Quality of navigation

Jure Sirena 0

I have been testing today app on 500km trip in parallel to my usual tomtom. I must say I started to doubt quality of navigation.
This might not be app problem but actually the quality of maps used in the navigation (here)

ETA in MRA was always 25-35min higher with no traffic incidents and exactly same waypoints same path. I always drove by the speed limit
I thought I entered some pauses in waypoints but checked I did not
During trip there are two options bypassing one city, I decided to take different one then the one by MRa, and what do you know immediatelly when it recalculated ETA dropped by 7 min - so why didnt it take me there? There was no waypoint telling navigation to go other road.

I think that baseline of this problem is categorization of roads in HERE maps, which seems to be less accurate then top navigations today. This made me strongly doubt in quality of navigation.....:(

Corjan Meijerink

@Jure-Sirena-0 Thanks for your message!

1: Traffic influence can be very significant. As this cannot be turned off right now, we cannot truly be sure if that is the cause. Best would be to wait for another Beta where that is configurable (early 2023).
2: This is only shown for A-B routes. I would need to check what exactly determines the default selected route. It might actually simply be the first we get. Not sure if that is by default the fastest

Regardless, both issues will automatically be resolved / improved in future Beta versions.

Jure Sirena 0

On Friday it happened again, at airport in Italy I only choosed destination towards home - cca 240km. Tomtom choosed the fastes route - motorway only, while MRA strangely somewhere half way decided to cut motorway and go part of route over the side road over mountain with ETA +0:45 min! There is no option regarding fastest/shortest in settings, and since it was only to destination no waypoints, this was kind a dissapointing to see...not tom mention that we have snow and -5C, going over hills where there is motorway below?

I blame this on fact that HERE maps are bad - simply bad for navigation which is a downer as app itself is the coolest on market.

And of course after not going where MRA wanted, bypassing the exit MRA wanted it recalculated immediately after continuing on motorway and ETA dropped by 30 min (still lacking behind tomtom by 15 min, which was spot on when arriving home.

Corjan Meijerink

@Jure-Sirena-0 Thanks for the feedback! We will get the avoid options / configuration updated in another Beta version. This will therefore definitely be improved.

It might be that HERE did not choose the highway by default as it was a toll road?

Jure Sirena 0

@Corjan-Meijerink If so then it should not choose the highway from start, there was italian tool road, and as mentioned it choosed to get off AC somewhere in middle of trip, already in my county (Slovenia) where I was already on the AC (vignette). So tool road shouldnt be thecase, in this case he would be driving me through cities from start.

Jure Sirena 0

Stupid me, I did screenshots....this is the part it decided to cut (highway in yellow):

And yes going yellow is double faster, drive it every day

Jure Sirena 0

@Jure-Sirena-0 This is instant print screen at start MRA vs tomTom (you probbaly know if connected to Carplay, it takes screenshot of phone and CP display)
Tomtom longer but faster (AC obviously)

MRA shorten distance, much more time. wanted to do siteseeing at night in winter....

Jure Sirena 0

MRA just before the famous turn to leave AC, and just after I havent left on the turn but kept going. Recalculating with KM up, ETA down

You see current actual time is still same.

Corjan Meijerink

Wow! Thanks, this helps a lot

It might be as simple then that our app always prefers shorter over faster. Or it might be way more complex

Regardless, thanks a lot for these details.

Jure Sirena 0

@Corjan-Meijerink Its defenetely a map problem - you can see it in route planner already - its because categorization of roads in openstreet map is shitty..... Same route, openstreetmaps just wont use highway, and ETA is significantly higheras per tomtom or even HERE maps (almost 2 hours). With this unfortunatelly to me the app is useless as navigation is useless...:(

Tomtom is far superior here and trustworthy (using in paralele Tomtom Mobile GO and Tomtom rider 550 on the bike

Herko ter Horst

@Jure-Sirena-0 MRA Navigation (Next) uses HERE maps, not OSM, so what you're saying doesn't make sense.

Jure Sirena 0

@Herko-ter-Horst Last picture in last post is Here maps:
898km and 12h:35min
tomtom is second picture
915km and 10h:55min
exactly same route, only changing maps in menu. On top of this MRA Next Beta application ALWAYS takes me off motorway through the back road - just like first picture with openstreetmaps does (app pic during navigation few pics higher), something is wrong....very wrong.

Routing in MRA Next is same as in routeplanner with Openstreetmaps. While the most wrong thing is that it chooses it despite not being the fastest (when you decide not to take it, it recalculates and ETA drops signoificantly)

Jure Sirena 0

I have tested this weekend 3 other routes inland point to point A-B, no intermideatte waypoints, all cca 100km, MRA Next app took me (wanted to) all the time through back roads, through cities....and yes route planer is set to fastest on no curvines (you can see the signs beside each waypoint)

Same route with tomtom faultless and always cca 20-25min faster (including potential traffic slow downs, which are amazingly accurate in tomtom)

app is PERFECT when you exactly precise the route with your many waypoints, while navigation itself at the moment is lacking quality. Guys will look into it.

Hans van de Ven MR.MRA

@Jure-Sirena-0
Hello @Jure-Sirena-0

I'm curious if you recreated the routes (with the 8 points and 898 KM) from scratch on every map?
What options from the toolbox have you used in each map?

I have made the following routes from scratch in every map.
Only used 2 points and didn't use options from the toolbox.

OSM:

TomTom:

Here:

Comparison of the 3 routes:
OSM route opened, it has a black line.
Here has the yellow line
TomTom has the blue line
Now you see that all 3 routes are generated differently on some parts.

Tom route opened, it has a black line.
OSM has the yellow line
Here has the blue line
Now you see that all 3 routes are generated differently on some parts.

Here route opened, it has a black line.
OSM has the yellow line
TomTom has the blue line
Now you see that all 3 routes are generated differently on some parts.

Conclusion, so it depends on which map you make a route.
To use MRA Navigation (Next) it is best to plan your route in the Here map. With A to B routes (which you probably use) only in the app and therefore the Here map, you know for sure that you have the fastest route, because that's how the routing of the Here map is set.
That the times and distances differ slightly per map can therefore be explained. Because each card has its own routing settings.

Jure Sirena 0

@Hans-van-de-Ven-MRA-Master its what I am saying all the time, I know app uses Here maps, but the problem is that its navigatiing with big big errors - not taking / using the highways, taking you backroads etc, despite having used no special toolbox. I have settings to fastest and 0 curvines.

It happened again today - from A to B:
Same exact point but MRA Next map wanted to go right through the city, while tomtom took the most sensable way straight to Ljubljana ringroad. This are my everyday routes and I know you need to be crazy not to take ring road (no tool roads by the way on it) so MRA takes the crazy option througj the city.
In circles - it seems that MRA next ALWAYS takes the shortest option no matter what you choose.

By taking shortest option you know what it happens. The app took me twice to strange roads and then I started to compare

BTW: Look closely to your test routes, tomtom is 1h faster on more km (!!) because it AVOIDS cities like essen, HERE takes you throuh city
This is my point, and if you will while driving choose to go where tomtom is navigationg you ETa in MRA will immediatelly drop by 10-20min! So I am absolutely 100% sure it is not navigating via FASTEST option

Jure Sirena 0

Todays case from route planner:

Here maps - as per MRA Next:

Tomtom (Tomtom mobile GO on phone choosed same option):

Secomd option is FAR FAR prefered, and FAR FAR fastest, its a ring road obviously.

First option through the center of city, also dictated by MRA app, second via ring road dicated by Tomtom. I refused to go via MRA, and when I reached ring road MRA recalculated and went where I wanted to go, and its ETA dropped by 14 min!

So my only point: MRA Next does not navigate via optimal route UNLESS you cleary set your waypoints where you want to go

In my car I can use phone for MRA app and Carplay for Tom tom simultaniously, when taking print screen it takes screen of both simultaniously

Jure Sirena 0

I can continue, I am planing big motorcycle trip in Tunisia in Feb 2023:

Same route, despite the fact that I set many many waypoints on path where I want to go:

Tomtom is 2 hours (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) faster despite more km

I am a motorcycle guide who travels cca 30-40.000km per year and I have real faith in tomtom navigation. I realyl like the MRA app because of features, especially regarding waypoints and segments, but navigation is not serious

To be clear - I am not blaming the app, but I do think reason is in map database, app is only using the info embeded in the maps (categorization of roads, positioning, etc etc) So I guess, having a serious navigation requires serious map database....

Segments like this make a difference - green is HERE maps, imagin going through center of busy tunis cities....

Jure Sirena 0

When you say
To use MRA Navigation (Next) it is best to plan your route in the Here map. With A to B routes (which you probably use) only in the app and therefore the Here map, you know for sure that you have the fastest route, because that's how the routing of the Here map is set.

Everything in practice shows this is not true, it seems MRA N always chooses shortest route

Hans van de Ven MR.MRA

@Jure-Sirena-0

@Jure-Sirena-0 Thanks for your input, MRA Navigation (Next) is still in the development phase, so things will definitely improve

Jure Sirena 0

@Hans-van-de-Ven-MRA-Master
Keep it up!