I have a Garmin Nuvi 650 and I love it. I keep it set on “Truck” and “Fastest Time” and it almost always gets me where I want to go without any problems. However, you have to pay attention to what is going on. As I was driving south on I-75 nearing Atlanta, the navigator was directing me to stay on I-75 through Atlanta. I could read the signs that said no vehicles over six wheels on I-75 so I took the I-285 bypass that I planned to take all along. That wonderful little navigator just recalculated and everything was fine.
I did some minor programming during my work life and my hat is off to those programmers that provide the algorithms for the navigators.
gillguy wrote: I have the Nuvi 650 also and I selected the truck for display. I wasn't aware that it gives truck route instead of one that cars usually take. I think I'll switch it over to the tiny car again and check that out. I did notice though that with the truck, it does give me a different route than one I'd normally take.
Thanks.
gillguy,
please note what Chenevert said: ...in the "map" menu, there is a change vehicle option. There one can change from the default car to other vehicles, such as a truck. As others have pointed out, this is for display purposes only, and does not impact routing.
To clarify, he is talking about the vehicle icon, what you see on the screen, which is what I think you're referring to. There is another setting to change what type of vehicle you are driving. That setting impacts the route selection. Another thing to note is that the GPS selects a route based on the available information and a computer program. It does not have the intimate knowledge of your driving habits and favorite routes or shortcuts. Going to my BIL's house my GPS always routes a different path than the one I take. In that case I let it recalculate my route and use it estimate my arrival time.
DznyFan, actually in my initial note, I tried to point out that in one spot, the navigation menu, truck vs car doe make a difference for the routing the GPS will compute for you, but that in a different spot, in the map menu, truck vs car only makes a difference in the displayed icon. Maybe I should have omitted that second comment, if it caused confusion.
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chenevert wrote: DznyFan, actually in my initial note, I tried to point out that in one spot, the navigation menu, truck vs car doe make a difference for the routing the GPS will compute for you, but that in a different spot, in the map menu, truck vs car only makes a difference in the displayed icon. Maybe I should have omitted that second comment, if it caused confusion.
No, I think it was good to include that second feature in your original post, even though it causes confusion, precisely because it does cause so much confusion. I also think chenevert fully understood your post, and was trying to point out the difference between the two features to gillguy, who apparently missed the distinction.
There are many units out there that allow the display vehicle to be changed, but do not allow the routing method to be changed. This has caused confusion to many people, leading to the claims that setting the vehicle type doesn't make any difference. I took your post to mean that your unit has two different settings, and while one doesn't make a difference, the other one definitely does.
And just for the record, just as there are units out there that allow the only the display symbol to be changed, and there are units that allow the display symbol and the routing type to be changed, there are also units that only allow the routing type to be changed and do not allow changing the display symbol. My Garmin 7200 is an example of the latter type -- I have only one vehicle type option that can be changed, and that affects only the routing process, not the display (the display is always an arrow.)
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gillguy wrote: I have the Nuvi 650 also and I selected the truck for display. I wasn't aware that it gives truck route instead of one that cars usually take. I think I'll switch it over to the tiny car again and check that out. I did notice though that with the truck, it does give me a different route than one I'd normally take.
Thanks.
gillguy,
please note what Chenevert said: ...in the "map" menu, there is a change vehicle option. There one can change from the default car to other vehicles, such as a truck. As others have pointed out, this is for display purposes only, and does not impact routing.
To clarify, he is talking about the vehicle icon, what you see on the screen, which is what I think you're referring to. There is another setting to change what type of vehicle you are driving. That setting impacts the route selection. Another thing to note is that the GPS selects a route based on the available information and a computer program. It does not have the intimate knowledge of your driving habits and favorite routes or shortcuts. Going to my BIL's house my GPS always routes a different path than the one I take. In that case I let it recalculate my route and use it estimate my arrival time.
Got it. Thanks.
I did select the truck as a display, I had also selected truck on the route selector. I've since change it to car/motorcycle, but kept the truck on the display, and yes it does give different routes. Glad I found that out. Now I know to use the truck setting when towing the TT. Well maybe not always, but I'm going to be switching between the 2 so I can compare routes.
Thanks
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I'm brand new to GPS and bought the NUVI650.
I would doubt that the display vehicle gives you different routes.
However, I did notice that on the exact same settings, going between the two exact same points, on different days, I got slightly different routes.
Could this be due to the satellite it ends up picking??
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NAUTIQUE wrote: I'm brand new to GPS and bought the NUVI650.
I would doubt that the display vehicle gives you different routes.
Correct, the display vehicle does not affect the route. But there is a routing preference on many units (apparently including the Nuvi650) which does affect the chosen route.
Quote: However, I did notice that on the exact same settings, going between the two exact same points, on different days, I got slightly different routes.
Could this be due to the satellite it ends up picking??
No, I don't think so. It shouldn't matter which satellites it happens to see at the time. The satellites know nothing about your position, and they do not transmit any route information. Really, all they know is their own current position in space and the current time (both very accurately) and that is the data they transmit. The GPS receives this information from multiple satellites, and using some complex math can figure out how far it is away from each satellite. Then, using some more math, by knowning where each satellite is, and how far away it is from each of them, it can figure out where it is.
Once the GPS knows where it is, and where you want to go, then it can calculate a route. Often, there are multiple routes that are pretty much equivalent according to its decision making software. Maybe in your case you started from two slightly different positions, and that was enough to give a slight preference to one route or another, and that is why you got different results. Or maybe it had a choice of a few different routes, and randomly chose one of the other. Without knowing what decision making processes they included in the routing software, it's just too hard to say.
ShapeShifter wrote: The satellites know nothing about your position, and they do not transmit any route information. Really, all they know is their own current position in space and the current time (both very accurately) and that is the data they transmit.
ShapeShifter wrote: The satellites know nothing about your position, and they do not transmit any route information. Really, all they know is their own current position in space and the current time (both very accurately) and that is the data they transmit.
Then how can it tell your speed?
The satellites don't know about your position. The software in the GPS unit uses data from the satellites to calculate your position. Since it (the GPS software) is constantly calculating you position, it can calculate your change of position over time; that is, it can calculate your speed.
All I can say is,, I'm pretty amazed with my new toy!
I find it mind-blowing when you think about the data involved in these things.
Unbelievable how they show the smallest streets, ponds, streams, ect.
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