Albie999 wrote:I have tried to use Ovi Maps 3.03 (previous version to this), and have to say I am not very impressed on the route calculation. In fact, it took me 4 miles out of my way, to get to a place that was only 1 mile away from me, and I could even see a sign on the road on how to get there ... but I though I would give Ovi Maps a chance ..... but it was awfulI actually found that Garmin XT gave much better routing, and took me direct to the location.
Does this version have better routing.
Has anyone else found this with Ovi Maps?
I also have found the Ovi Maps routing to be inadequate at times. I live in Vancouver, B.C., Canada and found that Ovi Maps seem to put too great a weight on certain streets. When I used Ovi Maps to find a route from North Vancouver (city just north of Vancouver) to Richmond (city south of Vancouver) it tells me to drive east on Hastings through Vancouver city centre and then south on Granville out of the city centre towards Richmond. No one would drive through the heart of the city centre where the traffic is worse. There are a number of other streets that you can take that does not go through the worse traffic area of Vancouver.
I lived here all my life, so I generally know the best routes to take. I don't expect Ovi Maps or any other mapping software to choose the many shortcuts I know. However, I would reasonably expect that the mapping software not tell me to drive through the busiest and most congested area of the city.
I did some comparisons with two other mapping applications I have available to me. One is Google Maps and the other is the mapping software on the Blackberries. I do find that Ovi maps seem to give me worse routes than the other two. This does not happen all the time, but often enough to make me question the routing algorithm or more likely, the maps.
One thing I notice about Ovi Maps that seem to cause the issue for me is that the maps seem to weigh certain streets higher than other streets. You can see on the Ovi Maps that a few select streets are highlighted in yellow where as most of the other streets are white. If you need to travel in a direction parallel to one of these highlighted streets, Ovi Maps tends to direct you to use the highlighted street instead of a similar parallel street. Although, it is generally not an issue which street to use, sometimes it is best not to use the highlighted street since it may take you through the city centre.
I think that all mapping apps have their own flaws. With Google Maps, one of the routes it selected is for busses only. Google Maps seems to be the most up to date as it shows a newly built bridge in Metro Vancouver that neither Ovi or the Blackberry map shows. I find it unusual, that Google Maps seems to be the most up to date, and yet the routing does not know certain routes are not accessible except for public transit vehicles.
Now, even with the shortcomings that I've discovered with Ovi, I still think that it is still a pretty good app. I would use the routing app to drive in a city with which I am not familiar. I can get around Metro Vancouver without any problems on my own. I do plan a trip to other cities where I do plan to drive. I do feel confident that Ovi maps will be able to direct me to my destination. If it takes an extra few or several minutes, it wouldn't be that big of an issue as long as it directs me there.
There is one interesting feature of Ovi Maps that I have found. I noticed that when testing Ovi Maps, it seems to select different routes depend on the time of day. This indicates that it takes into account traffic patterns at different times and tries to select the best route for the time of day. I do think that Ovi maps can use a little tweaking, but overall it gets the job done for anyone not familiar with the city they are driving in.
