Satnav shootout 9 countries - 4200km, how did MRA Navigation Compare?

[Lynchy67]

@Michael-Rhys

My post was a poor attempt at humor (Fail!).
But taking the Garmin XT in isolation, when you know the limitations of it you accept that it is notorious for making routing decisions for you.
The only way to overcome this is to add more Shaping Points.
My preferred route types are the twisty country lanes with the grass in the middle. I would therefore place a at least 1 shaping point on every road I planned to travel on.
Overkill! Yes, but it is the only way to stop the Garmin's from making decisions for you.
I no longer use the XT as its all about MyRoute-App now but I still apply the same process to ensure it doesn't make decisions for me.

[Michael Rhys]

@Lynchy67 No worries, Essentially your point and my review are the same. The conclusion is Apps are the way forward. What I wanted to highlight by the review is that MRA is not perfect yet, there are some features especially on TT that are better. Let's get those things into MRA and it will be unbeatable. The biggest issue by far is the road closures. Put the route into TT and it immediately shows you a no entry sign on the route where the road is closed. Granted you have to then fix it but better that than riding up the side of a mountain on several nasty hairpins to find you then need to turn round in the road. Having more shaping points has an upside and a downside. The upside is you are forcing the route to go where you want, the downside is the ability of the satnav to direct you round a closed road is restricted. I would love to see MRA come up with a message saying road closed (redirect?) select yes and then it will redirect skipping as few shaping points (but not via points) as possible.

[Michael Rhys]

@Jack-van-Tilburg Not for basic stuff. Plan a route, load it to the nav expect it to follow it. You should not need a degree in a specific manufacturer to achieve this. The behaviour of the other options shows you do not need to have that level of insight.

[Con Hennekens]

@Lynchy67 said in Satnav shootout 9 countries - 4200km, how did MRA Navigation Compare?:

The solution is obvious and simple, add more shaping points.

Or use the compare tool, it there for exactly that reason.

@Michael-Rhys said in Satnav shootout 9 countries - 4200km, how did MRA Navigation Compare?:

Fuel Stations
TT 10/10
Garmin 5/10
MRA 2/10
Connected ride n/a

I am quite sure after the next update MRA will rise to at least a 9 concerning fuel stations

[Lynchy67]

@Con-Hennekens

I’m not a fan of group rides, I prefer to ride alone or with “she who must be obeyed” as a pillion.

[Michael Rhys]

@Con-Hennekens The compare tool WAS used, so all the routes should have been the same, hence the post, and the section about True to route.

[Con Hennekens]

@Michael-Rhys, then there must be another reason than the brand of maps and devices for routes to be calculated so differently. Probably the calculation parameters (mainly avoid settings) were not set equal between the garmin device and the route planner. recipe for disaster MRA Navigation does that automatically, but on dedicated devices you have to tend to that yourself.

[Michael Wilkinson]

@Con-Hennekens Recently on a trip with some friends we undertook an exercise whereby each of us (3) went through every setting on our satnavs (BMW 5, BMW 6 and Garmin XT). As far as possible we made sure all settings were identical and then downloaded a pre planned route from MRA. Although each satnav appeared to be the same when comparing maps, after only a few kilometres there was a divergence and some were reporting a left turn whilst others were not and so on.
Not a scientific experiment I agree, but proof to me that there are dark forces which control the satnav world and humankind does not have control

[richtea999]

@Michael-Wilkinson [satnav company] sends you down a revised route, along with the next 100 vehicles. Magically the revised route fills with 5 minutes, and [satnav company] gets that feedback, and automatically re-routes the next 100 vehicles to avoid the jam they just created.

Dark humour at play rather than dark forces.

The good news should be that motorbikes are more immune to such jams, but unfortunately that isn't catered for by [satnav company]. We're just a 'vehicle', not a lithe and slinky motorbike that can slide through jams. I would be happy to share that vehicle info to get better routing - as I do with MRA (in a limited manner at the moment).

[GT JWR]

@Lynchy67 pretty much sums up my 3600mi, 10 day vacation. Garmin XT followed reasonably well, however, a lot of shaping points were indeed required. One advantage of the XT vs MRA on this trip was that the route on the XT could be shaped (not sure if that is the Garmin term) to 'go around' or last minute type changes and not stray to far away from the planned out.
MRA requires a full re route to be done.

Another rider used TomTom, and it did indeed come in very handy for road closures and gas stations - hope those are vastly improved in upcoming MRA updates.

[Jack van Tilburg]

@Michael-Wilkinson said in Satnav shootout 9 countries - 4200km, how did MRA Navigation Compare?:

Not a scientific experiment I agree,

Absolute right!
I see this primarily as a seriously described driving experience. And I find that more valuable than, for example, a (scientific) comparison test by so-called experts.
Regarding the experiences with Garmin devices: They simply cannot handle routes very well that are not made on Garmin map material. Garmin uses the Here maps, but applies their own compression method (NT&NTU) to make them usable for their devices.
If the route is created in MRA, the waypoints must be placed very very tactically to minimize deviations.

[Con Hennekens]

@richtea999 said in Satnav shootout 9 countries - 4200km, how did MRA Navigation Compare?:

Dark humour at play rather than dark forces.

Or conspiracy theories. It's not considered humour by those who embrace them, but it is for the more realistic rest of the world