Satnav shootout 9 countries - 4200km, how did MRA Navigation Compare?
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My post was a poor attempt at humor (Fail!).
But taking the Garmin XT in isolation, when you know the limitations of it you accept that it is notorious for making routing decisions for you.
The only way to overcome this is to add more Shaping Points.
My preferred route types are the twisty country lanes with the grass in the middle. I would therefore place a at least 1 shaping point on every road I planned to travel on.
Overkill! Yes, but it is the only way to stop the Garmin's from making decisions for you.
I no longer use the XT as its all about MyRoute-App now but I still apply the same process to ensure it doesn't make decisions for me.@Lynchy67 pretty much sums up my 3600mi, 10 day vacation. Garmin XT followed reasonably well, however, a lot of shaping points were indeed required. One advantage of the XT vs MRA on this trip was that the route on the XT could be shaped (not sure if that is the Garmin term) to 'go around' or last minute type changes and not stray to far away from the planned out.
MRA requires a full re route to be done.Another rider used TomTom, and it did indeed come in very handy for road closures and gas stations - hope those are vastly improved in upcoming MRA updates.
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@Con-Hennekens Recently on a trip with some friends we undertook an exercise whereby each of us (3) went through every setting on our satnavs (BMW 5, BMW 6 and Garmin XT). As far as possible we made sure all settings were identical and then downloaded a pre planned route from MRA. Although each satnav appeared to be the same when comparing maps, after only a few kilometres there was a divergence and some were reporting a left turn whilst others were not and so on.
Not a scientific experiment I agree, but proof to me that there are dark forces which control the satnav world and humankind does not have control@Michael-Wilkinson said in Satnav shootout 9 countries - 4200km, how did MRA Navigation Compare?:
Not a scientific experiment I agree,
Absolute right!
I see this primarily as a seriously described driving experience. And I find that more valuable than, for example, a (scientific) comparison test by so-called experts.
Regarding the experiences with Garmin devices: They simply cannot handle routes very well that are not made on Garmin map material. Garmin uses the Here maps, but applies their own compression method (NT&NTU) to make them usable for their devices.
If the route is created in MRA, the waypoints must be placed very very tactically to minimize deviations. -
@Michael-Wilkinson [satnav company] sends you down a revised route, along with the next 100 vehicles. Magically the revised route fills with 5 minutes, and [satnav company] gets that feedback, and automatically re-routes the next 100 vehicles to avoid the jam they just created.
Dark humour at play rather than dark forces.
The good news should be that motorbikes are more immune to such jams, but unfortunately that isn't catered for by [satnav company]. We're just a 'vehicle', not a lithe and slinky motorbike that can slide through jams. I would be happy to share that vehicle info to get better routing - as I do with MRA (in a limited manner at the moment).
@richtea999 said in Satnav shootout 9 countries - 4200km, how did MRA Navigation Compare?:
Dark humour at play rather than dark forces.
Or conspiracy theories. It's not considered humour by those who embrace them, but it is for the more realistic rest of the world