Another Erratic Routing Incident

[John S Parry]

I was out yesterday putting some miles on my new BMW 1300GSA for break-in. I put together a route in an area I've ridden often.

Here it is: https://www.myrouteapp.com/route/open/13878114

As I approached waypoint #8, I noticed that it was going to have me turn left off the main road to a parallel side road (Calamigos Rd) that wasn't part of my route. below is a screen shot that I stopped and took:

Again, I know the area, and I know this scenic diversion wasn't intentionally part of the route. I ignored the left-hand turn, and the route continued without incident. When I got home, I double checked the route for anything that obviously would have caused this but came up empty on both the route created in Routeplanner and the route synced to my phone. BTW, the route executed online.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[RetiredWingMan]

It looks to me like you missed a waypoint and MRA is routing back to the missed waypoint.

[John S Parry]

@RetiredWingMan Interesting. Indeed, it seems to be showing reference to waypoint #7. The problem is that #7 is on the same road (Mulholland Hwy) as #8, and I 100% passed it just a few minutes before. It's a rural area, and even if Dementia due to advanced age is kicking in there is no other road option where #7 could have been missed, which again, I'm positive didn't happen.

The only thing I can speculate is that the terrain for #7 is very twisty/technical, so maybe HERE didn't calculate it correctly. But the waypoint is square on the road, so I don't know what I could have done different. I guess I could delete waypoint#7 and re-ride that segment to verify.....

[John S Parry]

Update: I went back out today to see if I could repeat the behavior related to waypoint#7. I fired up the route and followed it without deviation. Just like I did the first time around.

And I got the exact same result. It's repeatable! MRA/HERE thought I had missed waypoint #7 (I didn't) and I was directed to turn around at Calamigos Rd to return.

In preparation for this expected outcome, I copied the route and moved #7 further up the road (closer to #8) to see if it would change HERE calculation behavior.

https://www.myrouteapp.com/route/open/13885843

I re-ran the modified route, the new #7 calculated correctly, and I reached #8 without incident.

This isn't the first time I've encountered this kind of behavior in MRA -- Both with the Routeplanner (using HERE as the base) and the phone app. I love MRA Routeplanner and will continue to use it with OSM as the base map. It's very stable. Since I mostly use Garmin GPS units for route execution, no problems. As far as the app, I'm out. I can't have this strange HERE behavior mess a route up. Especially when I'm leading a larger group ride. Hopefully, it can be dealt with at some future point.

[Reinhard-32]

The cause is the discrepancy between the road layout on the HERE map and the actual situation. There is an error in the road layout on the map. See screenshot. If you switch on the OSM or Google Maps overlay, you can see this. The waypoint #7 is in the middle of nowhere and cannot be reached by car or motorcycle.

[John S Parry]

@reinhard-32 Yes, I suspected it had something to do with the placement of waypoint #7 in the curvy/technical section of Mulholland Highway. I didn't take the rigorous investigative step you presented to compare against the other map overlays or use the Compare option in Toolkit. It confirms why moving #7 to a section where HERE is in sync with the actual road fixes the problem. Thanks.

It's ironic that all the maps except HERE are in sync with the actual road layout. Should I be surprised?

I'm not an expert in the internal workings of MRA or HERE. But intuitively, it seems that if HERE in Routeplanner thinks the placement of #7 is OK, that HERE at calculation time in the App would also be OK with the placement. That's obviously not the case. My belief as a user is that I should not have to be concerned with inner workings at this level, but....

Moving forward, one option (during route development) is to always compare to the other overlays and never place a HERE waypoint where there is a map discrepancy. That could work in the majority of cases, but what if it doesn't? There may be situations where a waypoint is needed, but I don't have the option of simply relocating it further up the road. Since I have to use HERE for any route executed within the App, what then?

This is my dilemma and frustration. Some might say "I never have this problem", which might be true. However, many of the rural areas of the mountainous western US present unique challenges. My solution in MRA Routeplanner has been to develop using the OSM base map, and then load the GPX into my Garmin XT for route execution. Over the past year, that process has worked without issue.

This is actually the first time in almost a year since I've tried the App again. I've been toying with the idea of migrating to CarPlay, so I thought I'd try the App out again first. My impression right now is that MRA w/HERE may not be the right solution for me.

[Herman Veldhuizen]

In my opinion: The point is on the (HERE) road so if the cursor while driving was on the (HERE) road too, then the point (7) should have been registered. Of course I dont know if this is possible to implement.

I have had a similar but different case : the app registered that i had reached a waypoint which was slightly off the road but the navigation did not so it sent me back (despite the fact that the new target point was the next). The logic that checks wether a waypoint has been hit seems loosly connected to the navigation logic.

[John S Parry]

@Herman-Veldhuizen I don't know where the cursor was approaching point (7). It's a very technical section of Mulholland Highway that demands 100% attention on the road. The hairpins of that section are incredibly demanding, made even more challenging with a 9% upwards grade. It's a Butler Maps G2 rated section that I would argue probably deserves the highest level G1.

To your point, HERE does seem to have oddities. Whatever the situation, the route developer should be alerted of potential problems before actually executing it. Being hit with strange behavior while on the route is absolutely the wrong time. Using the Garmin GPS, I absolutely know ahead of time if the unit will treat the route differently (at execution) than what I developed. I sometimes have to do more than one iteration of adjustment before finalizing the route but it's worth the effort.