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