Burnt today by the HERE Map Engine
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I'm touring south of France by car with my wife, reprising some of the routes I took last Spring by motorcycle with friends. Today, I had to quit using MRA and switch to Google Maps. I'm very disappointed in the HERE mapping engine which I think is at the heart of the issue.
Specifically, I tried to drive this route from Moustiers Sante Marie through the Gorges dAulan.
https://www.myrouteapp.com/en/social/route/10117919?mode=share
Turns out highway D946 is completely closed between St Vincent-sur-Jabron and Sederon. HERE had no idea. An hour after turning onto D946 from D4085 the road was closed off. It looks like a bridge washed out and is being replaced. There was no way through. There was also no way around; my only option was to go all the way back to D4085, a massive loss of time.
Interestingly, I had laid out the same route in Google Maps when I did the MRA map. Here is that route:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/WpEd55594ir57JMXA
I took a look at the Google Maps route I made earlier and had saved just now; I hadn't studied it closely before. The Google route avoids D946 and, instead, would have routed me on D542, a parallel highway to the north. Apparently, the Google Maps engine knew about the closure on D946 when I made both routes on October 13, 11 days ago, but HERE hasn't yet gotten the memo that the road is closed! Arrgh!
I know HERE doesn't update as fast as Google, ten days seems to me like an unreasonable delay. Disappointing! How can we rely on these routes?
The other glitch today was that my Pixel 6 overheated running MRA even in a car with the air conditioning on. And it was mostly cloudy so there wasn't any heat-gain from the sun. I'm sure from other rides that @corjan's improvement is helping, but we aren't at a true fix yet -- running MRA for about 4 hours non-stop was enough to overheat the phone.
My takeaway from this: I love my MRA, but I better not leave home without a way to run Google and checking my MRA route on Google maps before going out the door.
And, if you're riding South of France, watch out for that D946 closure. It's a great road, but you won't get through today.
Vinnie
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Referenced by
Vincent Curren
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@Vincent-Curren HERE is notoriously slow in making closure updates. Last month, I built a route on the MRA Route planner for a group ride I was leading, which included several backroads on the western slope foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Everything looked clear. We were well into a rural section when I encountered a "Road Closed" sign. It turns out the area experienced heavy road damage (and closure) due to severe storms in early 2023. That's over 18 months in the past.
Aside from figuring out the logistics to determine a workable alternate, it was an embarrassing situation to say the least.When I got home, I went onto Google Maps, and sure enough, Google accurately showed the section of road closed. So bad on me. In my Basecamp days (also HERE maps), I always verified my routes against Google as a final check. I got lazy and haven't been doing that with MRA, but clearly it's going to be necessary. Live and learn.
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Moved from [Web] Problems, Bugs and other Issues by
Hans van de Ven MR.MRA
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Hi John,
Live and learn exactly. At least for me, it was only my wife calling me a dummy, and we are both used to that.
At least on these long routes, I will now always double-check against Google maps.
Thanks for passing along your experience.
Vinnie
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@Vincent-Curren I have raised the whole issue before of having to have a backup app on standby, this has been my experience on both bike and car using MRA Navigation Next either on my mobile or through Android Auto.
I've never completed a whole tour without abandoning Navigation Next and using either TomTomGo or Google Maps.
Sadly MRA Navigation Next is not the reliable solution...YET, but I feel confident that it's getting there so I'm persevering with it for now.
The true cost for me however is not just the cost of paying for Navigation Next, I also pay for TomTomGo as one of my backup solutions.
One interesting thing I have noticed, Navigation Next app performed better in Europe than it did in the UK. Other than the unknown road closure and suddenly the app crashing in Europe it performed well, even on Android Auto.
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Thanks for the note, David. I really want MRA to work reliably too. It's not quite there, but it's close.
The pieces that @corjan and his team code get continuously better. The more intractable problems seem to me to come from the HERE engine.
On balance is the almost continuous hassle I have had with Garmin. I had hoped for a long time that Garmin would evolve into something more user friendly and intuitive, but that does not seem to be in the cards.
So, I continue to root for MRA.
Vinnie
