Rand McNally intelliRoute TND 500

Please watch the TND Dock the next few days, their will be an update to version 1.0.59.0

It fixes the "Tell Rand" for E-mails ending in ".ca" and also for 64 bit machines.

Thanks,
Mark

 

Yes and that can really add a lot of time. To the point where it's not even worth it. I've found if you're going back roads the unit will give you a different route every time it seems.

Going back to via points, the way it is currently set up, you first set your route. You decide the route is no good, so now you have to "reset" your route with multi-stops. Problem is how do you add these multi-stops? Do you write down the towns you want to go through? Even then it's not really the route you want because you will go right to the middle of town, not just through it on the highway. That's why it needs a browse map feature that you can just click on the map. I can't find anything like that. You need an address, or town center etc..

What would be nice is if the unit functioned in either two ways:

1) It gives you multiple routes at the same time, and lets you choose the best one.

2) Works like www.mapquest.com does. Try it out, map out a route, and it gives you a "click to drag" option where you can change the route right on the map. This is probably the best, but may need a lot of computing power.

That would probably put it well ahead of most/all other GPS units.

I also had another problem this last trip, coming through Illinois on 74 it was showing 55 mph truck speed. Of course that is wrong. Thing is by the time I was driving in Wisconsin, it still showed 55 mph. The whole way through, until I powered the unit off/on.

 

Rand is aware of the increase in these states... databases being updated.

Thanks,
Mark

 

It has a problem with truck speeds getting stuck until something resets them, I'm not sure what does. It does that to me all over.

The dragging the map around can be done but the map seriously needs more detail, more zoom levels so you're not fighting with thousands of square miles of blank space, and it'd help if most of the overlayed buttons and such were gone in that mode. That includes the bar at the bottom that pops up. That thing is annoying when you're trying to scroll around and you only have so much space and it pops up right under your finger so you hit a button by mistake.

Also due to Rand scaling up everything so much on the TND, you only have about .25 inch more usable map space than the smaller 465t unit. The speed limit sign also overlaps the bottom of the next turn icon. All that stuff on the screen really does not need to be that huge, there's wasted space everywhere.

The gear button, for example. All you really need is the gear itself. There's space wasted on either side of it. The zoom buttons are so large that they are actually larger than the real button. Hit the left edges and see. The turn list button could be combined with the top green bar, making it the button. That frees up space for small warning signs where the turn list button is now that could be used instead of the full screen popups. The top and bottom bars could stand to be a little thinner, as in shorter height wise. Make the next turn icon a little smaller too and then the speed limit sign wouldn't overlap, though it could be a little smaller too.

Maybe they could try all that and pass it around to see how people react. Shave it all down around the edges by a little and it'll add up to a lot more for the map, which is what I need to see when I'm rolling.

0.0625 inch shaved off all the way around would make the map screen a full half inch larger than the 465t.

 

from an earlier post -

their is a Navteq error on US-167. Rand has removed the weight
restriction from the data.

Thanks,
Mark

 

don know anything about it

 

Go to DieselBoss.com and read their reviews on truck navigation devices.

Thanks,
Mark

 

Two false flags on hwy 110 east of hwy 25 in Heber Springs, AR. I dunno if 110 is restricted further on, it doesn't look like a road I'd want to go on and the TND routed me around it on 16, but in town there there's an industrial park and a large auto parts manufacturing plant that you have to go down 110 a little ways to get to so it isn't restricted.

Ed. I went down 110 to see, and there's a restriction to 73,680lbs about 3 miles east of town. Having the flags in town, 3 miles west of the actual restriction, makes the unit route through a residential neighborhood when trying to get to the industrial park.

More false flags on AR 226 between US67 and US67. 67 continues off the map north of 18 and ends at 226 now, just east of Egypt Road.

They really need to take these popups out. I found the auto dismiss but the restriction popups are not affected by it and will not go away unless you do it yourself, which is fun on a narrow two lane winding through the mountains. Especially when they pop right back up at every single intersection real or imagined.

I find it interesting that these restrictions are not on the 465t, meaning they were all added recently. What the heck is navtech doing? They suck at this.

 

That is exactly why ONLY the GPS makers that have ABILITY AND THE MOTIVATION to overlay their own enhanced attribute data will produce an effective truck route GPS - at least at this time in history. NavTeq and TeleAtlas have added what is called the "STAA" data to their maps as an option to the GPS makers and this resulted in an explosion of "truck route" GPS's in 2009. TeleAtlas is the only other "major" player and theirs are the maps in the Cobra unit for instance and in some of the ALK (PcMiler) applications. Until NavTeq and TeleAtlas VASTLY improve the extremely complex truck attributes associated with the millions of miles of roads in this country, GPS companies that have the ability to improve on the base attribute data they are buying will come out on top.

 

I was asked today how does one get the mapping database corrected for bad addresses or missing addresses. I asked around and was given this Link to NAVTEQ.

http://mapreporter.navteq.com/dur-web-external/secured/submitDur.do?userType=CONSUMER&language=en

You can log in and submit changes and also be notified of those changes.

BUT, Rand would still like to know of any routing issues as in restricted routes so they may get their database corrected.

Thanks,
Mark