Magic Earth Pro - Navigation on Android and iPhone (formerly Route 66 Navigate)

Tried out Route 66's Navigate 6, which launched a few days ago. You download the app for free and then can get free worldwide Navigation, traffic and speed cameras via the in app store for 30 days. Maps and HD Traffic both from TomTom.

I tried it both ways on my commute today and came away impressed. I ran it at the same time as TomTom and although the traffic info is the same, Navigate 6 appears to have a more aggressive avoidance algorithm. TomTom has a 4 minute delay threshold for redirection and this seems to be less. It diverted me around two jams that TomTom would have needed manual intervention to avoid. The very similar ETAs generated make me suspect that it's using Tom-Tom's IQ Routes, or least has their Speed Profiles integrated into the maps.

The mapping and search interface is a big improvement over TomTom. Addresses and points of interest can be found in seconds.

It uses Android's native text to speech and while this isn't as natural sounding as Tom-Tom's TTS, the instructions themselves are clearer.

Definitely worth a try if you want to try out a new Satnav app.

Edit: after a few days using the app - it appears that the routing and traffic avoidance in Navigate 6 seems pretty much functionally identical with http://routes.tomtom.com, at least for short distances. You can use Tomtom's online route planner to preview the routing behaviour in this app, which is slightly different to the Tomtom app itself.

How much is it after the trial period?

Navigation is one-off €14.99 for UK or €19.99 for Europe. HD Traffic is €9.99 for a year in the UK or €14.99 for Europe.

Pricing in line with Co-Pilot and Sygic then.

After being a user of Co-Pilot for over 3 years I've been on Sygic for 4 months now. Haven't been impressed with Sygic as the calculation seems to take a while at the beginning of a journey and edits create another long recalculation and HD Traffic isn't all that it is cracked up to be.

Will try out Route 66, as I don't think even Sygic had IQ routes.

Over the last few years, I've used Co-Pilot, Sygic, Navigon, TomTom, Waze, M8 and a few other free ones.

Sygic was promising, but ultimately not quite there. The routing was poor and it's been obvious that a major overhaul is needed. The developers have indicated they intend to implement IQRoutes but it's been a long time coming.

HD Traffic on TomTom is very good, as it combines with IQ Routes to give some fairly sensible diversions. When I last tried Sygic it didn't have an automated, on the fly divert system in place. Without that it's barely worth having. Navigate 6 and TomTom both work in the background to divert on the fly. Given the way HD Traffic works, it really needs IQ routes or a similar historic road speed database to get the best out of out.

One thing that's a problem with TomTom is HD Traffic sometimes doesn't include all the info you get from a TMC feed. I've seen it miss the odd rural road closure that Tom-Tom's own TMC feed on their PNDs has picked up.

The traffic on CoPilot is far less detailed, giving info on far less roads than HD Traffic.

Have used it this weekend. It is pretty good, but is also very simple with few options.

Doesn't show current speed and speed cameras could be clearer. Traffic could be more clearly highlighted in 3 route option page. It could also be better shown when driving to give advance warning of traffic, like how Sygic/Copilot do with a traffic bar.

It also lacks lane assist and isn't very good for address entry. It doesn't accept a postcode and you have to scroll down to select major towns (instead of them being at the top of the list).

However, it is very smooth and quick and the routes appear to be sensible. Although it did once want me to leave the dual carriageway only to rejoin it in the roundabout underneath it??

There's something funny about the 3 route option. I think that it's only using historic traffic and not current incidents. I've used it to set a route and then had it immediately show traffic or the route over-ruled by automatic traffic redirection.

I agree about preferring a traffic bar. Tomtom has one too. It seems there are two types of traffic shown in Navigate 6. One is what I assume to be historic database traffic (Tomtom's speed profiles or IQ routes), and current traffic incidents. Historic traffic just shows as a line on the map. Current traffic has a box you can select on the map and get info about. The next current incident is shown in a status bar at the top with a distance to start, and then distance to end once you're in it.

Navigate 6 does have lane assist but I don't think it's full screen or included in voice directions. Like Tomtom (which uses the same maps) it's a little inconsistent. When it works it just shows a lane diagram box on screen.

I had no problems with postcodes or addresses. I just typed them in and it immediately started finding them on the fly.

The routing seems to be mostly identical, or at least very close, to Tomtom's IQ Routes, which I've found to be the best satnav routing system (out of Google, Waze, Sygic, Navigon, Co-Pilot, m8). However, the traffic avoidance is more aggressive than Tomtom.

Had it detected traffic on the main route when it sent you off and back on
to the dual carriageway? I've seen similar behaviour in Navigon when I was diverted off the M62 and back on sliproads to get around a 'phantom' traffic jam when the motorway was actually completely clear. Tomtom seems to avoid this behaviour by having about a 4 minute delay threshold before sending you off route automatically.

When I last used Co-Pilot, it used Nokia / Navteq's traffic (same as shown on Bing maps), which has very poor coverage for anything but A roads and motorways near me. Is this still the case?

Copilot traffic isn't as detailed but it isn't that bad in London.

The real problem is that traffic is something that is always changing and so by the time Sygic picks up traffic it can be too late to divert anyway. The same issue exists for Copilot but it does tell me earlier! I swear there is a serious problem with Sygic on traffic.

The other problem with Sygic is that you select the best route on what you believe are the correct traffic conditions and 4 minutes into the journey it immediately finds more (and more) and then it is a pain to divert. This happens literally every time and annoys be to no end. For this reason alone I wish I stuck to Copilot which gives realistic estimates at the beginning of the journey.

The other problem with Sygic is it's rubbish ability to realise bottlenecks on routes. It will always send me on routes which I know will take ages simply because of traffic lights. Particularly controlled right turns.

I'll see if Navigate 6 has the same issue, but I hope IQ Routes solves that problem.

What I really want from a piece of software is the ability to intelligently predict problems. When traffic is building up on say the A12 to cross the river due to a closed lane , accident or broken down car, it should realise that by the time I get there in 30 minutes there will be massive tailbacks. Without that advance notice I'll be there by the time I realise and be stuck in gridlock for ages with few options to divert.

Uriel said:

Had it detected traffic on the main route when it sent you off and back on
to the dual carriageway? I've seen similar behaviour in Navigon when I was diverted off the M62 and back on sliproads to get around a 'phantom' traffic jam when the motorway was actually completely clear. Tomtom seems to avoid this behaviour by having about a 4 minute delay threshold before sending you off route automatically.

Click to expand...

Not that I could tell. Traffic was moving at 50mph+ with no sign of traffic.

Technically, Tomtom's HD Traffic (or Traffic 6, as it's known in TomTom land) is claimed to do what you're asking for. Whether it achieves this in real life is another matter.

The second thing is whether Navigate 6 implements it in the way that TomTom do.

This is what TomTom claim: http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...affic-Alerts-Drivers-Slow-Approaching-Traffic . I think it lives up to those claims - some of the time...

muon said:

The real problem is that traffic is something that is always changing and so by the time Sygic picks up traffic it can be too late to divert anyway. The same issue exists for Copilot but it does tell me earlier! I swear there is a serious problem with Sygic on traffic.

Click to expand...

This is the main thing I dislike about Co-Pilot and Sygic (aside from Sygic's sometimes crazy routing). I do not want to have to press buttons on the phone while driving.

On Tomtom, Navigon, Navigate 6 and Waze, redirection for traffic detected after the start of a journey can be automated. The latest version of Google Navigation (for Android Jelly Bean onwards) also automates rerouting for traffic(previously it just calculated diversions with the initial route).

So far - I'm most confident in Tomtom's traffic in their own app. That has a 4 minute (or there-abouts) threshold for time saving so it doesn't tend to do things like take slip roads to get around traffic on a motorway. Most importanly the data is good - with many jam positions accurate to within metres. I haven't quite got my head round the way Navigate 6 handles re-direction yet - other than it's a bit more gung-ho than Tomtom about diverting off the main roads to get around traffic. I suspect it's looking for either 1 minute or any time saving at all.

The Tomtom app traffic system has a 40 minute traffic horizon for jams and 160 km (100 miles ish) for road closures. I haven't yet worked out what Navigate 6 is doing regarding horizon. When browsing the map in Navigate 6 you can see traffic indicant and flow data anywhere but in Tomtom there's roughly a 100 mile radius for incidents to be downloaded. The furthest traffic incident shown in the Navigate 6 status bar I've seen was 36 miles away. There seems to be traffic shown on the map that doesn't get shown in the status bar as an indicent. I think this may be average speed info from historic traffic.

Of the navigation apps I use, Navigon seems to have the furtherst traffic horizon, showing incidents up to about 150 miles away.

I've not yet tried Navigate 6's manual rerouting feature but I gather that it checks your route for traffic every 5 minutes and informs you if it has detected faster routes. I'm unlikely to bother with this unless I have a passenger as I prefer not to interact with the phone while driving.

My Tomtom HD Traffic subscription expires this week so I'm going to use up the 30 days with Navigate 6 before renewing it.

Regarding one of of Muon's other criticisms of Navigate 6:
- It will show current speed if you tap the remaining distance in the bottom right corner. This changes to current speed. Likewise, tapping the time remaining will give you an ETA. There really is enough screen space to show all of these though so it's annoying having to choose.

Does anyone know when this is due for release for the iPhone?

My co-pilot subscription runs out soon so may look at this.

Thanks

I only know what it says on the website - "available soon".

Edit: After using the app for a few days, it seems that the routing, ETAs and automated traffic avoidance behaviour are functionally identical with http://routes.tomtom.com (although they seem to be running different revisions of Tomtom maps). This is a more aggressive re-routing behaviour than the current Tomtom Android app v1.3.

I've edited the OP for reference.

Google has been the best Nav software I've used for actual routing. Trying Navigon yesterday and return leg was taking me on a right scenic route. Ignored it and went usual route. Odd it sends me home different way to the morning! Traffic on it is not up to date either as usual black spots are not updated frequently enough.

Navigon gives me hopelessly optimistic ETAs. I very much doubt they're legally achievable. The voice directions are great though.

Navigon's traffic is basically the TMC info provided by Inrix to various satnav manufacturers. It's pretty reliable for closures on A roads and motorways. For general traffic flow is quite bad. I'm not sure it's actually capable of showing traffic for B Roads downwards.

I've used all of them over the years.

Google Nav is the best, timing, traffic estimation and rerouting. With Evona voice the TTS is perfect as well.

Waze is next in line with up to date camera notifications so will be good once Google integrates Waze with Maps nav.

I find google maps nav so hard to see when driving. The blue route is way too small.

I stick with tomtom purely for easy to see interface, it bugs me with the lack of free traffic info but gives a easier straight forward route usually not zig zagging down 20mph streets that google maps does.

Google's not bad at all - and I can certainly recommend Ivona TTS. However, Google doesn't currently show road closures in the UK - only traffic flow (although they are supposed to be incorporating Waze incident reports sometime around now).

The article I linked in this post may be of interest: It's systematic comparison of the success rate of various traffic services for detecting traffic congestion. Basically - Tomtom was most successful, then Google, with Garmin's services (the Garmin SIM is essentially what you get with Navigon) coming in way behind.

Uriel said:

University of Michigan compares success rates of predicting traffic jams from Tomtom, Google, Inrix, Garmin.

Tomtom comes out top for accurately predicting traffic jams (not particularly surprising, as the study appears to be funded by Tomtom). However, I will say that I've been using all these services (except Garmin HD) for at least a year and the findings of the study do reflect my own experience.

I've pulled the article from Google's cache to avoid needing a sign-in to view the article.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...2/100187/102967.pdf+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

As per my thread in mobiles, Navigate 6 for Android (and iPhone soon) currently has a 30 day free trial, including HD Traffic from Tomtom. If you regularly travel in congested traffic I'd say it's worth a go. I've had it divert me around several confirmed jams since I started using it in the last few days and it diverts around traffic more readily than Tomtom's own Android app. Where HD Traffic falls down is that it sometimes misses road closures reported by the standard RDS-TMC traffic service provided by Inrix (and used by non-live Tomtom PNDs).

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muon said:

However, it is very smooth and quick and the routes appear to be sensible. Although it did once want me to leave the dual carriageway only to rejoin it in the roundabout underneath it??

Click to expand...

I think I've figured out why this is. When N6 initially plans a route or sets traffic to avoid, it looks for time savings on a fairly aggressive basis. It seems to divert around traffic incidents within at least an hour's drive. The trouble is, some of those incidents will have cleared in minutes. It appears that N6 doesn't usually change back to the clear main route - certainly not very quickly anyway.

Unfortunately an hour is rather a long time for 3-5 minute delay incidents to remain in effect.

By comparison, Tomtom does remove diversions if the reason for them is no longer in effect.

Uriel said:

I think I've figured out why this is. When N6 initially plans a route or sets traffic to avoid, it looks for time savings on a fairly aggressive basis. It seems to divert around traffic incidents within at least an hour's drive. The trouble is, some of those incidents will have cleared in minutes. It appears that N6 doesn't usually change back to the clear main route - certainly not very quickly anyway.

Unfortunately an hour is rather a long time for 3-5 minute delay incidents to remain in effect.

By comparison, Tomtom does remove diversions if the reason for them is no longer in effect.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I like the aggressive routing actually. I'll see in a couple of weeks if on average I've actually saved time.