Garmin satnavs, are they the worst?
Discussion
I bought a new Garmin satnav a short while ago. It is fine when you get near where you are going, and need the local directions, but the problems arise when setting a longer journey.
My guess is that the algorithms it uses, to calculate the quickest route, work on assuming you will average the speed limit on all roads, hence 70mph on a motorway (which is do-able) but also 60mph on unrestricted country lanes (which is not do-able). Hence it believes the direct route across country is also the quickest and will take you off down meandering country lanes for miles if you let it. It will even suggest leaving the motorway to pick up another road and then join the mway further on...
Ironically I had a Garmin before which did the same thing but had hoped they may have improved the software. Checking routes on theaa.com which I guess uses the same basic idea, that will default to motorway so the other extreme but generally likely to be a lot faster in reality.
Finally as an example, I drove from Lancaster to Durham on Saturday across the A66 and it took us to the right address. Coming back home so the reverse, it ignored the A66 and wanted to take us directly across country...
This effectively renders it pretty useless, are other makes better than Garmin or do I need to go old school and get the map out?
(I do have it set to fastest route and "avoid motorways" is not flagged)
My guess is that the algorithms it uses, to calculate the quickest route, work on assuming you will average the speed limit on all roads, hence 70mph on a motorway (which is do-able) but also 60mph on unrestricted country lanes (which is not do-able). Hence it believes the direct route across country is also the quickest and will take you off down meandering country lanes for miles if you let it. It will even suggest leaving the motorway to pick up another road and then join the mway further on...
Ironically I had a Garmin before which did the same thing but had hoped they may have improved the software. Checking routes on theaa.com which I guess uses the same basic idea, that will default to motorway so the other extreme but generally likely to be a lot faster in reality.
Finally as an example, I drove from Lancaster to Durham on Saturday across the A66 and it took us to the right address. Coming back home so the reverse, it ignored the A66 and wanted to take us directly across country...
This effectively renders it pretty useless, are other makes better than Garmin or do I need to go old school and get the map out?
(I do have it set to fastest route and "avoid motorways" is not flagged)
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