17. Trip Planner: Multi-Destination Routing (and Route Optimization)

Figure 69: Accessing the Trip Planner

One of the most frequently requested features for a GPS is the ability to enter multiple addresses and have the GPS sort the addresses by distance so you're not driving in circles. Maestro's Trip Planner allows you to do just that.

To access the Trip Planner, scroll to page 2 of the Main Menu by tapping on the right arrow, then tap the Trip Planner icon, as shown above.

Figure 70: Using the Trip Planner

Select New from the Trip Planner Menu to start creating a new multi-destination trip. Once a trip has been saved, you can start navigating the trip by tapping "Guide Me", delete it by tapping "Delete, Rename", or change the contents of the trip by tapping "Edit".

Before you can start adding addresses to the trip, you'll need to create and save a new trip by tapping New.

Figure 71: Giving the Trip a Name

Give the trip a name that will make it easy to identify the trip in the Trip Planner. Note that the trip name can't be longer than 11 characters, which makes meaningful trip names a little tougher.

Figure 72: Adding an Address to the Trip

Now that we've named the trip, we're ready to start adding addresses. This screen allows you enter as many stops, or addresses, as you want, and sort them in the desired order.

To add the first destination to the trip, tap "Add".

Figure 73: Choosing an Address Entry Type

The Trip Planner allows you to add addresses to the saved trip four different ways:

• Enter Address - Add an address by entering a street address (State, City, Street, House Number)
• POIs - Add an address by searching the POI (Points of Interest) database
• Address Book - Add an saved address from the Address Book
• Intersection - Allows you to input two cross-streets instead of an exact address

Figure 74: Optimizing the Route

Additional addresses can be added to the trip by tapping Append.

Once you've finished entering all the addresses for the trip, tapping Optimize. Optimizing a trip re-sorts the addresses by distance. This can be a great feature for people who regularly drive to multiple locations, such as real estate agents, delivery agents, plumbers, etc.

Figure 75: Using a Saved Trip

After creating and saving a trip, the itinerary becomes available for use in the Trip Planner. To start navigating a saved trip, tap the arrow to get to the second page of the Main Menu -> Trip Planner -> Guide Me -> Saved Trip Name -> Tap the address you want to start driving to.

18. Routing Engine Performance

All the bells and whistles aside, what really matters on any GPS is the quality of the maps, and how well the GPS figures out the best way to get from point A to B.

The single most common complaint I hear is "the GPS took me on a crazy route that I would never have chosen and was certainly not the best/shortest way."

Arguably the most critical components of any turn-by-turn GPS navigation system are the routing engine and map accuracy. The routing engine is the software on a GPS that decides which route the unit should plot to get from point A to point B. Many people falsely assume that having the same maps on two GPS devices will result in the same routing choices. Not so, as there is a great deal of math and decision-making involved when calculating the "best" route between any two points.

Not surprisingly, this also one of the most difficult and complex aspects for GPS manufacturers to get right, and is the aspect of GPS navigation that is least well understood by consumers. Nevertheless, routing engine quality should be at the top of your list when comparing GPS units. After all, all the features in the world are of little value of the GPS can't figure out the best way to get you to your destination.

The two largest mapping data providers are NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas . NAVTEQ has historically been considered more accurate and complete in North America, however Tele Atlas has made a lot of progress in the past 24 months and is generally considered just as good as NAVTEQ. All Magellan's GPS units use NAVTEQ mapping data.

However, there is a lot more to a routing engine than just the mapping data provider. How a given GPS will determine the "best" route is the result of not only the mapping data, but also how many additional data points, or attributes, are factored into the equation. For example, are certain roads closed after hours or on the weekend? What is the average rate of speed for a given road? Statistically speaking, more accidents happen when making left turns as opposed to right turns -- is the GPS unit factoring that into the route? Each company takes all this data and compiles it in different ways, making unique decisions about what data is more important than others. The number of attributes used varies depending on how much money the manufacturer is willing to spend on their mapping data. For example, a full NAVTEQ map database that includes all available attributes can cost the manufacturer twice as much as a basic set of attributes.

All Magellan and Garmin GPS units use NAVTEQ mapping data, while TomTom uses Tele Atlas. Magellan's Maestro 4250 ships with 2007 NAVTEQ maps pre-installed.

In order to fully test Maestro 4250's routing engine, I entered three different trips of varying distance in three different regions of the United States, and compared Maestro's routes to TomTom's ONE XL and Garmin's nuvi 680.

Note that the Magellan Maestro 4250 produced identical routing results to other Maestro models, including the 4040 and 4050.

Our first test took us along the Northeast, starting in Southbury, CT and ending in New York City:

Magellan's Maestro 4250, Garmin's nuvi 680, and TomTom's ONE XL all get us to our destination address, but the Garmin nuvi chooses a slightly faster route, provides more detailed navigation instructions, and is also the only GPS to announce what side of the street our destination address is on.

TomTom's ONE XL faired the worst in this test, routing us in such a way that the destination address is actually on the left side of the street. We would then either have to make an illegal U-turn or go around the block to arrive at 135 Central Park West on our right. TomTom also has less detailed navigation prompts than the Magellan Maestro 4250.

Yahoo! Maps (not shown in the table above) chooses a route identical to Garmin's route, but estimates the trip will take 3 minutes longer (1 hour 22 minutes) than Garmin estimates. Google Maps also chooses the same route as the Garmin nuvi.

Garmin's unit faired well in the first routing test. However, sometimes a GPS that routes perfectly well in one area can perform terribly in another region. Our first test used a trip that was approximately 80 miles in length and took us from Connecticut to New York City.

For our second test, I started out at Fry's Electronics in San Jose, California and entered a destination address at 300 Grove Street in San Francisco (about 46 miles in distance):