I used the app on a long trip for the first time, starting last Thursday, after the full release and here are my observations. I only joined the beta program 4 weeks ago so some of these items might be known or have been discussed before. My trip was 900 miles over 4 days from Kent UK to Arnhem Netherlands and back with some exploring around Arnhem on local roads.
1. Routing leaves and immediately joins the motorway at junctions. This happened a few times, the route would guide me off at a junction and immediately back on. I experienced this behaviour under lots of different scenarios; when following a route from routelab as a track, as a route and also when I created a route in the app by searching for a location. Recalculating the route with different maps (OSM, Here, TomTom) didn’t seem to change the behaviour. Screen shot below.
2. I had created a set of POIs and added them to my library but they didn't appear when searching for a location in app. I assume this is by design but I would find this extremely useful, in the same way that my Zumo allows a custom POI category that is used when searching.
3. I persuaded 2 friends to run the app alongside their Garmins, they both downloaded the trial. We connected to each other as friends and I set the sharing on my routes to 'friends' but initially they could not see them. I then realised the as the routes are in a folder, I had to set the folder permission to friends as well. A bit of a gotcha that took a while to figure out.
4. Traffic, I think that to display traffic I have to check the traffic box when choosing the map and building the route in routeLab as I only seemed to get traffic sometimes and didn't always check this box when creating the route. I'm still very new to the app so there may be a setting I have not found yet.
5. I find the Stop Navigation functionality odd and I know there is some discussion on the MRA the forum but I would like to have a master configuration setting so I could choose the Stop Navigation auto or manual.
Overall, I felt that I could use the app in place of my Zumo most of the time (I'm trying to simplify and reduce the amount of equipment I carry/have attached to the bike) and with more use it will become more familiar. For me, it is point 1 & 2 that will stop me using it 100% for longer trips at this time.
I have posted these thougts on the MRA Forum but thought I'd share them here too.
1. Routing leaves and immediately joins the motorway at junctions. This happened a few times, the route would guide me off at a junction and immediately back on. I experienced this behaviour under lots of different scenarios; when following a route from routelab as a track, as a route and also when I created a route in the app by searching for a location. Recalculating the route with different maps (OSM, Here, TomTom) didn’t seem to change the behaviour. Screen shot below.
2. I had created a set of POIs and added them to my library but they didn't appear when searching for a location in app. I assume this is by design but I would find this extremely useful, in the same way that my Zumo allows a custom POI category that is used when searching.
3. I persuaded 2 friends to run the app alongside their Garmins, they both downloaded the trial. We connected to each other as friends and I set the sharing on my routes to 'friends' but initially they could not see them. I then realised the as the routes are in a folder, I had to set the folder permission to friends as well. A bit of a gotcha that took a while to figure out.
4. Traffic, I think that to display traffic I have to check the traffic box when choosing the map and building the route in routeLab as I only seemed to get traffic sometimes and didn't always check this box when creating the route. I'm still very new to the app so there may be a setting I have not found yet.
5. I find the Stop Navigation functionality odd and I know there is some discussion on the MRA the forum but I would like to have a master configuration setting so I could choose the Stop Navigation auto or manual.
Overall, I felt that I could use the app in place of my Zumo most of the time (I'm trying to simplify and reduce the amount of equipment I carry/have attached to the bike) and with more use it will become more familiar. For me, it is point 1 & 2 that will stop me using it 100% for longer trips at this time.
I have posted these thougts on the MRA Forum but thought I'd share them here too.
