Basically, nup. Not really.
I would really love this to have worked but unfortunately it just isn’t quite there. There is actually nothing wrong with the hardware, well mostly anyway. OK, so there is a major issue with the hardware.
First issue is it uses an FM signal to pick up the traffic information which of course is digital and when digital reception is bad, it’s useless. So the problem I have living 38.9kms from the CBD is it won’t pickup any traffic until I’m almost 1/3 of the way in, by then I’m already stuck in traffic.
According to Suna who provide the traffic signal to the Navman and the RTA, who in NSW provide the traffic information data to Suna, there is never ever any traffic on the M2. Which of course the M2 is always a $5 carpark.
Problem is if you follow it around it’s suggested new route, you never going to know if there was any traffic there any way. Therein lies the second issue, the data it self is where it all falls over. Because it never picks up traffic on the M2 you then start to doubt the system and start ignoring it because you can never gauge it’s success, you can only gauge it’s failures.
So basically I still use it all the time as a gauge, but you just can’t rely on it. Having said that, a better FM signal and more accurate traffic data and it would be defiantly worth it.
