Pictures in planned routes

[Michael Scheuer]

Recently I saw that, whenever I open one of my routes pictures from other useres plop up into my route. How can I cancel this function?

[Stefan Hummelink]

@michael-scheuer Disable the option through the Toolkit Menu.

[Daniel Buvens]

@stefanhummelink Thanks! This stupid "feature" annoyed me quite a lot!

[PAD 0]

@daniel-buvens Frankly, I think it borders on the childish. Thankfully, easily turned off and, as far as I’m concerned, off should be the default. What really surprised me about the ‘feature’ is that MRA see fit to spend their time on such trivia when there are many features for which there is a demand, that are much needed and would be both very welcome and very useful.

Too much focus on Farcebook while ignoring the product forum???

[Nick Carthew]

@pad-0 It can be a useful feature for those that don’t have access to Google Streetview. And as far as I’m aware, your settings are remembered, so in your case the default is off.

[PAD 0]

@nick-carthew Indeed. Sure the photo thing is easily resolved. I’m much more concerned by the latter part of my previous post. There’s clearly many more worthy candidates for development time and expense.

On the notion of a lack of Google Street View, surely if you have Routeplanner, you have Google Street View as there is button to access it in the map UI? Yes, it can be a bit glitchy if used a lot (freezing on advancing frames, black out on map view and zoom issues on returning to map view), but at least it has very broad coverage and provides (probably) more useful data than a photo of some bloke posing with his bike at a burger van or some such!

And is that that glitchy behaviour (which I reported via support many months ago) not, in itself, a damn good example of something that might well have been a better use of resources?

[Stefan Hummelink]

@pad-0 Not entirely true. Germany for instance does not allow Google street view at all! So these pictures of other users provide information that street view simply cannot deliver in certain countries or areas. That being said, it can never provide the same kind of info as street view, I would dare to say, most of the time it will not be useful at all when planning a route.

I agree that I would definitely like to see more development resources being allocated to more important features of all MRA products.🤭

[PAD 0]

@stefanhummelink Well, well… The saying “you learn something new every day” is true! I was aware that some parts of the world have no GSV coverage but they tend to be remote, third world/less developed countries, those suffering under authoritarian regimes, or both. Germany certainly doesn’t fit! I guess it’s privacy and rights related? I’m no great fan of Google and its data gathering tendencies, but I can’t see what great harm there is in having such a resource as street view, particularly as ‘sensitive’ locations and people can be obscured by blurring, etc.

[Stefan Hummelink]

@pad-0 said in Pictures in planned routes:

I guess it’s privacy and rights related?

Spot on! From what I believe the German people voted against it! Fact stands that unfortunately we only have Google Maps satellite for identification of the road quality and environmental conditions but no Street view.

[PAD 0]

@stefanhummelink Yet much more stands to be disclosed by satellite views than a fleeting drive past a property. Strange world.

[Herko ter Horst]

@pad-0 said in Pictures in planned routes:

@stefanhummelink Yet much more stands to be disclosed by satellite views than a fleeting drive past a property. Strange world.

That depends. No satellite view shows license plates, people's faces or building interiors. So I can certainly see the privacy issues there. Because even if Google blurs the images for us, Google itself still has access to the unblurred imagery.

[Nick Carthew]

@pad-0 said in Pictures in planned routes:

There’s clearly many more worthy candidates for development time and expense.

What would you like to see developed in the RoutePlanner?

On the notion of a lack of Google Street View, surely if you have Routeplanner, you have Google Street View as there is button to access it in the map UI? Yes, it can be a bit glitchy if used a lot (freezing on advancing frames, black out on map view and zoom issues on returning to map view), but at least it has very broad coverage and provides (probably) more useful data than a photo of some bloke posing with his bike at a burger van or some such!

In addition to what Stefan said regarding Germany etc, only MRA Gold account users have access to Streetview.
I haven't experienced freezing on advancing frames and blacked out maps as you mention, maybe this is a problem at your end, slow internet or lack of RAM!
I have asked if we can have a report button for any inappropriate photos to remove them from the database.

[PAD 0]

@herko-ter-horst True enough. I was thinking of things such ostentatious displays of obvious but unexplained/unaccounted for wealth suggesting ill gotten gains. That kind of stuff.

Do you think Google’s camera operators enter properties without consent??? I’d be surprised, but then we are talking about an organisation with some quite cavalier approaches.

Faces and registration plates… Is Germany equally hot on surveillance cameras, both public, business and private? I’d have far greater concerns over such things than I would of a tiny chance that my home/face/vehicle might be seen by the relatively few likely to see them on street view.

But I have nothing to hide! I think…

[PAD 0]

@nick-carthew Come, come, Nick. This forum is awash with frequent suggestions and requests for improvements and features. Just yesterday, the desire for the ability to choose different highway categories (beyond that in the ‘exclusions list which, while helpful, is somewhat vague regarding road types) to be included/excluded in routes cropped up. I think that would be brilliant and make an already great route planner even more widely attractive. Taking a good long look at BaseCamp to spot key areas in which it offers features that Routeplanner doesn’t would yield some worthwhile ‘hardcore’ development potential. This again was touched upon in recent days on this forum.

Personally, and I think you might just be aware of this(!), I think Routeplanner is pretty damn good as it is. Yes it could be developed steadily over time to include more good ‘nuts and bolts’ route planning features rather than ‘soshul meejah ‘ influenced fripperies such as this latest ‘photos on your route’ nonsense. But what MRA urgently needs to be spending time, money and resources on is not Routeplanner at all, but the Navigation app which, as it stands, fails to fulfil MRA’s marketing claims that the combined apps offer a viable alternative to dedicated sat navs, is an unreliable farce and potentially downright dangerous.

As for the ‘photos on your route’ business vs street view and availability for subscribers/non subscribers, I wouldn’t find the former even vaguely influential in encouraging me to use MRA, let alone subscribe (actually more a disincentive). Whereas Routeplanner’s inclusion of a direct Street View facility was very much influential in my subscribing. Particularly after Garmin had ditched its link to Google Earth and, thus, to Street View. The two things are utterly incomparable.

My broadband is plenty, plenty fast enough for Street View, very stable and wifi coverage is excellent. Used directly, on phone, tablet or PC, I have no issues with it.

[Stefan Hummelink]

@pad-0 Germany's motivation for the ban of GSV relates to their dark history also known as WWII and the DDR period where "enemies of the state" were tracked by the secret agencies, so to speak. The Germans never want to go back to a similar situation so the possible privacy violations that GSV can cause, are reasons for the GSV to be banned in advance.

A very good movie exists about this specific period of history: "Das Leben der Anderen." In which a secret officer that spies on a "enemy of the state" to eventually find out how he has been brainwashed and is confronted with the fact that he simply does not live a free mind.

[RAT]

I found this feature EXCEEDINGLY annoying. Thank you for the instructions for removal!

[Roland Neumann]

@rat Bin ich froh, das diese Feature ausschaltbar ist. - Danke für den Tipp.