Poi's give wrong mileage

 

I'm new to GPS and, up until this problem, it has all been good. The problem is, I downloaded from this site POI's for winerys in the Okanagan, BC, Canada. Loaded them just fine but when I look at them from my location (Edmonton, Alberta), the mileage (kilometers in this case) are wildly out. I'm approximately 1000kms from the wineries but my new Garmin 780 is showing 550 - 600kms. I've looked at the CSV file and checked the coordinates against Google earth and they are the same. My 780 is set to the same format as the CSV file (and Google Earth). Local destinations found through "where to/points of interest" appear correct. Does anyone have any suggestions or should I contact Garmin?
Thanks in advance
Alan

Poi's give wrong mileage...probably not:)

When you load pois and then look for them on your Nuvi, under where to>extras>Custom POI's, you will find them listed "as the crow flys".
Once you hit "Go to" those figures with change greatly. Try hitting go to, then press the lower left had icon which will bring up the trip info screen. You're actually mileage, or in your case, kilometers will now appear on the right hand side at the top.

Rayzers

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You can walk a horse to water, but a pencil has to be led.

Me too ...

Rayzers wrote:

When you load pois and then look for them on your Nuvi, under where to>extras>Custom POI's, you will find them listed "as the crow flys".

I too got myself confused with this when I got my first GPS. But yes, distances are shown "as the crow flies." Once your route is plotted this falls to actual mileage according to your avoidances, traffic conditions (if you are using traffic).

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"Life is a journey - enjoy the ride!" Garmin nuvi 255

Been there did that

Thought the same thing when I first REALLY paid attention to the mileage. And I was set straight by the members of this site.

Still think we should simplify things and just pave the whole world. Then every place would be as the crow flies. razz

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Brian Garmin nuvi 255W

Now i know why the mileage

Now i know why the mileage is different. I have only looked at the mileage a few times so never really noticed it.

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Newbee

Thank You

That simple. It should have occurred to me. Thanks for the prompt replies, I can see that this site is really going to add to my enjoyment and use of my GPS.
Alan

Wonder Why?

I can see, where under the right circumstances, the closest POI "as the crow flies" could actually be farther away in driving distance or time compared to others down the list. Wonder why they designed it that way? confused

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Tampa, FL - Garmin nüvi 660 (Software Ver 4.90), 2021.20 CN NA NT maps | Magellan Meridian Gold

Better Performance

Gary A wrote:

I... Wonder why they designed it that way? confused

It is probably a lot faster to calculate the "as the crow flies" distance than to calculate the route to each POI to determine the actual driving distance.

Better Performance

Yes, I'm sure your right on that. After reading the responses, I tried selecting a destination and it calculated the mileage correctly once I said go. If it had to calculate all possible routes in a big .csv I'm sure your GPS would be tied up for a long time. Calculating as needed makes sense.
Alan

Makes Sense

Yeah, I can see that. Remembering how long it takes to calculate a driving route after I press GO! it probably would take a lot of processing power to do that kind of calculation for multiple POIs.

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Tampa, FL - Garmin nüvi 660 (Software Ver 4.90), 2021.20 CN NA NT maps | Magellan Meridian Gold

Because...

Gary A wrote:

I can see, where under the right circumstances, the closest POI "as the crow flies" could actually be farther away in driving distance or time compared to others down the list. Wonder why they designed it that way? confused

Because the unit can't possibly know what route to take before you tell it to calculate it, especially if you are moving. If it was constantly recalculating the shortest route to each POI in the database, it would have to be bigger than a desktop PC, and it still wouldn't have any CPU power left for the route you are driving.

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Rick - Nüvi 260 - eTrex Summit HC