How can I supress Tripadvisor data being shown at destination arrival - it's a dangerous feature

[DavidR]

This was photo was taken of the screen last night when I was attempting to safely navigate around the Malpensa Airport Arrivals / Departures zone, in the dark and with significant other trafic in a very confined area with intricate road markings.

On arrival at the destinatioto n, the Zumo XT2 takes over about 30% of the available screen to show completely uselless Tripadvisor advertising – presumably Garmin gets paid by Tripadvisor for this feature.

So, put yourself in the driver’s position:

1. Unfamilliar environment.
2. Considerable traffic.
3. Restricted area with intricate road layout and lane marking.
4. Darkness, with a lot of moving and flashing lights.

Zumo XT2 Tripadvisoe at destination arrival.jpg (70.96 KiB) Viewed 3314 times

This is an overhead photo of part of the area in daylight which makes the point quite clearly – I think you will agree, if you are a bike rider, that in a location like this the last thing you would want is to be force fed irrelevant (or any) advertising:

Zumo XT2 Tripadvisoe at destination arrival 2.jpg (36.07 KiB) Viewed 3314 times

Just at the critical time of arrival, when the maximum concentration is needed on traffic and driving, the XT2 takes over 30% of the screen with junk information – I already knew why I was there (to pick up an arriving passenger): I did not need to be offered a Luxury Chauffeur Service or a Health Spa!

The options Garmin thus forces on the driver are to:

A. Try and ignore the unessary distraction and work with the small map window – why buy a big screen device just to receive advertising from Tripadvisor?
B. Switch attention away from the road, take one hand off the bars and dismiss the XT2 advertising window – in case of an accident caused by the distraction, will Garmin accept the liability in court?

These options are both unsafe and unreasonable.

Had I known of this “feature” I would not have purchased the device because this “feature” creates a very real safty hazard.

I assume that it should be possible to either supress this feature (in which case how?) or to completely remove Tripadvisor from the device (in which case how?).

So far Garmin support (usually very good) have not responded to a support request so do any of you guys know how to kill this spam feature on the device?

[jfheath]

I don't know the XT2, only the XT. But I would take a look at :

Settings -> Map & vehicle -> Map Layers -> Up Ahead Places

You could turn it off to see if that makes it go away. If it does, then turn it on again and see if you can configure it. Look at Cities Ahead - the XT doesn't have that but I found this in the XT2 manual.

IMG_0242.jpeg (175.55 KiB) Viewed 3271 times

Others might chime in with better info, but that is where I would look first if all. Hope that helps.

If it does, let us know please. Screenshots are always useful !!!

[DavidR]

Many Thanks, I've configured UP AHEAD to only show Garmin Red Light Cameras, Parking and Roadside Services and this works fine on the journey. However, it does not seem to affect the Zumo XT2 popping the TripAdvisor window on arrival.

It seems as if the Tripadvisor is able to overide these settings at destination arrival.

I'll try disabling UP AHEAD completely to see if it makes any difference.

I've had an overnight answer from Garmin Support as follows:

Looking at this it appears to be the 'up ahead' details. You can turn this off simply by tapping the 'X' in the bottom right corner. That gets rid of the box and should keep the screen free of clutter upon approach to your destination

Alternatively you can customise it to make it more useful and less Advert-y by changing the categories utilised -
Customising the up ahead categories

First Garmin Suggestion - This does not work - Tapping X removes the window for the single instance, but does not stop the Tripadvisor window popping at subsequent Destination arrivals. The biggest irritation at Malpensa Airport Arrivals / Departures was that as the road system takes you in concentric circles in a small physical area every time I passed the location that Garmin recognised as the Destination the Tripadvisor window popped again!

Seconnd Garmin Suggestion - Supports your analysis, but it seems impossible to select Tripadvisor out (software overide?) so I'll try turning UP Ahead off completely to see what the effect is. Should be able to do this today and will post an update this evening along with any update from Garmin.

[jfheath]

Looks like we are looking in the correct area.

Favourites / Saved locations are also controlled by Up Ahead Places. They are not mentioned specifically, but turning up ahead places off stops them from showing - this is the green sqaure with a white heart in the middle that you get when Garmin Explore is not enabled on the XT. In fact, it is the only way that I have found of turning them off.

Is 'Up Ahead Cities' one of the list of options that you get in Up Ahead places, or is it something that is configured elsewhere in Map Layers. ?

[DavidR]

I've now run a few trips as controlled experiments and what I've so far found is:

1. With Up Ahead places ON but Tripadvosor OFF Tripadvisor still pops at destination.

2. With Up Ahead places OFF I lose useful information (i.e. Speed Cameras and Parking and Motorway Services which I had set to on) but Tripadvisor still pops up at Destination.

However, and this is really strange, today I approached a destination I frequently use (my local Italian out of town supermercato) from the NORTH (I'd been into town) rather than from the SOUTH (my usual direction) and on arrival Tripadvisor did not pop up at destination.

I've not had anything further from Garmin today, but I presently think, based on the tests I've been able to run, that either:

A. The softwere controlling the selection of Up Ahead features is buggy (anyone esle found this erratic behaviour?)

OR

B. The Tripadvisor module is programmed to bypass the Up Ahead settings (perhaps as part of a monetisation agreement between Garmin and Tripadvisor) and so become a "feature".

I also wonder whether the detail operation of the XT2 is different from the XT (which I've never used) and the 660 (my old unit, which I now wish I could revert to but which was brought back by Garmin as a discount against the XT2 because the latest Garmin Map update definitively broke the unit rendering the extension memory unuseable.)

[Fxwheels]

However, and this is really strange, today I approached a destination I frequently use (my local Italian out of town supermercato) from the NORTH (I'd been into town) rather than from the SOUTH (my usual direction) and on arrival Tripadvisor did not pop up at destination.

To complete the test, try to approach from the south again and see what happens.

[DavidR]

I did, and the Tripadvisor window pops at the usual point, about 0.5 Km short of the destination when approached from the south.

This behaviour might be a possible anomally of the specific destination as the behaviour does not occure at other destinations I frequently use regardless of the direction the destination is approached from.

[jfheath]

Clutching at straws. I repeat - I do not know the XT2, but I have a 590/595 and an XT and seeing how that they have developed, I am going to make a few guesses.

1. Check Rider Alerts in Driver assistance.
2. Check options in Break planning in Driver Assistance.
3. Check Suggest Attraction for the Trip - the spanner/menu top left of the selected route
4. Check the smart notification settings in your (whatever is the equivalent to the Garmin Drive App) on your phone. Turn them all off. Add tthings one at a time. (Or simply turn your phone off).
5. Check that when creating a route, your last route point has not jumped to a known hotel.
6. Does the XT2 have something like this for hotels as well as for parking :

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp ... 2F356.html

I can't see how you can turn it off though.

7. A work around. Add a dummy final destination (shaping or Via) a few hundred yards from the place that you intend to stop. That will (almost certainly) stop it from doing this, as it thinks you haven't arrived at the end yet. A few hundred yards will make little difference to ETA or distance to the end. Its bit like putting the start point after the start / putting the cafe stop on the road you want to be on after the break and using a shaping point to mark the actual cafe, or giving online sign in your wrong details, or putting your home address on the other side of town. Makes everything work as it should, even though the info is not quite correct.

That's the best I can offer at the moment.

[lkraus]

I think the source of the data needs to be determined before you can hope to turn it off. Is the displayed data being downloaded through the Tread app as-needed, or is it from a supplemental "map" of POIs like the internal National Parks "map" on the XT?

[DavidR]

Thanks to you both for your suggestions JFHEATH and IKRUAS.

I've done a bit more experimenting this morning and you may both be onto something by focussing on the data source. BTW neither a cellphone nor the Tread App are enabled - I've attempted to strip out all extraneous elements from the equation to aid diagnosis and the only map loaded is the current Europe map.

Though I'm not yet certain, it's looking possible that whether or not Tripadvisor pops the window on destination arrival may depend on the source of the destination target. My new working assumption is that a destination that someway implicates the Tripadvisor data (e.g. Search) links back to the data source when arrival is triggered. (I think Search pulls data from Tripadvisor).

As a test, I set two destinations this morning, both of which are in my Waypoints list, via the Address process. Using the destination from the Waypoint list the Tripadvisor window pops on arrival BUT if using athe destination entered via Address the Tripadvisor window does not pop.

Luckily, the destinations in my Waypoint list are disposable, so I'm going to try wiping all Waypoint entries and replace them, one at a time, with "clean" destinations entered via the Address routine and test that.

I should have an update on this by tomorrow,

Again many thanks