UK - Are Tomtom Live Services really this bad?

[prhac]

After waiting for over a year to get the Live Services working, I had a chance to see how they fared over the last couple of days of short(ish) distances along local roads, the M180 and M18 . I am not impressed:
(1) A (working) speed camera which has been in place for about 15 years was not 'noticed'. My portable camera detectors have always known it was there and given a warning.

(2) On 2 occasions it gave roadwork warning information that 3 lanes were going down to 2.. Both wrong, there were no road works and there were 3 lanes open.
(3) It thought there were road works with a speed restriction of 50 mph and kept 'sounding' a warning tone as I went at 70 mph - perhaps thinking there were average speed cameras.
(4) Some local roads have had their speed limits reduced from 60 mph to 50 and others from 40 to 30 mph. This happened about 3 years ago and TT is not aware even though I informed TT about the errors about a year ago (I have a portable TT as well)

For a subscription service these mistakes mean you can have no faith in the so called 'Live' Services.

 

[xtrailman]

I'm sure you can alter both speed limits, camera locations, and adjust roads, I've never bothered, perhaps you should.

 

[prhac]

May be. But if you are on a busy motorway with a 50 mph warning beeping, you can't really or safely start messing with settings. The point I am making is that even if it were possible to change some data, it does not help when travelling to new areas or places where you haven't had a chance to alter values. You need and expect a very good reliability of information.

 

[Simon100]

Are you running the latest maps and updated poi? I have not encountered the problems that you have had. In fact I have been impressed by the accuracy of the information and alternate route planning on my journeys from the north to the west country.

 

[alex1706]

Something to bear in mind with temporary speed limits due to roadworks is that over the Christmas period a lot of those works were suspended, cones put to one side, lanes full operational and restrictions lifted. Of course the warnings on TomTom will still happen.

I see that if there are planned roadworks, the live traffic shows delays even if the traffic is fully flowing, not a problem as far as I'm concerned.

Better for the system to give warning when not applicable than the other way round and then jeopardise your licence.

Some speed cameras are now inactive, and it seems TomTom might be aware of some of them as I don't get the warning in places where I used to get the advisory tone.

It might not be perfect but at least it works, which makes it more or less fit for purpose.

Updates are a must however.

Alex

 

[prhac]

Thanks for the various thoughts, I'll keep my mind open and do more evaluation.

I updated about 4 weeks ago. Should it be more often?
The speed camera in question is in operation.

 

[Dr_Watson]

Or, you could just look out the windscreen when driving and pay attention....

 

[xtrailman]

Have a play and add to the data base, tt rely on owners I believe for such updates, I can't be bothered.
I was annoyed myself be alerts on the M1, but realise it was due to roadworks which had moved on, the data wanted updating, obviously someone had inputted the road works originally but not made readjustments afterwards.

I think it needs the passenger to make alterations, but it would be pointless asking my wife to attempt to adjust.

Thanks for the various thoughts, I'll keep my mind open and do more evaluation.

I updated about 4 weeks ago. Should it be more often?
The speed camera in question is in operation.

 

[prhac]

Or, you could just look out the windscreen when driving and pay attention....

Thank you for that really helpful remark. I wish I had known that over the last 40+ years of driving with only one slight accident when I was 19 years old. I must have been really lucky driving all the 16 cars we've owned, ranging from a Hillman Minx to cars that could go from 0 - 100 mph in about 12 seconds.

Seriously though, perhaps the journey I took did not show the TT Live etc at their best... time will tell whether the charged service is up-to-date and robust enough.

 

[xtrailman]

So does that mean you're really old, or just easily caught? (nana)

 

[prhac]

So does that mean you're really old, or just easily caught? /QUOTE]

Most probably. 30 years old is 'really old' to a 6 year old, so it's all relative I suppose.