City Navigator North America NT 2020.2 concerns

[HarveyM]

I’ve noticed a minor annoyance with the most recent update of City navigator NT on my Zumo 660. On a recent road trip it would declare I was off route before my turning point, and on a city address it overshot by 72 metres. While most of the time it’s a minor issue I’ve had the GPS wrong turn me on an address 37 metres from the turning point. I haven’t noticed Open Street Maps having the same problems, so I don’t think it’s my 660’s accuracy. This would be for the Ontario Canada region. Has anyone else found this problem?

[Stu]

I had something similar after a map update in that when searching for a certain city it would show it some 40 miles away!

A factory reset solved the issue

[jfheath]

Are the maps the same on your PC as they are on the Zumo ?
What software are you using to plan the route and transfer it ?

[HarveyM]

Yes the same map on both on the Mac & the zumo; in the first case (roadtrip) it was a planned route transferred from Basecamp. In the second it was an address entered into the zumo directly.

I'll try a master reset and see if that resolves the issue..

[Tom Schmitz]

In CNNA NT 2020.2 my street address is 400 feet north of my house's location.

It has been that way in every map version I have ever had, going back at least 10 years.

Once, in Massachusetts, it took me to my destination but it was off by at least 10 miles. I had to stop and ask directions at a gas station to get near my true destination, then stop again when I got close to get final directions.

Meh. The maps aren't perfect.

[jfheath]

I know that there can be issues with transfer from Basecamp to the Zumo 660, but i can't imagine that this can be anything to do with that.

When plotting routes to unknown places, I may use waypoints taken from the database to get a rough plan. I use Basecamp usually or Mapsource occasionally for this and then i visit every single route point to make sure it is plotted on a road, on the correct side of a dual carriageway, and I usually move them onto the road I want to be on after leaving a town.

Its a slightly different issue, i know, but when dragging a new route point onto the map in BC or MS, the point will often have jumped to the nearest known Waypoint - ie a point that is stored in the database. When the map is zoomed out, this dropped point can be quite a long way from the place that you intended it be. It is an easy enough job to show the table of routing points, turn on 'Centre on Map', and click on each point in the table in turn. The map will automatically zoom in on each selected point and you can shift them if necessary. Usually every single point needs some adjustment. What makes it worse for me with the 590 is that when the dragged point jumps to a known Waypoint, it becomes a Via point and the 590 insists on making detours up a side road and back in order to visit these. The 660 doesn't have that particular issue though - it will let you bypass the road end and continue on its route.

I have found most stored waypoints for hotels, cafes and attractions are not quite in the correct place and are occasionally miles out, so for those final destinations, i get onto google maps, street view and satellite imagery in order to pinpoint the place precisely, and will often 'drive' the streets on streetview so that I can work out the best approach and the best place to park.

There's nothing much worse than arriving at a place cold, wet and tired than not being where you Wanted tobe. So I think it is important enough for me to spend that little extra time making absolutely sure.

But you are right. Theres nothing wrong with the satnav, the database of waypoints however I have found to be suspect. 'Wayward Points', perhaps ?

[Breezly]

Regarding street addresses IIRC the 660 uses logical addressing, assigning areas to a block of numbered addresses. The precise address within a particular block of addresses can be quite far off. Newer gps units in North America use point addressing, assigning precise locations to individual addresses. Basecamp I believe uses logical addressing. By way of example, in Basecamp my house is about 1,000 feet off while on my Z590/5 it's location is spot on.

I would generally not rely on addresses entered as waypoint without confirming the actual precise location, in my case using Google Earth.

Garmin claims that over 80% of addresses in North America are included in the point addressing.