Directions Feedback

[Jason-ABRP 180]

With the advent of Android Auto and Car Play for ABRP, we're expecting a lot more people using ABRP to navigate on their trips.  This thread is for feedback on the navigation voice instructions, including:

• Wording
• Distances / Timing
• Accuracy
• Other suggestions for improvement

It's also important to note that we use the Open Source Routing Machine to generate the directions based on Open Street Map, so your best path to improving directions accuracy is likely contributing to Open Street Map to improve the maps in your area.  We recompile from OSM/OSRM every week, so edits should show up in ABRP within a week or two once approved.

[Bill N 8]

Hi Jason - I still need to test the latest version when actually driving, but I’ve noticed when trying the new simulation mode that the wording is sometimes a bit odd to my eyes/ears. For example, it will say "turn left to Bond Street" rather than "turn left into" or perhaps "turn left onto".

Wording like "drive right in the roundabout, third exit” and "drive slight left in the roundabout, first exit" also sounds odd. These would be better off just saying something like "take the 1st/2nd/3rd/4th exit at the roundabout”.

Also, we Brits are a bit strange when it comes to units - especially distance. People of my generation, at least, tend to use miles for longer distances, but then metres for shorter distances (rather than feet or yards). I know, it’s crazy. I guess it would be nice if there was an option to cater for that.

I would really, really like a GPS speed readout - like Waze does - next to the speed limit. Preferably in both the app and on CarPlay, but definitely in CarPlay.

Hope they helps!

cheers

[Bill N 8]

Not sure if this should be this thread or the Carplay feedback thread (or maybe both), but I’ve noticed that when navigating when using CarPlay the car arrow moves along the road at an angle....as if I the car isn’t pointing straight down the road and is instead crabbing along.

I’ve made sure my phone is mounted straight in the car, but it still does it.

[Jason-ABRP 180]

Thanks for the feedback, @Bill N! That's some good insight.  For the directions, we actually have these posted publicly on our translations Github page:

https://github.com/iternio/abrp-translations/blob/master/en.json#L667-L701

So we welcome inputs here, either as issues for discussion or a pull request with direct fixes.  The "to Bond Street" versus "onto Bond Street" I think makes sense, and is an easy change.  Give the roundabout instructions a try, though, I think you'll like them.  I especially like the context of knowing roughly which direction you ought to exit the roundabout, as well as which numbered exit.  There's probably some room for improvement here too.

The heading issue happens to a lot of cars, we've recently pushed some updates which should really help with odd headings, let us know if it persists!

[maexxx 5]

I noticed today - navigating on Android Auto for the first time - that when coming home towards my garage entrance, the direction instructions first tell me to turn left from the street (but there is not really a crossing, it's just the garage entrance), followed by you have reached the destination in 10 meters.

Compared to Google Maps, which just tells me that "Your destination is on the left".

I'd suggest that when the destination is less than x meters from a final turn, then replace the turn and the destination with just one instruction that says "your destination is (straight ahead | on the left | on the right)".

[AlistairB 3]

As an English speaker I think some of the directions sounded a bit odd, so I've created a PR with a few changes.

[AlistairB 3]

I've noticed when travelling slower I get instructions like "In 30 feet turn right" (after having had the instruction before at a greater distance too). I think if you're that close the instruction should probably just tell you to turn right without any distance. Also, in British units I'd probably expect the distance to be in yards rather than feet.

 

Edit - just tried using simulator mode on the web to check when it switches from yards to feet, but there it seems to be staying in yards for all distances - was this changed already or is it acting differently on Android Auto?

Edited March 26 by AlistairB

[Jason-ABRP 180]

@AlistairB - We do have a little bug right now on directions distances.  For long-distance instructions we have a third notification when you're close to your exit (like when you're half a mile from the exit), and slow-speed directions are supposed to ignore that one.  At the moment, it's not being ignored, which is where the distance readout is coming from.  Typically the final instruction doesn't have a distance as you suggest.

Thanks very much for your pull request! We've gotten very used to our own instruction wording, so it's very good to have outside ears hearing them too to help refine. 

[Jerry Duke 0]

Beta is not getting SOC from OBD2, shows whatever data is in my setup for departure SOC.

Would like map pointing direction traveling.

[Menzo2003 0]

When the navigation wants you to continue on the same road but the name of the road changes, it can give instructions to slightly turn right or left onto the new street. This is a bit confusing when the road goes "straight", it would be clearer to just say continue on to the new road.

On this plan, it says turn slightly right onto Staten Bolwerk (N200)

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=e451abe9-411b-44eb-83ff-ce3c10e1c62f

On the same route from OSRM it says:

Continue onto Staten Bolwerk (N200) That is clearer than the way ABRP does now.

http://map.project-osrm.org/?z=15&center=52.389037%2C4.631209&loc=52.392992%2C4.599221&loc=52.383262%2C4.683201&hl=en&alt=0&srv=0

[Menzo2003 0]

I've read that the OSM data is updated every week. Is it possible to show the OSM data date in the about this app menu? It is then easier to see if my OSM edits have been integrated into the app.

[Bill N 8]

Feedback...

Navigation voice says "in 100 yard".

It should be "in 100 yards".

For British setting, I’d like there to be the option of miles and yards, or miles and metres. 

 

Edited April 10 by Bill N

[Bill N 8]

Also, the navigation voice is very robotic sounding. Would be nice to have a more natural sounding voice.

[Brian D 8]

On 4/10/2021 at 6:21 AM, Bill N said:

Feedback...

Navigation voice says "in 100 yard".

It should be "in 100 yards".

Same for metric, it states "in 500 metre" whereas you would expect it to say "in 500 metres".

Edited April 11 by Brian D

[Samuel-ABRP 12]

On 4/10/2021 at 8:22 AM, Bill N said:

Also, the navigation voice is very robotic sounding. Would be nice to have a more natural sounding voice.

Check your TTS settings in android, i could switch between multiple versions of TTS voice, maybe there is one you like more. You can set the one that is used by default. Not sure though, if that has an effect on the used TTS voice by ABRP, never tried to change it and then test if the output differs....

Edit: i just tried it and it changes the voice used by ABRP, so check if one of the other voices sounds better to you.

[Bill N 8]

12 hours ago, Samuel-ABRP said:

Check your TTS settings in android, i could switch between multiple versions of TTS voice, maybe there is one you like more. You can set the one that is used by default. Not sure though, if that has an effect on the used TTS voice by ABRP, never tried to change it and then test if the output differs....

Edit: i just tried it and it changes the voice used by ABRP, so check if one of the other voices sounds better to you.

Thanks - I’m on iOS but managed to find the correct voice settings to alter and it’s better now.

[Bill N 8]

On 3/24/2021 at 2:02 AM, Jason-ABRP said:

The heading issue happens to a lot of cars, we've recently pushed some updates which should really help with odd headings, let us know if it persists!

Still having this issue with the arrow not pointing straight along the road.

 

 

[Filipe Almeida 0]

Hi to all.

 

Since ABRP went AA, I have been using it to test the functionalities

Maybe I have some android wrong definition set, but in portuguese, some navigation notes are not read well.

For example, in english, the voice says "in one hundred meters turn right". In portuguese, should say "em cem metros vire à direita". But instead says "em one hundred meters vire direita". It mixes portuguese and english notes.

And sometimes, ABRP calculates some routes that I cannot actually take (one way streets or something like that). And I think this is not related to a delay in updating maps, because those streets are like that a long time ago.

Next time this happens, I will try to make a screenshot and explain what is wrong.

 

Thanks

Filipe Almeida

Edited Friday at 11:12 AM by Filipe Almeida