[Kremmen]

In advance of any other posts ....


Garmin have a range of traffic inputs for their standalone units and I have no idea which one they are using for the new onboard Android unit. In advance though:

TMC RDS

This is the inferior service that only reports traffic via affiliated radio stations. This is what the current unit uses. This is limited to motorways and most A roads. It only updates every 15 minutes and by that time the traffic is often 15 minutes out of date so is often 30 minutes old.

viaMichelin (Naas)

This is the traffic that is broadcast to Garmin PND's via the SmartLink app. My testing has proved that viaMichelin are quick to include roadworks but hopeless at removing them. I know of roadworks near me that finished last Aug/Sep but are still showing. This has a knock on effect of overriding the valid traffic display with roadworks symbols.
In my area (West London) viaMichelin on my Android reports "6 users nearby" so not very popular.

Inrix UK$

This is the best service from Garmin and is delivered via the supplied SatNav power cable. This traffic service is very accurate because the Android app allows adding and removal of roadworks and traffic via a report facility. My Android Inrix app reports circa "6400" users nearby.

I wonder which one they are using ?

 

[Steve_m]

Live traffic on Honda Connect's Garmin App is sourced via RDS TMC from the following services.

UK - Trafficmaster.
France - Mediamobile
Italy - Infoblu
Others - Free to air services.

 

[Kremmen]

Thanks for that.

I think they've missed a trick there then because RDS is hopeless when compared to digital traffic.

I've got the 2013 built in unit which is RDS but I've also been doing some testing on a Garmin 2597LMT which is RDS and a Garmin 2599LMT-D which is digital.
First thing is that the digital reception is better than analogue, locks on quicker, and any traffic issues appear considerably earlier on the digital unit

On a recent journey on the M25 clockwise the built in unit and the 2597 both told me that the tail of the traffic was at junction 15. The digital unit said it was junction 13. The digital unit was right. The distance between these junctions is quite a few miles.
I suspect this is probably a cost issue to make the unit compatible with other countries.

 

[Steve_m]

I suspect this is probably a cost issue to make the unit compatible with other countries.

Its all a cost / usability balance.

I expect Garmin would have wanted an additional liecence fee to use digital traffic and again this may not be usable in so many European countries.

 

[Kremmen]

I suppose that could be checked by which countries sell the -D models.

Useful info though as it may lead me to hang on to my current Civic for longer than originally planned.