Poor timing of spoken instructions

[waspanman]

I know you should always check distance to turn information, but, is it me or are spoken instructions often/mostly given right next to a possible turn.
i.e exit roundabout, just as you are passing an exit. Being told to turn left on complex junctions when your turn is some way ahead is possibly dangerous.
I find it almost spooky how there is on many occasions, a manoeuvre you could make just as the instruction is given.

[jfheath]

Not in my experience. On the open road there is usually an alert some distance ahead - half mile or 3/4 mile - and then a few secondary alerts as you get closer.

In the case of a complete junction, it cannot alert you to an upcoming turn until you have navigated the existing ‘white arrow’ - so complex junctions are prone to giving late instructions. Also in cities there may be larger errors in calculating your position as the satellite signals get bounced around and take longer to reach the satnav - so the satnav may not be where it thinks it is.

Another possible factor is the location of route points. Often the satnav does not look further ahead than the next route points- so you have to get to that first. I have often observed this with via points, but I have not noticed it with shaping points - but I haven’t looked that hard.

It is always a concern to me that the XT2/Tread software adjusts the location of route points - noticeably more with shaping points - and these are often placed just after junctions. I prefer my route points to be on the road that I want to ride well after a junction.

Having said all of that, if you want to feel good about how well the Zumo navigates, do the same route using your built in car sat nav. I’ve had three cars with one fitted and I never use it. You want me to take which junction ? Oh, that’d be the exit that I am passing now, three lanes over to the left ?

Even with a satnav, especially around big towns, I still make a list of what road numbers I want to be on so that I can plan ahead when driviving/riding.

[Peobody]

Not in my experience either. I found them to be too verbose, wishing there was a "less verbose" setting like there was in one of my cars. I now ride with spoken navigation turned off. This was done primarily because they were too disruptive to intercom communication, but I leave it off when riding solo as well. I have developed techniques for planning ahead, like knowing I have a left coming up and looking at the satnav to determine how many lefts to go before I turn, or knowing the outlet from a roundabout before entering it. I don't trust satnav instructions like "stay in the second lane from the right" or "turn right at the gas station". You mean that smoke shop that looks like it was once a gas station? I prefer to rely on my brain rather than on a satnav instruction that may be wrong.

[waspanman]

Thanks for the responses guys, but I think the point has been missed.
I started my GPS experience with a Streetpilot 2610,on which you could navigate from the map info on the screen, it mostly alerted you not only when to turn but often when not to i.e. keep right/left etc, my Zumo 660, whilst faster, lost most of the information on the screen, to be replaced by fancy, but useless topographical colouring in. It had similar problems with autozoom, but still was reasonably good at spoken instruction.

The Zumo XT is flash, but disappointing, great speed and clear graphics, but way less screen map info than the 2610 and blithely passes large motorway splitting junctions with zero guidance.

The number of times I receive a strident instruction to "Turn Left" at a junction which is not the one I need, at exactly the right time to take it in error is staggering. My point of the original question was a computer should be able to be programmed not to give instructions at inappropriate times, i.e. right next to, or approaching the wrong turn.
Maybe AI has a purpose after all, it could replace Garmin programmers.