Quality of Traffic Info from Maps 3.

Discussion for Ovi Maps 3.0 Beta for mobile

14-06-2009 20:10

Hi,

I've had a "Traffic info" license for a year now, and have found the quality of the data rather poor. Roadworks were missed altogether, or inaccurately positioned. And real-time congestion information didn't seem to be provided. I live in North West England.

a. Is this the experience of other people?

b. Has the data quality of the traffic infor improved with Maps 3 in your experience so far?

c. It would be interesting to know what the "Maps improvement" data is used for - it could of course be used to provide real-time traffic speed and therefore congestion information.

Comments

Submitted by xapi on 30-06-2009 15:48.

I haven't used the Traffic Info on NM2, but I can talk about the usage on NM3.

I have never had any accurate data with it for past 3 monthes around Paris and more generally in France:
- traffic jam alerts when there's nothing wrong at all on the road
- no data/warning about real traffic jam
- roadworks are apparently handled the same way as traffic jam even when it doesn't slowdown people and doesn't create traffic issue, so you have to check manually the description of each traffic event warning and can't rely on automatic re-routing.
- traffic events are supposed to be in bold red on the map, it's not, but I also see bold red on roads which doesn't have any trafic events reported on.

Basis for accuracy evalaution : daily driving through trafic jam around Paris + live check/comparison with v-trafic.com provider.

My feedback is quite simple : I have the feeling that I paid a licence something that just doesn't work.

I know it won't please the Nokia team, but unfortunately this is just fact and after 3 NM3 beta updates I see no improvement despite I made already feedback on this (and NM3 is not the issue, as trafic info list of events itself is not accurate).

Submitted by geoffg.ovi on 14-07-2009 22:07.

Thanks Xapi.

Regrettably, this is my experience too - that the data is either inaccurate or missing, and is rarely correct.

I've just searched for, and failed to find, any feedback mechanism for the Traffic Information aspect of Maps 3.

In order to improve this service, and maintain the quality of data for customers, there needs to be a route for customers to report omissions and inaccuracies for this service, to the holder of these data, so that they can be corrected and the service improved. It is a greatly missed opportunity for customers to be painfully aware of these shortcomings, and yet have no route by which to report them so tha the problem can be fixed.

Such problems are very frequent, and sometimes omissions of such significant and obvious problems that it is very hard to understand how they can be allowed to happen in the first place.

For example, I have discovered that the fact that one of the major routes in Manchester, the UK's second largets City, which has been in place for TWO MONTHS, and which will still be in place for a further month, still is not shown in the traffic information on Maps 3!

This is a serious omission, clearly, and anyone relying on Maps 3, to get them into the centre of Manchester via this route is going to encounter great difficulty and serious delay. In fact it is very hard to understand how such an omission could be made, and should I suggest, be the cue for Nokia to have serious words with their suppliers for these data. Nokia's reputation, and the quality of service to its customers, is at stake here.

See the following extract from http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews/local/manchester.shtml

A34 [Oxford Street] Manchester
both ways between B6469, Whitworth Street, Manchester and A5103, Portland Street, Greater Manchester underground services work roadworks closed affecting all driving lanes
A34 Greater Manchester - Oxford Street closed both ways due to water main work between B6469 Whitworth Street and A5103 Portland Street, in Manchester. Diversion in operation - signed. Also affecting B6469 Whitworth Street between A34 Oxford Street and A34 Princess Street

Last updated: 22nd June 2009 at 07:40, started: 11th May 2009, ending: 2nd August 2009

So - we've identified the problem, given evidence, and suggested some ways to adress it:

a. Nokia to talk to the providers of these data and ask them to adress data quality issues

b. Nokia to provide an effective feedback channel for gaps and inaccuracies in these data to be reported to the provider and rectified.

I hope Nokia will act on this. As xapi says, this is a subscription service, and like him, I have exactly the same feeling that with the quality of data as it is, I'm getting very little value for my money.

Submitted by snowy on 19-07-2009 03:56.

nokia just resigned with their providers. Take that for the worst or best is my guess.

Submitted by ish68 on 20-07-2009 04:51.

Nokia needs to get their act together and take drastic measures to sort these problems and NOW not later.

I purchased my N95 8Gb in July 2008 and used maps 2 after my free month of the vodafone satnav expired. I started purchasing the license for both driving and traffic and agree it was bad at the start, but it's 10 times worse now.

There have been major roadworks in Middlesbrough for months and they are still on-going (main roads in & out of the town and the A66) and not one alert on my phone. Was also 4+ times Hartlepool have had roads closed for weeks for works and they have never been shown. The Middlesbrough problem came up with a red section of road showing in maps 2 (never diverted you though), but since the beta's of ovi moblie maps 3, I hav'nt had any red marks or alerts.

If you listen to the voice files in maps 3 you will hear re-routing comments, but what is the point with nokia never having update traffic/road information.

Also you might have noticed the speed indicator uses red/green/white to show road speed. Green your travelling within the limit, Red you over the limit and white they don't have a limit set. Every road I have used in the Northeast of england had a limit and if exceeded you got both a visual and verbal warning. Now only 2 road in Hartlepool have limits with maps 3 and I only get visual warnings, unless way over the limit (This makes this a waste of time).

Got that sick of the bugs I searched the internet and have been trying some others on week trials and they do the job without crashing. How come Nokia make phones with symbian operating systems that they now own, but cannot improve their mapping software without causing problems for us users. Out of all the beta's for maps 3, I found the first version for the N95 worked the best and I would love to reinstall and use it, instead of the graduated version.

Ish68
UK Vodafone - N95 8Gb - Code: 0557135 - FW(31.0.015)

Submitted by xav5 on 26-09-2009 02:29.

I have been using the traffic license for a week now, and the update has been reporting the same 12 non existant jams every time. It is as if their server has stopped updating. At firstnI thought it was a fault with my phone, but when I got the same data after a complete format and factory reset. It must be Nokia. Shame because the speed camera warning works really well, and inlcudes all the resently installed cameras. As always Nokia support are as usefull as an umbrella in a huricane