Are there any sat-navs that let you plot a route before you go ? I'd like one that would show me how it was proposing to get me to a destination before I committed to following it. Can you do that with any of them ? And can you start the plot from somewhere other than the place where you happen to be at that moment ? I'm thinking of buying one, but I'm finding it difficult to find out from the sales blurbs exactly what you can and can't do with them.
Jim Hawkins
Pretty sure that's a given for a satnav really, be pretty surprised if there's any that don't.
Tom Toms do. If I want to go a different way, I put in a favourite on my wanted route and get it to recalculate the route via that point.
Bob
Well, my Garmin Nuvi(?) can't. Maybe newer ones can, but I was rather disappointed with all the obviously useful features it doesn't have. Just waiting for its maps to get too old to be useful, and then I'll buy a different make.
Just remember that SatNavs do not always show the correct route. We are plagued by TomTom-using lorry drivers who follow their damned devices that tell them to turn a sharp right ( about 130 deg. ) outside our house. The facts that: a. There is no room for anything larger than a van to do this, and b. There is a much better, straighter and simpler route available, do not seem to be relevant. Nobody reads maps nowadays, they just rely on the dumb screen on the dashboard.
The other thing is if you don't like the route you can ask it to calculate an alternative. And it'll avoid almost all the roads on the first suggestion (except near the ends). Or you can tell it you don't want to use the M25, or such. ("avoid part of route").
Andy
Its the drivers fault. Tomtom do several ranges of satnav, some are suitable for cars, some are suitable for trucks. Only an idiot truck driver uses a car satnav.
Agreed. But the truck ones tell them to come down our road as described. The drivers all say, "I don't know the area, it's the route the TomTom gave me". And they confirm that they have truck Tomtoms, not car ones. I have been through the protracted process of getting the source of their maps changed, but still they come, like lemmings. It's not TomTom's fault, by the way, (I quote), they use somebody else's mapping service. Two weeks ago, one of our fence posts was uprooted, just a foot from the wall of the house. CCTV is on its way.
I noticed the included sat-nav on my phone will do that. Type in a destination and drag the display along the route it outlines.
Not that I've used it, having not bought the phone for that purpose.
I have a very early TomTom and a recent one. Both demo the route if you want - either as a map or text.
Yes. It stores all the locations you enter.
My Tom-Tom will do all of that but don't totally rely on it. Mine went haywire once but I suspect it had something to do with the Met Police rangerover in front and a red rangerover with a forest of aerials behind me! Robbie
My Tomtom certainly does...
Sort of... it needs a sat lock for where you are when plotting the route and by default will plot from "here" to the destination. However you can insert a waypoint / via position. So you can get a rout from here to there, thence your final destination.
(also if you don't like bits of the proposed route, and selecting different parameters like quickets / shortest / or changing your road type preference does not get a different route, you can stick in locations to avoid to force it to look at other options)
I sit corrected :) The Nuvi 350 can though...
Lee
The more expensive Tom Toms are very good for this but there is a learning curve.
The procedure is to enter a series of waypoints, ending with the desired destination. Let the machine calculate a route that takes all the waypoints in, then examine the route to make sure it hasn't done anything silly. When setting waypoints click slightly to the left of the road to make sure the satnav doesn't double back on a dual carriageway to visit an address on the right. With practice you learn where to put your waypoints so the machine has no option but to plan the route you want.You can save an number of routes like this once you've composed them. You can join a route half way though, and edit a route on the fly.
I normally decide on my route using a paper map then feed it into the satnav, which merely reads the route out as I travel. The things is, take a bit of time in advance of the journey to feed the route in and check it. It's also an idea to let the machine calculate a route direct to the final destination, then if you have a problem (usually it's because the road network has been altered) you can use 'recent destinations' to get an idea of the best way out of the fix you're in, because wherever you are it will aim for the final destination, whereas if you have gone off course thanks to a new bypass or something the waypoint method might want to double back to a missed waypoint.
Bill
There is a way to do this, but it is such a PITA I cannot even explain it properly. My Nuvi is 2006 vintage. Essentially, you have to tell it that some other place is the "current location" then routes will be originated there.
I managed it by a series of determined "accidents" which is why I cannot actually detail the steps...
I wish you would give lectures to the lorry drivers around here. "You use a map? What's that for?"
Tom Tom does that. However, unless you then define some waypoints on that route, it can change its mind as you drive.
Chris
I had one knock on my door, map in hand. Could I tell him the way to Maltby? He'd been given the map but had no idea how to use it and I guess he thought that I might be able to look at it and thus give him directions. I rested the map on a car bonnet and pointed to where we were and started to show him the route he needed to take, but he made it plain that he just couldn't understand. I was aghast. It emerged that he really had no idea at all about using a map. Didn't seem to grasp that it was a representation on paper of the surface of the planet. He needed directions, as in 'Go to the end of the road and turn left, then take the second right...'.
Bill
I don't think they teach map reading nowadays. Just as they don't teach history, geography, English, anything competitive.....
The usual directions involve pubs and churches, although there are few pubs left now. I grew up in the village of Chigwell, frequented (earlier) by Dickens, and it had the church, the pub and the school all at the 'T' junction which defined the village centre.
Satnavs need a 'common sense' filter. When you ask for the quickest route sometimes they opt for a route that's 1 minute quicker but ten miles further.
The lady in my satnav is called Gertie.
Bill
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