A to B Routing incorrect behavior

[Peter Zehentreiter]

On Saturday, we noticed the following issue.

We searched for a destination in the app and were then presented with a choice of three different routes.

We selected a route and set off. At some point (we don’t know when), the app switched to one of the other routes without any notification.

When we realised this after a while, we drove manually in the direction of the white line of the route we had originally selected in order to get back to the chosen route.

When we reached the white line and wanted to continue along it, the app tried three times to deviate from the white line and use one of the other routes.

What did we do wrong??

[Marinus van Deudekom]

Is trafic information enabled. That could cause a detour

[Con Hennekens]

@Peter-Zehentreiter, in an AB route, the white line represents the originally calculated route, but is by no means leading. If you deviate from the the original route, new calculations can find a quicker or shorter route at that moment. The white line being shown clearly indicates a recalculation. That is never done without any notification, but it can be missed easily.

[Peter Zehentreiter]

@Marinus van Deudekom Yes, the traffic information was enabled, but as the name suggests – ‘information’ – to me that means it should provide updates on upcoming traffic incidents, not automatically choose a different route.

In any case, there were no traffic updates!"

@Con-Hennekens

@Con-Hennekens said in A to B Routing incorrect behavior:

in an AB route, the white line represents the originally calculated route,

I realise that... we did choose this route during the preliminary selection.

@Con-Hennekens said in A to B Routing incorrect behavior:

but is by no means leading.

Why shouldn’t this route be set as the default route? I’m specifically choosing this route because I want to take it.

@Con-Hennekens said in A to B Routing incorrect behavior:

The white line being shown clearly indicates a recalculation

I understand that, which is why we went back to the white line – because we wanted to stick to that route. The question is, why is the app doing this?

We did NOT deviate from the route; there were two of us driving with identical settings and following the same route (one iPhone, one Pixel 9), both devices had a good internet connection, and neither of us received a notification that we were leaving the originally selected route.

As I have already mentioned, we drove back to the route (the white line), and when we were back on the line, the app tried three times to steer us away from the white line using turn-by-turn directions (no traffic jams in sight, no alerts regarding traffic disruption). Only after these three attempts to divert us from the white route (which we ignored) did the route continue along the white line... There was no excessive traffic, no traffic jams, or any other restrictions visible all the way to our destination.

[Con Hennekens]

@Peter-Zehentreiter, The app does not recalculate without a cause. If you think you did not deviate, it might be a glitch in GPS reception for example. It changes the route because it thinks there is a quicker way, just like any normal A2B navigation unit. You could try "Navigate route as track", at least that will continue the track at your reentry point. But to be honest I am not sure if that works for A2B routes.

[Peter Zehentreiter]

@Con-Hennekens said in A to B Routing incorrect behavior:

It changes the route because it thinks there is a quicker way, just like any normal A2B navigation unit.

But then it doesn’t make sense to me to offer three different routes if the app then tries to choose the quickest route on its own whilst navigating.

Never mind, I now know it doesn’t work the way I’d imagined; in future, I’ll mark a few points along my chosen route, which will force the app to navigate more closely to the direction I’ve specified.

I don’t think driving the A-B route as a track is a good idea either.

[Corjan Meijerink]

Track navigation is not possible for AB routes.

Based on user feedback this is the behavior. We used to send you back exactly to the selected route but if you were driving away from it to another option you would be sent back the entire time until it really started to be weird. Users were even less happy with that

So yeah….this kinda makes sense unfortunately.
I’ll investigate a possible solution somewhere.

[Peter Zehentreiter]

@Corjan-Meijerink Hello Corjan, I understand your point of view.

Ideally, once a route has been selected, the navigation system should follow it consistently.
If, whilst driving, I decide that I no longer wish to continue along the selected route... I have to stop the navigation, re-enter the destination, and then I can evaluate and select the suggested routes again.

That would be a logical consequence of having different options to choose from.

[Con Hennekens]

@Peter-Zehentreiter, that is how it was, and people didn't want that. Long time ago it has therefore been replaced with the current logic of an ordinary A2B route: be there quickest way. Sticking to a chosen alternative is contradictory to the setting of quickest/shortest route. gMaps also dismisses your chosen route if you deviate. That's part of an A2B route. The only other option would be to make a track from the chosen route, but as Corjan said, that is not happening.

[Peter Zehentreiter]

@Con-Hennekens Unfortunately, that’s always the way it is… some people like it, others not so much… you just have to live with it.

I disagree: if I’ve selected the quickest route during the search and am then presented with three options, I want to take the route I’ve chosen; otherwise, there’d be no point in having a choice if the app just automatically navigates to the destination on its own.

Still, thanks for your well-meaning advice and always constructive help.

I know how to deal with it

[Con Hennekens]

@Peter-Zehentreiter, you're welcome. Indeed it is very hard to satisfy everyone. Hence the many toggles... My take is that if you want to drive a certain road, you need to put a route point on it. To be brutally honest: for quick A2B routes I usually use Google maps. Mainly because of the much better traffic info. There is no shame in that

[Peter Zehentreiter]

@Con-Hennekens said in A to B Routing incorrect behavior:

Google maps because of the much better traffic info.

I agree 100%. The up-to-date nature of the Here maps (in terms of road closures) sometimes leaves a lot to be desired, which also causes problems when navigating.

[Herman Veldhuizen]

I agree with Peter here. Software should not change a user selection without asking. I dont think that tomtom and google do that either. When you select one route in favour of another there can be many reasons why you select that one , even if you have fastest selected. Being presented a new/faster way is great but using it without asking must be a bug. It definitely destroys the trust in the app.

[Con Hennekens]

An A2B route typically means: "get me there as quick as possible, I don't care how". I'd rather give up the suggestions than having to stick with one.

[Herman Veldhuizen]

@Con-Hennekens The app gives you choices. Not just the fastest one. So do google and tomtom. They have thought this out how to do it. But I agree, better to have just one choice than to jump from one to another.

[Bouke Ent]

i agree with peter. a solution would be give option to recalculate off. i understand that in a2b recalculation is always on. even if you stick on route on a selected route/track ( track if it is curved) in a few situations the app thinks it is off route/track